Exciting new £1.1m centre for Portsmouth children with special needs to open

Councillor Suzy Horton, Cabinet Member for Portsmouth City Council, said: "The purpose of the Inclusion Centre is to enable children with Special Educational Needs who need more support than is normally available in a mainstream school to be educated as an integral part of Penhale Infant school so that they can benefit from aspects of the mainstream school experience as well as having additional specialist support.

"This is part of a range of initiatives aimed at making even more improvements to education for children and young people with SEN and disabilities in Portsmouth and we're very proud of our approach of enabling children with special needs to be educated within mainstream schools where possible."

Portsmouth Lib Dem councillors are investing an extra £3.5m in the building of classrooms for children with special educational needs. Labour and Conservative councillors joined together to vote against the investment but fortunately there was also support from the independent councillors for the Lib Dem budget for Portsmouth.

The development follows other specialist school places being created for children with more complex needs at Mary Rose, Cliffdale Primary and Redwood Park academies, and after Portsmouth City Council made £100,000 available to help 21 mainstream schools in Portsmouth to become even more inclusive for children with special needs.

As the new term starts, the council continues to work closely with Portsmouth schools to help to ensure that they will continue to be open to all year groups, following government and local guidance to minimise the disruption to education and making sure school buildings and classrooms are as safe as possible - but also feel familiar and normal.