NO OBJECTIONS have been received by Blaenau Gwent council during a statutory 28-day consultation period this summer on proposals to increase the ability of county borough schools to teach children with Additional Learning Needs (ALN).

The objections report will be discussed by senior councillors at a special meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Cabinet on Monday, September 4.

The report by education, transformation and business change service manager, Joanne Watts, confirms that there were no objections received by the council during the legal period, which finished on July 26.

This follows a consultation which was held from April 24 to June 6.

The consultation saw overwhelming support for the proposals, with 84 per cent of respondents fully behind the proposals, a further 13 per cent partially supporting them, and only three per cent not supporting them.

The proposals would also see pupils provided with ALN education outside of Blaenau Gwent brought back into the county borough schools.

This would also bring down long-term costs associated with specialist education.

At the meeting, the Cabinet is also expected to agree a full business case to allow the changes to be properly budgeted for with some being implemented as soon as possible.

The business case explains that the education department estimates the costs of increasing the ALN provision this year will be £48,667.

The department is able to put £22,305 towards this sum, but the remaining £26,362 needing to be found this during the academic year.

The proposal also asks that the cost of implementing the ALN “resource bases” which will cost £178,611 for 2024/2025 and £113,000 in 2025/2026 to be factored into the council’s future budgets.

In total 37 to 39 extra ALN spaces will be created.

The proposal involves increasing the capacity in primary schools from 61 to 86 – including 15 Welsh-medium places.

And in secondary schools the number would increase from 62 to 74 or 76.

The need for more spaces is to cope with the extra demand as all the council’s current ALN places are filled.

The decision to invest in more ALN spaces also follows a recent inspection by education watchdog Estyn who expressed the need to do more for ALN pupils with special educational needs.

Estyn and the Welsh Government had also highlighted that there is no Welsh language ALN “resource base provision” in Blaenau Gwent.

Another tweak to the proposal is that the education departments’ Inclusion Team proposes setting mobile wellbeing support, which would be based at Brynmawr Foundation School.

This would see a full time teaching and part time administrator co-ordinate the timetable for all pupils who are entitled to ALN support.

Decisions would also be made on where to provide the support, in schools or “appropriate venues” such as libraries depending on individual circumstances.

The extra places will be created at:

  • Six places – at Ebbw Fawr 3-16 Learning Community-Secondary School from September 2023;
  • Six to eight places – at Tredegar Comprehensive School from September 2023;
  • 15 places – at Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Helyg from April 2024;
  • 10 places – at Sofrydd Primary School from September 2024.

A second phase creating up to an extra 40 spaces could be implemented from 2025 depending on the need for extra places by then.