Specialist Provision Hubs
Secondary Specialist Hubs
A new secondary hub at Southall Telford Langley Specialist Hub is due to open Easter 2022. To begin the hub will focus on KS3 pupils, as this is where current demand for specialist provision is at its greatest.
The purpose of the hub is to provide opportunity for children with SEND to be included in a mainstream environment alongside their peers. Therefore the ‘hub’ are adapted classrooms within the school buildings. The ethos of the hub is for the children who attend them, to be included within mainstream activities as far as possible. How much time a child spends in the ‘hub’ as opposed to a mainstream class will be dependent upon the child’s needs and their response to inclusion opportunities.
Young people will be on roll at Southall School but will attend the hub provision in the mainstream school settings. To promote the ethos that they are part of the school in which they attend, young people will wear the uniform of the mainstream setting.
Entry and exit criteria into the hubs
The hub will cater for pupils with communication and interaction needs, this may or may not include Autism and associated cognition and learning difficulties. Further detail about the type of needs ‘hub provision’ will cater for, and entry/exit criteria, is provided in the link below
Detailed information on entry/exit criteria can be found below
Entry/Exit criteria download
Is there an opportunity for children who currently attend a special school to move into a hub provision?
This is possible, but a lot of discussion and work will happen between the special school and the pupil’s parent if this is being considered. Pupils will not be moved without agreement from parents. Provision for pupils with an EHC plan is reviewed each year through the annual review process and this will be used as the mechanism to consider a change of placement where appropriate.
Pathway into a Specialist Provision Hub
All children will require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan to access this provision. Discussions about a child’s placement in the hubs can be conducted with parents as part of the EHC assessment or annual review processes and a request for placement should be made to the local authority SEND team. Upon receipt of the request the Local Authority SEND team will consult with Southall School, where the children will be on roll, and the host mainstream school that has been requested.
Observational visits will be completed by the hub mainstream school in partnership with Southall and discussions will take place with parents. This information will be fed into the half termly specialist provision pathway meetings, that are led by the local authority, and a decision as to placement will be made. Decisions are made in partnership with schools but for the purpose of disagreement resolution, should issues arise, the local authority is the ultimate decision maker.
The secondary specialist hub will accommodate a maximum of 8 students.
Other Mainstream Schools with a hub provision
The development of formal hub at Langley school is to help build sufficiency in our specialist provision and should not replace any of the excellent work mainstream schools are doing to support children with SEND. The majority of children with SEND are appropriately placed in mainstream schools and have their needs well met. The Children and Family Act, 2014 is clear and presumes every child, regardless of need, will attend a mainstream school. We need to ensure all schools are continual developing their internal SEND provision to reduce the need to create further specialist provision.