The enhanced pathway programme has been rolled out to 40 schools in Oxfordshire, with an additional 20 schools due to join after the local authority committed another £1.2m to the project earlier this week.
Councillor Sean Gaul, Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, described the project as a “spend to save” model, enabling the council to support more people in the county.
“Delivering 20 enhanced pathways can support just over 300 children. If that money was spent on delivering alternative educational provision, we would be able to support just under 100 children.
“If that £1.2m was spent on delivering education in independent special school places, we’d be able to support 17 children,” he said.
There are already 76 Oxfordshire schools that have expressed an interest in setting up their own pathway through the new funding.
Both primary and secondary schools can apply and will need to provide a business case to be considered.