PLANS for autism centres in the region – which have been in the works for the past ten years – are now steadily making progress.
This time last year, Dumfries and Galloway councillors pushed for details and costings on two different options to provide better learning environments for autistic pupils.
Option one is for the creation of five autism centres across the region, while option two would see the development of two autism centres (one in Stranraer and one in Dumfries) along with repurposing/refurbishing spaces within a number of secondary schools.
With £3.15 million in funding available from the Scottish Government for new autism facilities, provision will be made available.
However, council chiefs are just not sure how far this cash will stretch.
An update has now been provided in a report, which is due to be tabled at the council’s education committee next week.
It reads: “Autism and the learning environment has been under review for the last decade, with a number of reviews pointing towards a need to consider how we provide for pupils that are beyond the level of support available within our mainstream settings.
“To ensure that any solution to support our autistic pupils brings an improvement in their outcomes, we have taken the time to understand the current offering, through evaluating the support within our current settings, the day placements and also residential placements that we contract with.
“Only by understanding this, will we be able to ensure that any options for consideration see an improvement in outcomes.”
The report explains that any new capital projects must go through relevant gateway stages before a final decision is made.
This autism centres project is progressing to the gateway two stage and will then be presented to the Capital Investment Project Board for further scrutiny.
The report continues: “It is important that, as a council, we make best use of the limited resources available, and in this context it is vital that spending and investment decisions are based on highly competent professionally developed proposals, which follow a structured process for appraising, developing and planning to deliver best social value for money.
“By utilising processes put in place by the recently established Capital Investment Project Board (CIPB), we will ensure that better more effective and efficient spending decisions and implementation plans are produced.
“In order to achieve this, the existing project business case will be renewed and work on this is well underway.”
