Where new spending on Herefordshire schools will go

A six-figure sum is to be spent creating a “social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) base” at a Herefordshire school.

Herefordshire Council says the £106,000 projects for the work at Trinity Primary School in west Hereford has arisen from a need to increase special educational needs provision across the county.

According to the notice of its decision, the new base “will provide targeted, short-term support to primary-aged children with SEMH needs who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)”.

Here they “will benefit from a structured environment and support from specialist staff, with the aim of reintegrating them into mainstream education when ready”.

It adds that experience with similar facilities in other Herefordshire schools “has been highly positive, improving inclusion and supporting better outcomes”.

The approved cost of the scheme will come from so-called section 106 funds, which are paid by developers towards local infrastructure as a condition of getting planning approval for new housebuilding.

But this sum “is finite”, and “any overspend above this would need to be provided through additional means”, the council pointed out.

Herefordshire Council has also agreed to spend up to £130,000 of Government grant money to put in solar panels at Weobley Primary School northwest of Hereford.

The school was one of 255 schools selected to benefit from the Great British Energy Solar Partnership scheme, which will fully fund the works including “a generous contingency to cover any unexpected additional costs”, the council said.

Separately, the council is currently tendering for a contractor to carry out a boiler and central heating upgrade works at Hampton Dene School on the east of the city, in work valued at nearly £530,000, and scheduled to take place between May and August.

It has also completed a tender for a contractor for the same work over a similar timescale at St David’s Pupil Referral Unit in Hereford, valued at £258,000.

A further tendering exercise, which continues till the end of this month, seeks a contractor to build a new single-storey extension and to improve accessibility at Lady Hawkins School in Kington, in a job valued at £645,000 and due to start in May.