For some years now, educational provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across the UK has been a growing area of concern, with approximately 17% of pupils currently considered as having SEN. While it’s a positive stride forward that young people’s needs are being recognised and supported, the growing demand has driven an uptick in SEND school place requirements. Due to funding shortages, any new government is going to face challenges providing the number of SEND school places required. With 47 new special free schools announced following the Government’s wave 3 and 4 application rounds in England, the construction industry has a crucial role to play in ensuring the education sector is able to deliver these much-needed facilities.
However, as SEND facilities are highly customised and need to be adaptable to the changing needs of children who attend them, so construction teams must remain agile to support the creation of new schools, as well as reviewing existing schools to adapt them for SEND cohorts in the future. With numbers of SEND places projected to rise, how can the construction industry help make the most of local authority budgets, while creating an inclusive, consistent and flexible education experience for every child?
Bespoke teams for bespoke projects
In the same way that there’s no one-size-fits-all blueprint to building a SEND facility, there’s equally no template for putting together the ideal delivery team on these highly specialised projects. While many firms historically approach projects using their own in-house teams, for SEND facilities the requirements are varied. The requirements of any SEND provision are unique; therefore, each project needs a bespoke team to ensure the most qualified experts are in place to deliver an agile, adaptable place for pupils to learn. With the right expertise in place, lessons learned from previous projects should empower consultants to share best practice, continuously improve processes and deliver these increasingly ambitious projects on time and to budget.
For example, as Lead Technical Advisors on Trent View College, the UK’s first Passivhaus post-16 SEN school for 60 students, Gleeds brought together a specialist team consisting of an architect, engineer, Passivhaus specialists and surveyors to produce a development proposal which would satisfy the unique SEN requirements of the project. Assembling this experienced team was essential to establishing viability and costs, as well as pursuing the landmark Passivhaus standard, especially given the inclusion of a hydrotherapy pool. The college was the first SEND school in the world to achieve this landmark accreditation, and at its peak, there were just over 100 people working on the project’s construction.
Stakeholder management is also a key part of the picture as school senior leadership teams are involved in projects from the outset to advise on individual pupils’ needs, which contrasts with the process of building mainstream schools. Project delivery teams should prioritise early interaction and long-term collaboration and be able to clearly define outcomes to make sure the unique needs of pupils are met from the beginning, with any potential concerns noted. Knowledge is power, and headteachers and commissioners should also have the opportunity to collaborate and share their experiences to more effectively benchmark new developments going forward.
Social value and sustainability in the supply chain
Working with a local supply chain is hugely valuable when helping local authorities to create SEND schools that benefit the wider community as well as the pupils they support. Consultants should be prioritising engagement with local businesses, ensuring that as much of the budget as possible is circulated back into the local economy and reducing a scheme’s environmental impact. Mutual knowledge sharing informs future projects, while opportunities for apprenticeships support levelling up through the development of skills in regional areas. This also extends to working with other members of the project teams to minimise carbon emissions brought about by the project, supporting the sector towards meeting its ambitious net zero carbon goals.
Where possible, it pays dividends to reach out to local partner schools and universities to inspire young people to consider a career in construction, addressing the construction skills shortage and encouraging the next generation of built environment professionals to help build the SEND schools that we are likely to need in the future.
Digital at the heart of delivery
Digital tools are instrumental in delivering education facilities, both for SEND schools and across the wider education sector. Technology is increasingly being applied at all stages of the process, from identifying geographic hotspots where demand for places is high, to creating innovative designs that aid learning, and supporting data visibility between local authorities, helping the education sector to plan ahead. Tools like digital twinning are also hugely effective in obtaining accurate building information to easily assess how existing schools could be effectively adapted to accommodate the needs of SEND children.
Overall, the education sector at large faces a significant challenge, but with effective knowledge-sharing, an agile approach and a digital mindset, the built environment can be a strong support in improving outcomes and providing a positive education experience for SEND children specifically, across the UK. Engaging with SMEs, as well as the young people who might make up the construction industry of the future, will also be hugely impactful in terms of ensuring a longer-term solution which benefits everyone.
