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Specialist Provision Hubs

Primary Specialist Hubs

Primary hubs opened at Holllinswood Primary School and Nursery and Old Park Primary School in the Autumn Term 2019.  Whilst these schools host the hubs, they are managed in partnership with Haughton Special School. 

The purpose of the hubs is to provide opportunity for children with complex SEND to be included in a mainstream environment alongside their peers. Therefore the ‘hubs’ are adapted classrooms within the school buildings. The ethos of the hubs 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.

Children are on roll at Haughton School but attend the hub provision in the mainstream school settings.  To promote the ethos that children are part of the school in which they attend they wear the uniform of the mainstream setting.

Currently the hubs focus on KS2 pupils, as this is where current demand for specialist provision is at its greatest, under exceptional circumstances children at upper KS1 (i.e. year 2) may be considered but this will depend on the needs and age range of other children already at the setting. Consideration will be given to the development of KS1 hubs in due course.

Entry and exit criteria into the hubs

The hubs will cater for children with complex communication and interaction needs, including 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 child’s parent if this is being considered. Children will not be moved without agreement from parents. Provision for children 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 Hub

All children will require an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan to access this provision.  Parents will need to express an preference for their child to be placed in hub provision. Location of the child’s home address and the needs of the cohort who already attend the provision will be taken into consideration when determining the most appropriate hub for a child’s placement.

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 Haughton 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 Haughton 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.

Each hub will have a maximum of approximately 10 children attending.

Other Mainstream Schools with a hub provision.

The development of formal hubs at Hollinswood and Old Park schools 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.

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