More than £2.7million could be spent on providing extra places for Dorset pupils with special educational needs.

An additional 276 spaces are needed across the rural county – both at specialist schools and at bases in mainstream schools.

A consultation on setting up some of those new places for children with complex communication and mental health needs at three Dorset schools is expected to start in May.

Dorchester Learning Centre, Parley First School and West Moors Middle School are earmarked to receive special bases to help pupils with additional needs. Similar centres already exist at the Thomas Hardye School and Damers First School in Dorchester.

Dorset County Council’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday is being asked to back a statutory six-week consultation over the proposed change and the extra funding.

If agreed it will result in an additional 24 places at the Dorchester Learning Centre for pupils with Social Emotional and Mental Health needs with another 24 places at a location, or locations, elsewhere in the county, yet to be confirmed.

Ten additional places are proposed at Parley First School and another 10 at West Moors Middle School for pupils with Complex Communication Needs. Further sites for children with complex communication needs will also be investigated.

If approved the new bases should be ready for operation in September 2018. The consultation is expected to take place over six weeks in May and June.

Cabinet members are being told in a background paper that the council needs to provide more spaces in future in order to offer local specialist provision closer to home.

It says that although the cost is high it will allow children to stay closer to home and, in the long-term, could produce savings on specialist out-of-county placements which averages over £1,000 a week.

Overall the county has identified the need for around 270 places across Dorset for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability – most to be provided at specialist centres.

Cabinet is being asked to approve capital spending of £2.7million for the extra places – some of it for work already underway.

Research carried out by the county shows that the number of children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) has increased by almost 50 per cent over the last 22 months some of whom will require specialist provision to meet their educational needs.

Numbers with an EHCP are expected to continue to rise, reaching 2,494 by March 2023.

+ Adding to the county’s specialist capacity will be a new special school due to open in Bovington in September 2019 with a space for up to 160 places for children with Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC), and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs. This school was originally planned to be for 60 children with ASC, but with help from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, has increased to 160 places. It will be operated by the Delta Education Trust.

+ Dorset County Council has already invested over £1million since June 2017 to provide additional places at two Special Schools, and to relocate the Dorchester Learning Centre to alternative buildings on the Monkton Park site, allowing additional capacity to be created.

Work at Mountjoy and Beaminster schools is continuing with the extra capacity of 14 special school places due to be available for September 2018: The work at Dorchester Learning Centre has also started and should be complete for September 2018.