Wolverhampton SEND school expansion will cost £4m - here's why the funding is needed
The planned expansion of a school for pupils with special educational needs is expected to cost £4m.
City of Wolverhampton Council plans to increase the number of places at Green Park School in Green Park Road, Bilston, by 27 to 174 by 2027.
The expected funding is being prepared to avoid delays if next year’s public consultation supports the proposals.
The council has approved £3.87m from its capital budget to fund the expansion work as well as £180,000 for an extension to adjoining Stowlawn Primary School.
The work at Green Park includes an extension with three new classrooms – a rebound room, sensory room, sensory pod, and reflection room – as well as a modular building to accommodate an increase in staff. Extra parking spaces would also be built.
A staff office and pastoral room at Stowlawn would also be used by Green Park with an extension built at Stowlawn for a new meeting room.
The council said the expansion to Green Park would be funded using unallocated money in its budget for expanding SEND places – which currently stands at £7.7m. The extension at Stownlawn would come from unallocated money in the authority’s school works budget.
The number of pupils with an education health and care plan (EHCP) in Wolverhampton increased by nearly two-thirds between 2019 and 2024 according to the City of Wolverhampton Council – from 1,382 to 2,258.
It said its plans for increasing the number of places at Green Park would be put to public consultation in January.
An early consultation held by the council supported expanding the school.
The council said it received 88 responses – with 76 (86 per cent) favouring the plans.
Many comments said the school was “outstanding” and “invaluable” and the work was warranted as the demand for special school places was ever-increasing.
Some responses raised concerns about extra traffic and funding for both the school and other services such as speech and language therapy and physiotherapy.
