Backing Trinity High School's £40,000 campaign for new inclusion and mental health base

I visited Trinity High School, and met with Headteacher Stephen Kearns, to support their plans to create a dedicated Inclusion Base for vulnerable young people.

This funding would be acquired via a one-off £40,000 capital contribution from Worcestershire County Council's SEND and High Needs capital allocation, with the intention of remodelling three existing classrooms into calm spaces. These calm spaces provide pupils much needed regulation, one-to-one support, with the goal of eventual reintegration into mainstream lessons, with the school trust meeting all other costs.

More than one million young people aged 16-24 are not in education, employment, or training. Trinity High School has 948 pupils enrolled, with 188 receiving SEN Support, 24 with an Education, Health and Care Plan, plus 42 with significant social, emotional and mental health needs, and 67 persistently absent pupils in which SEND/mental health challenges contribute.

The proposed Trinity Inclusion Base would support up to 30 pupils at once, and 180 pupils across an academic year. The school has set measurable targets, such as increasing attendance among pupils from 84% to 90% in the next 12 months.

Every child deserves the opportunity to thrive at school. This, unfortunately, is often not the case due to SEND, anxiety, mental health challenges amongst other vulnerabilities. Trinity's proposal is proactive, providing early intervention while a young person is in the education system and bringing them back on track, rather than acting late when the damage has been done. It does not discard pupils, and instead gives them a reintegrative environment.

With the extent of my belief in this vital project, I will make the case directly to Worcestershire County Council officers to help the school identify the right funding route. The sum requested is modest compared with the huge benefits it provides vulnerable young people in Redditch. We have already witnessed the benefit of such systems, as in Chase School in Malvern, which supported 62 vulnerable students within the first few months of operation.

I am hopeful to see progress on this project, and will be following closely.