Additional support needs services to be expanded in West Dunbartonshire

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Schools caring for pupils in West Dunbartonshire with additional support needs will be expanded to meet rising demand.Councillors backed plans to increase the secondary provision in the local area – as education chiefs said an extra nine classes for severe and complex learners were required.The majority of the pupils attending will come from the new additional support needs (ASN) bases in St Joseph’s, St Kessog’s and Renton primary schools.Kilpatrick School will be expanded, while the empty Riverside Early Learning Centre at St Martin’s Primary would also be used to support 36 young people.An unused part of the Choices facility in Jamestown will also be utilised for pupils who cannot engage in mainstream settings due to challenging social and emotional issues.Senior education officer Julie McGrogan provided an update to councillors at an education committee meeting last week.She said: “West Dunbartonshire is is line with national trends in terms of recognising increased additional support needs across our children and young people.“We previously addressed that with the expansion of our primary ASN settings but what we recognise now is these children are coming up and in order to give them the best possible start in West Dunbartonshire we need to look to extend our secondary provision.“By 2027 we will need space for an additional 57 young people in our secondary estate.“We propose to expand Kilpatrick School in phase one, to reuse the vacant Riverside early learning and childcare centre and to expand our Choices school in Jamestown.“This should enable us to meet the needs of our severe complex learners in West Dunbartonshire using our staff and making the best use of our resources.”She added that there would be