Westminster Report

BY The Rt Hon Mark Francois Member of Parliament for Rayleigh and Wickford.

95% WANT new special needs school in Rayleigh!

I am delighted that it has recently been confirmed that over ninety-five percent of respondents to a recent official Essex County Council (ECC) consultation exercise, have given their approval to the Council’s desire to establish a new special educational needs (SEN) school at Rawreth, on the edge of Rayleigh.

The consultation, which was initiated back in February, asked local residents their opinion on the proposals and the response rate has been one of the highest the County Council has ever seen. Of the 823 individuals who responded – a near record for a consultation of this type – 779 (95%) were in favour, with only 44 (5%) against.

Back in July last year, I originally launched my campaign for the new SEN School, in the House of Commons, because as part of my constituency casework, an increasingly large number of frustrated parents simply cannot find a Special Needs school place for their children.

Indeed, we already have a number of very good special needs schools in Essex, but they are now—almost without exception—heavily over-subscribed, and we simply do not have enough special needs places, particularly in the south of the county, to deal with ever increasing demand.

Since this time, I have continued to speak out in the Commons about my campaign, whilst also meeting with Ministers and Officials at the Department for Education, including the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing (including Special Needs), David Johnston MP- and more locally, working very closely with Essex County Council’s Education Team, led by County Coun Tony Ball, the Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability and the Director of Education at Esses County Council (ECC) Clare Kershaw, both of whom, also deserve great credit, for making this prospect a reality.

The results of the related consultation exercise, which ECC was legally required to undertake, will now be fed into the County Council’s Cabinet, who will decide on whether or not to proceed with the plans, before the end of May. If approved, the County Council would then initiate a competition for a Multi-Academy Trust to build and run the school, which would then open sometime during the 2025-26 academic year.

Therefore, this overwhelmingly positive response from my constituents, by a ratio of 19 to 1, has demonstrated very clearly, how popular this project is. Indeed, County Councillor Tony Ball, stated that: “in numerical terms alone, the response was simply ‘off the scale.’

“Ultimately, although the original base case in the consultation was for a school catering for ‘100 plus’ special needs pupils, if we can even build the school a bit larger than originally intended, so much the better.”

Accordingly, County Coun Ball has confirmed that: “such has been the strength of support that we will now also begin costing up an option for a larger school, nearer to 200 pupils, for the County Cabinet to consider next month.”

Subject to ECC approval and subsequent planning permission, we hope to open the new school in the 2025-26 academic year. For my own part, as the local MP, I will now lobby hard to try and obtain the additional resources, which would be necessary to build a larger special needs school, than originally envisaged. Such is the pressure on special needs places, I will try my very best to help create a larger school, if at all possible.

Finally, I would like to thank all my of constituents who took the time and trouble to reply, on this very important topic. We will now move forward to help deliver this much-needed SEN school – knowing we have strong public support.

This exciting new project should finally help expand the much-needed capacity of SEND education in South Essex, which I do hope will bring a real benefit, for parents, and children with special needs alike and I look forward to keeping my constituents updated on this very important matter.

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