Proposed Mainstream SEND Hubs consultation - Grantham

Thank you for your contributions to the Mainstream SEND Hubs consultation.

The stage one consultation period ended on 17 February 2025. There were 10 responses in total, with 8 in favour, 2 against the proposal and 0 responses neither for nor against the proposal.

We will continue to use this page to keep you informed about progress with the project.

This is what we asked you.

Have your say on the proposed development of Mainstream SEND Hub at The Gonerby Hill Foot Church of England Primary School, Grantham

The background

We are very excited to announce a proposed initiative to enhance support for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) within Lincolnshire.

We are proposing to develop a new type of provision for Lincolnshire called mainstream SEND Hubs.

The SEND Hubs aim to provide children and young people with Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plans access to quality teaching in their local school, fostering skills, independence, resilience, and readiness for their next stage of educational journey and adulthood, while promoting a sense of belonging in their community.

Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) is working with five schools to ask you about this idea. We are proposing to develop SEND Hubs at:

• The Meadows Primary School, Lincoln
• St George’s Church of England Primary School, Gainsborough
• Caistor Church of England and Methodist Primary School, Caistor
• Gonerby Hill Foot Church of England Primary School, Grantham
• The Church Lane Primary School, Sleaford

The SEND Hubs will provide improved facilities and specialist training and resources to meet the needs of children with SEND who can thrive in this environment with additional support.

Proposals

Since 2019, we have implemented the “Building Communities of Specialist Provision Strategy”. It’s made major improvements to educational provision for children and young people with SEND, focused on enhancing special school provision.

We believe mainstream schools can support the needs of the majority of children and young people with SEND and enable them to achieve the best possible outcomes.

Working with Lincolnshire's schools and academies, we’d like to develop this opportunity so those who are assessed as requiring this type of provision can benefit from a full curriculum and enhanced education.

SEND Hub host schools

Each host school would have up to two classrooms that make up the SEND Hub. We, LCC, will ensure there is sufficient funding for the full set up and delivery of the SEND Hub. Each classroom in the SEND Hub would be accessed by ten pupils with Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans and up to three additional places for the host school to use at their discretion.

Host schools would receive funding which covers the full costs of facilitating the SEND Hubs, including the following staffing levels per classroom:

• one qualified teacher
• two teaching assistants
• one intervention worker
• enhanced leadership time
• enhanced SENDCo time
• additional midday supervisor time
• additional learning resources

We’d pay all capital costs to create SEND Hubs. Schools and academies that host a Hub won’t see a negative impact on their finances or their ability to meet the needs of children and young people in the wider school.

Each school hosting a Hub would get extra training and expertise to meet the needs of pupils with SEND. We’ve already developed quality training with local special school staff for host schools, including teaching and non-teaching staff, senior leaders, and governors / trustees, as well as those working directly with the SEND Hubs.

SEND Hub places

If the proposals go ahead, we’ll use the formal Needs Assessment or EHC plan Annual Review route to identify those pupils that would be appropriate to access this type of provision. The host school will be part of this consultation process and, where appropriate and agreed, the SEND Hub would be named in the pupils’ EHC plan.

All pupils accessing the Hub will be on the host school’s roll with the additional benefit of being regularly included in the mainstream environment and events as appropriate to their individual needs.

The process

We approached all Lincolnshire schools with the offer of setting up a SEND Hub. Following discussions, we identified eleven primary and three secondary schools suitable for the first wave of implementation. Of the eleven primary schools chosen for this initiative, five are council maintained and are therefore subject to this consultation.

As part of this process, we are proposing to reduce the published admissions number (PAN – the number of children who start at the school each year) at Caistor Church of England and Methodist School from 45 to 30 to ensure there’s a SEND Hub classroom available and sufficient mainstream school places for children from the local community. All other mainstream schools will retain their existing PAN.

The next steps

Should this initiative be agreed, we intend to finish building work in the following 12 months. We’ll carefully phase work to minimise disruption to schools and pupils, with main works taking place during school holidays. We’ll publish more information once we make a final decision, and more detail is known.

You can read the consultation letter and further information on the council's website.

What you can do

We welcome your comments on this exciting proposal to further develop Lincolnshire’s educational provision to create nurturing, inclusive environments where every child and young person can succeed.

If you would like to comment on this consultation, you can do so by completing the survey. We will update this page with the decision and any next steps.