Proposal to open a Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Unit at Broughton Community Schools

Overview

With the support of the School Governors of Broughton Community Schools, we want to hear your views on our proposal to open a Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) Unit at Broughton Community Schools.

The unit would have 16 places for children with Social Emotional and Mental Health needs as detailed in their Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP). Only children whose EHCP states they need support from a unit would be admitted and admissions would be controlled by the SEND team. Parents would not be able to apply directly to the school for a place in the unit.

These 16 places would be in addition to the school's mainstream places. If agreed the unit would open in September 2027.

Increasing need for Social Emotional and Mental Health support Increasing need for Social Emotional and Mental Health support

Over the last five years in Buckinghamshire:

there has been a 48% (1901 pupils) increase in the number of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabled (SEND) with an Educational Health Care Plan (EHCP)
the number of children with EHCPs for SEMH has nearly doubled

Over the next five years in Buckinghamshire we are expecting:

a further 51% increase in the number of EHCP pupils
children with EHCPs for SEMH to rise further

As part of our SEND Education Sufficiency Strategy the Council sought expressions of interest from schools interested in opening a primary age inclusion unit for children with Social Emotional and Mental Health needs. Broughton Community Schools submitted an expression of interest to open a Unit to meet the demand for places and we are therefore proposing to open a Social Emotional and Mental Health Unit.

What this proposal would mean for pupils and staff at the school What this proposal would mean for pupils and staff at the school

A key aim of the unit is to allow pupils to access a mainstream curriculum, whilst accessing specific specialist support. Pupils attending the unit would:

spend most of their time based within the unit (self-contained with its own outside play area)
be able to join in with parts of the school day, where appropriate

Specialist teachers would be employed to manage the new unit:

staffed by teachers and learning support assistants
additional professionals to support pupils – including a speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and play therapist
further professionals would be employed depending on the needs of the children
all staff in the unit would be trained to support pupils who have Social Emotional and Mental Health needs

How the unit would be funded How the unit would be funded

The new Unit would be accommodated in the existing Year 4 classrooms at the front of the school. The existing classrooms would be remodelled to make them suitable for a unit. The unit will have its own dedicated entrance and outdoor play area.

Year 4 classrooms will be re-provided through the building of two new classrooms within the school site.

The cost of the building works would be funding using government funding that has been made available for providing new / expanding existing SEND provision across the county. Additional revenue funding would be provided to fund the unit. It would therefore not have a detrimental impact on the school's existing revenue budget or impact on provision for pupils.

It is proposed that the works would commence on the unit during the autumn term 2026 and complete in August 2027. It is proposed that the unit will open in September 2027 but for the first half of the autumn term the school will undertake outreach to the pupils to begin a process of familiarisation ahead of pupils attending the unit.

Event to find out more

We are hosting a briefing session for parents and a drop-in session for parents, families and any other interested parties to find out more about the proposals and discuss them with representatives of the school and local authority:

Parent briefing on Thursday 26 March 2026 at 2:15pm
Public drop-in event on Thursday 26 March 2026 from 5pm to 6:30pm

Both the parent briefing and public drop-in will be held in the Junior Hall at Broughton Junior School, Broughton Avenue, Aylesbury, HP20 1NQ.

How to have your say

You can tell us your views in one of the following ways:

complete the online survey using the link at the end of the page
complete, and return, a printed version of the survey (PDF 0.35MB)
email us at BroughtonschoolsSENDconsultation@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
write to us at The School Commissioning Team, Buckinghamshire Council, 1st Floor Walton Street Office, Aylesbury, HP20 1UZ

If you have any questions about this consultation, or require this information in another format or language, please email us at BroughtonschoolsSENDconsultation@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Please tell us your views by 11:59pm on Sunday 26 April 2026.

What happens next

With Broughton Community Schools Governing Board, we will consider all the responses we receive and take a decision on whether to proceed to the next stage and publish a statutory notice to open a Social Emotional and Mental Health Unit.

Statutory notice and representation period

If a statutory notice is published, there is a four week period in which you can make any further representations. If the decision is taken to proceed, we would expect the representation period to run from 20 May to 16 June 2026.

Final decision

The Leader of Buckinghamshire Council, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services, would take into consideration any representations made before making a decision on the final outcome. We would expect this decision to be made in summer 2026.

Privacy

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If you have questions about data and privacy, please email us on dataprotection@buckinghamshire.gov.uk. Or write to our Data Protection Officer at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF.

Give us your views

Online Survey

Areas

Aylesbury Community Board

Interests

Children & young people
Health
Mental health and wellbeing
Schools & education