MONMOUTHSHIRE County Council (MCC) Cabinet are meeting today (Wednesday 7th October) to discuss progressing into the final consultation stage for a £1.2 million Additional Learning Needs (ALN) facility to be built at Monmouth Comprehensive School (MCS).

The Cabinet will discuss a report outlining the proposal for the ALN facility, authored by Schools Liaison Officer Cath Sheen, and decide the details of the next consultation phase.

In April 2015, the Welsh Government agreed Monmouthshire County Council’s bid to establish the ALN facility alongside the new 1,600 capacity school. Using funding from the 21st Century Schools programme, the total cost of £1.2 million facility will be met with £600,000 from Monmouthshire County Council and £600,000 from the Welsh Government. The facility will have capacity for 55 students with moderate to severe learning difficulties, and would be built alongside the planned new school building.

The report states how currently, Monmouth-based students with additional learning needs are transported outside of the Authority to access specialist provision, attending schools in Torfaen, Hereford, and the Caldicot Special Needs Resource Base. An Estyn report in November 2012 deemed the quality of local authority education for young people with additional learning needs as ‘Unsatisfactory’.

When contacted for a statement, Monmouthshire County Council said:

“This facility will deliver a learning and teaching environment where students will be inspired to achieve and maximise their aspirations. To provide an integrated teaching and learning environment for all, the ALN provision will be fully immersed into the whole school environment. This will mean that pupils with ALN can attend a school within their local community which can cater for their needs and they will be able to attend the same school as their peers. This will reduce the need for pupils to travel long distances to get to school.”

The report projects a timescale on the proposed consultation period, ranging from the 19th October to the 6th December 2015, with the Cabinet considering the results on the 6th of January 2016, before a final decision on the 23rd of March 2016. A ‘drop in’ consultation session is anticipated to be held at Monmouth Comprehensive School on Thursday 12th November 2015, from 3.30pm to 6.30pm.