UP to 500 special education need places could be found in mainstream schools throughout Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The offer of the places has come after BCP wrote to all the schools in the area to see what they were willing to offer.

Like other areas BCP has been unable to find school places for all its children with special educational or physical needs within the area with some being educated away from home, or with specialist operators.

Tanya Smith, head of the service for school place planning, told BCP councillors that there has been 34 expressions of interest from sixteen education trusts locally which could translate into 300-500 places.

Around £10m in grants is expected to be available to help develop a range of schemes.

She told the children’s services overview and scrutiny committee that many of the offers were still being evaluated with a priority for those pupils with speech and language communication challenges and social, emotional and mental health needs.

The area is also trying to cope with an increase in pupils with additional needs – increasing by 90 new applications in the lower age groups in just a year, some of them accounted for by movements into the area by refugees, but also from people moving to the area to take up jobs or to study at Bournemouth University,

“The schools will have to demonstrate that they have the level of expertise necessary to deliver what they are putting forward in their proposals and a whole range of other criteria which will tell use that they have the capacity to deliver what they are proposing, that they have thought about the curriculum and that their leadership and management is sound and their Ofsted judgement support what they are proposing to do – and, of course, that it is sustainable,” she said.

The committee heard that 21 of the 34 proposals were considered worth developing in more detail which could provide just under 400 places, some of which could be delivered in the 2022-23 financial year.

Ms Smith said that some of the schemes were likely to take longer than hoped, often because much of the building work could only be undertaken during school holidays.

Winchelsea Special School and Somerford Primary School are likely to be among the early projects although both of these schemes are waiting to see if they will qualify for additional Government funding under the Department of Education’s Schools Rebuilding Programme.

Tranche one schemes already underway include Broadstone First School, Broadstone Middle, Throop Learning Centre and Linwood School which between them will offer up to 40 places at an estimated combined cost of £800,000.

The meeting heard that local provision often resulted in savings of £20,000 per pupil.