Councillors have set the ball rolling on creating a new £5million secondary school for young people with additional support needs.
The facility - earmarked for a site next to Bannockburn High School - is part of a wider £10million investment, which will also see two new ASN facilities created within Stirling’s rural areas.
Concept design is still ongoing for the rural facilities.
But a target of summer 2023 has been set for completion of the Bannockburn provision, through a modular build.
The investment in secondary specialist ASN provision is approved in Stirling Council’s current capital programme with £5million set out for 2023/23 and £4million in 2024/25.
The council’s children and young people committee recently unanimously gave approval for officers to begin the procurement process for the Bannockburn provision.
The facilities are being built due to insufficient capacity in the current education estate to support the growing number of secondary aged pupils with ASN who require access to specialist provision.
A review found that additional capacity would be needed in the city centre for 48 pupils over the short to medium term.
Click here for more news and sport from the Stirling area.
Two temporary classrooms were added to St Modan’s High School’s autism provision this school year, however further expansion of the space isn’t feasible.
Ochil House, within Wallace High School, is the authority’s other secondary ASN facility, mostly providing specialist facilities for pupils with severe and complex needs, but this also cannot be expanded.
Officers told the committee the new provision in the grounds of Bannockburn High would offer “bespoke accommodation in eight classrooms with supporting ancillary facilities”
They added: “The intention is that the ASN provision will share existing facilities with the high school, to encourage inclusive practice and reinforce the statutory presumption of mainstreaming.
“There is sufficient and suitable grounds to enable this development of education facilities in Bannockburn High School.
“Current capacity in the ASN estate will be breached with effect from the start of the 2023/24 academic session and an infrastructure solution is required to be in place from August 2023.”
The officials said modular accommodation would deliver “defined standards and quality aspirations for the building within a much shorter period of time than a traditional build” but that it would “look and perform” like a traditional build.
Modular solutions have been used by other local authorities and allow off-site manufacturing, minimising the disruption to the existing high school by having as short an on-site construction period as possible.
Officials told councillors other sites had been considered, including alongside Stirling High School, but the Bannockburn High site had “land and operational benefits”.
Bannockburn ward Labour councillor Margaret Brisley asked whether a traffic impact survey had been carried out given there was a nearby nursery and also young people in the area travelling to Bannockburn Primary School, as well as existing congestion.
However, officials said some work had already been carried out on that and further work on active travel and traffic management would also be part of the process. Transport colleagues were also on hand to advise, they said.
“We overcame these things in the development of Wallace High School and St Modan’s, which are busy junctions,” said the officers, “but that was done pretty successfully as well.”
Councillor Brisley also sought assurances that proposed new housing developments in the area had been taken into account both in terms of capacity and traffic impact. Officials said that had been factored in and would continue to be looked at.
Asked by SNP councillor Graham Houston if the estimated budget was flexible enough to take into account fluctating costs in the construction trade, officers said: “The market is extremely up and down and we will keep a close eye on that. We do factor that into the budget process and have some contingencies.
“The £5.2million - we are quite comfortable with that figure at the moment but there’s a risk we may have to look at that further down the road.”
Head of infrastructure Drew Leslie said the modular building approach should provide some more certainty.
Officers agreed to discuss a suggestion by SNP councillor Susan McGill that a Changing Places disabled toilet facility at the provision be potentially open to the public through a secure system.
