The council is set to unveil its new strategy for supporting children with special educational needs (SEN).

A report showed Wokingham Borough Council’s (WBC) focus will be on improving data gathering to inform what provisions SEN children need, improving engagement and communication with schools, care providers, parents and young people, improving the transitions young people face going into education and adulthood, and improving the capacity at local SEN schools to offer more places.

It read: “Wokingham is a great place for children and young people with SEN to grow up.

“The Council has a strong and growing economy, high performing schools and a range of public and privately funded resources for children and young people with SEND and their parents and carers.

“But like many other local authorities, we face rising demand from a growing and changing demography, at a time of reducing public funds.”

Speaking at a meeting of councillors, Paul Doherty, the assistant director of education at WBC, said: “We need to do things differently.

“If we could deliver on all of this the service would improve for children and it would cost less.”

Currently, the council is overspending on its SEN budget for 914 children by £2.8m, with signs the overspend could “potentially increase” due to the high number of children needing support.

Doherty claimed the most expensive package for a child in Wokingham costs the council upwards of £280,000 per year.

He added: “The cost of places at special schools is huge. It costs us hundreds of thousands of pounds.

“Every single authority in England has got an overspend. We have all received a letter (from the government) asking how we will reduce the overspend in three years.

“This strategy is one way we can reply to this letter.”

The plan notes that 190 more school places for SEN children will be needed by 2023, with 50 allocated for “outstanding” Addington School in Woodley.

WBC’s top branch is set to approve these places at a meeting next month.

Other options for the additional places are set to be explored, including potentially building a new school, expanding current schools, or providing additional support for existing mainstream schools.

The strategy will be available for parents, schools and young people to read and give their views on in the coming months after it was approved for consultation by Wokingham borough councillors at a meeting on Tuesday, January 22.

But Doherty claimed that these documents have been controversial in the past.

He said: “There are a range of views on SEN policy. Some parents do not have views that would agree with this strategy. Some parents want their children to be at a special school with 3 full-time carers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Some parents pay other psychologists to say the council’s psychologist is wrong. “Sometimes it goes to a tribunal and that can lead to a high level of cost.”