Special schools provide education for children with multiple and/or complex needs, and, except in exceptional circumstances, they will have an education, health and care plan (EHCP).

Special schools (especially for non-ambulant pupils) often cater for all ages. 

Primary schools for pupils with behavioural difficulties are unusual and usually cater for Key Stage 2 only. 

Special schools vary widely in the curriculum and programmes of study that they offer, in some the curriculum is mainstream while in others it can be quite different. Life skills and developing personal independence plays a big part in them all.

Worcestershire has nine special schools

Complex physical and learning needs:

• Chadsgrove School

Range of special educational needs:

• Fort Royal Community Primary School
• Pitcheroak School
• Regency High School
• Rigby Hall School
• The Vale of Evesham School
• Wyre Forest Special School

Social, emotional and mental health:

• Kingfisher School
• Riversides School

Some mainstream schools have specially resourced provision, which are units or bases attached to the mainstream school. These units or bases are specialist provision within the school and offer pupils with SEN more support and pupils may be taught within separate classes for at least some of the time.

These units:

• are designated by the local authority specifically for making SEN provision, and sometimes accommodate pupils registered at other schools on a part-time basis
• receive additional funding for costs to support individual pupils
• cater for a specific type or types of SEN 
• are usually for pupils with an EHC plan (but may also provide support for pupils with SEN support)

Worcestershire has a number of these units or bases catering for children with autism.

Mainstream Autism Bases (MAB) and Enhanced Mainstream Autism Bases (EMAB) are for pupils whose academic needs are best matched to a mainstream school but require some specialised autism provision to help and support them to achieve to their full potential.

The bases provide calm, structured and predictable environments which pupils can access depending on their individual need. MAB/EMAB pupils will have varying needs, which can sometimes change within the course of a term or a week or a year, so the bases are flexible and adaptable. 

All pupils who access a MAB/EMAB will have an ASD diagnosis with an EHCP or will have an ASD diagnosis with an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment in progress AND cannot access mainstream education without specialist support. 

The main difference between the two is:

• MAB’s are for pupils who can attend main school and take part in school life some or most of the time BUT when overwhelmed and dysregulated either in lessons or at other times can access the base
• EMAB’s are for pupils who require greater more individual support and a more consistent timetable in the base with opportunities to attend mainstream lessons

In Worcestershire we have fourteen mainstream schools with an autism base, three of which are EMABs.

You can use the school search function to find them, using the Mainstream schools with an autism base filter on school type: School Search.

Some mainstream schools have specially resourced provision, which are units or bases attached to the mainstream school. These units or bases are specialist provision within the school and offer pupils with SEN more support and pupils may be taught within separate classes for at least some of the time.

These units:

• are designated by the local authority specifically for making SEN provision, and sometimes accommodate pupils registered at other schools on a part-time basis
• receive additional funding for costs to support individual pupils
• cater for a specific type or types of SEN 
• are usually for pupils with an EHC plan (but may also provide support for pupils with SEN support)

Worcestershire has a number of these units catering for children with a significant specific Speech Language and/or Communication need.

School Age Language Units (SALU) are for pupils who have cognitive skills within the average range expected for children of their age, and have significant specific speech, language and/or communication needs. The units deliver targeted intervention to meet high level needs, and usually the placement is initially for one year, which is reviewed after the first term to establish it is the appropriate provision for the pupil and they are making progress.

Speech and Language Therapists support pupils with targeted interventions. 

Children are usually referred based on a recommendation from their Speech and Language Therapist (SaLT). The child will have speech and language as a primary concern and SaLT will be of the view that, despite direct intervention sessions and implementation of the Graduated Response from school, the pupil requires the support and direct work that the SALU can provide to make progress.

There are five units in Worcestershire:

• Burlish Park Primary School
• Lickey Hills Primary School
• Matchborough First School
• Sutton Park Primary School
• King Charles 1 High School
   

Alternative provision (AP) accommodates pupils who cannot attend mainstream school for a variety of reasons including exclusion, or mental or physical health difficulties. AP provides an alternative education which is often on a temporary basis until a pupil can return to mainstream education or move to a special school, although for some pupils it may be a longer-term solution. Pupils sometimes also attend AP part time, spending the rest of their time at a nearby school, further education (FE) college or other provider to use specialist facilities, such as for vocational courses.

The range of needs catered for by AP varies widely, but often the pupils attending struggle with one or more of the following areas: 

1. pupils with behavioural, emotional or social difficulties who may have been excluded from their mainstream school (severe difficulties of this type may be accommodated in a special school). Worcestershire have six AP settings, across the county, that are commissioned to support pupils who are excluded.

They are:

• ContinU Plus Academy
• Newbridge School
• Perryfields Primary PRU
• The Aspire Academy
• The Beacon PRU
• The Forge Secondary PRU
• Unity Academy - Home (unityacademyap.co.uk)

2. the Medical Education Team (MET) is the AP service that supports pupils who are too ill to attend school and is intended to support them back to mainstream. 

Section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014 allows the Secretary of State to publish a searchable list of approved independent educational institutions for children and young people with SEND. This list includes independent schools and colleges and non-maintained special schools. Institutions cannot be included without their consent and enables them to be the subject of a request for it to be named in an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP).

You can view the list of approved independent educational institutions, independent special schools and post-16 institutions on the Government website Independent special schools and colleges - GOV.UK. 

There are three independent education establishments in Worcestershire on the list:

• Cambian New Elizabethan School
• Norton College
• Sunfield Children’s Homes Limited