Special schools: Belfast expansion plan 'needs more than £80m'

Stormont support and more than £80m in funding is needed for a major expansion of special school places in Belfast, according to the Education Authority.

It said special school pupil numbers in Belfast have risen by 40% in a decade.

The Education Authority plans to open a new special school in the city by 2024, and increase the number of pupils at Harberton Special School to 500.

But it added that the plans were not achievable "without cross-departmental support and resources" from Stormont.

There are currently 10 special schools in the Belfast City Council area and 39 across Northern Ireland as a whole - with more than 7,100 pupils, many with complex special educational needs (SEN).

Demand for places in special schools has risen substantially in recent years.

Nine out of the 10 Belfast special schools, for instance, have seen significant increases in pupil numbers over the past decade.

Numbers have grown so quickly that the Education Authority (EA) said that the number of children who need a place in one has been rising faster than forecast.

For instance, there were more than 100 pupils who required a special school place in September 2022 than originally planned by the Department of Education (DE).

Special school principals have told the Education Authority that "significant increases in pupil numbers" are having an impact on their "ability to continue to meet the complex needs of their pupils".

Some have had to turn things like play areas into classrooms as their schools have more pupils than they were built for.

On Wednesday, the Education Authority will publish proposals to increase the number of special school places in Belfast.

That includes building and opening a new special school for 275 pupils and creating more than 160 additional places at the existing Harberton school.

Harberton, which is in the south of the city, has already expanded to a second campus in north Belfast.

There are currently 213 pupils in its south Belfast site and 111 in the Harberton North campus.

The school is now set to take over the entire site of the former Castle High School in the Fortwilliam area and that will allow it to admit another 160 pupils aged three to 19.

That will mean, however, that other Education Authority staff - including those in the Music Service - will eventually have to move out of the building.

The Education Authority said it will cost about £32.5m to develop and refurbish Harberton North so that it can house more than 270 pupils in total.

An additional £49m will be needed to build a new special school for children aged three to 19.

The authority plans to open the new school in an existing EA building in September 2024 and then move into the new building by 2029.

It said that another £9.5m would be needed to repurpose an existing building as a special school.

But the EA has warned that Stormont backing and funding are crucial to the plans.

"Without cross-departmental support and resources, the establishment of a new special school in 2024, on an interim site as a day-one solution, is not achievable, nor is a new build school in 2029," the Education Authority's case for change document said.

The case for change also said that in the longer term they want most special schools to admit pupils from age three to 19 and for them to accommodate pupils with a range of needs.

At the minute, some schools only take pupils with specific types of SEN, like moderate learning difficulties (MLD), physical and medical disabilities (P&MD) or severe learning difficulties (SLD) among others.

Some pupils have also experienced difficulty in continuing their education after the age of 16.

In the longer term, the Education Authority said there may be a need for more special schools in future as number of pupils are expected to continue to rise.

The authority has launched a consultation on their plans, which will be published on the EA website on Wednesday.