A £7m programme of investment in school provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has been approved by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council.

As part of the investment, a £5.35m programme of essential repairs and maintenance works will get under way at St John the Baptist Primary School on St John’s Way, Ragworth.

The investment will see improvements made to the school’s existing SEND unit facilities including the toilets, dining facilities, breakout and intervention spaces and will also ensure that early years lessons currently taught in mobile units will be brought back into the main school building.

These necessary works will maintain the longevity of the building and the school’s SEND places.

Members also approved £1.7m for a new SEND unit for children with speech, language, and communication needs at Mill Lane Primary School in Stockton.

The unit, which will provide 10 additional school places, will contain three classrooms as well as improved changing facilities and intervention spaces.

And, in addition to the SEND provision, the Cabinet approved funding for two priority school projects, including £1.16m to install an additional toilet block for Year 11 pupils at Northfield School and Sports College.

A further £500,000 in capital funding was also allocated to complete the building works at Oxbridge Primary School as part of the council’s multi-million pound investment to improve school buildings across the Borough.

Councillor Clare Besford, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people, said: “It’s so important that all children in the Borough have access to great education and learning spaces to give them the very-best start in life.

“We have dedicated millions of pounds to improvements as part of our mainstream school investment programme, so alongside those works, these new SEND upgrades will ensure that even more children with additional needs can benefit from excellent facilities and high-quality learning environments too.

“The funding for this work has been allocated from ‘basic need’ and ‘high need’ funding we secured from Government, combined with money from schools and contributions that housing developers are obliged to make towards these facilities.

“These improvements will also ensure our schools are well maintained with the longevity and capacity needed to keep pace with the borough’s growth.”