A school for autistic children can take in more pupils after its expansion was approved at Lewisham’s Mayor and Cabinet on Wednesday (December 11).  

Drumbeat School & ASD Service’s capacity will go from 171 places to 203 places in January.  

The school, based in Brockley and Bromley, takes in those children and young people aged four to 19 with the highest level of autistic needs in the borough.  

Lewisham has the highest prevalence of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) known to schools of all local authorities in England at 1.74 per cent. 

Cabinet member for school performance and children’s services, Councillor Chris Barnham, said: “In fact it’s not changing anything to do with the buildings, the school has been admitting over its current admissions number for a while and we need to change the admissions number in order to go further and utilise spare space within the school. 

“This is part of our wider efforts to expand provision for special education in the borough.” 

Drumbeat has been able to go over its admissions number by 10 per cent “as allowable by the statutory guidance” and currently caters for

187 pupils.

But to increase capacity any more a consultation process had to be carried out, which found the need exists, and the expansion had to be officially approved.

“The need for a number of these places already exists, as can be shown by the pressure to commission additional ASD places outside of Lewisham as Drumbeat School is currently full (in terms of how many children it can cater for before requiring an ‘expansion’ decision) and therefore in effect oversubscribed.

“These commissioned places outside of the borough, are often in expensive, and distant, independent provision, which on average cost £44,000 compared to £28,000 at Drumbeat,” according to the report. 

Cllr Chris Best, cabinet member for health and adult social care, asked about the financial implications of the added capacity for those transitioning into adult care.  

But Cllr Barnham said: “Part of what we’re trying to do is to make sure we’ve got the capacity within the borough to meet the needs of children who are at the moment often having to be placed out of the borough.  

“It’s not a net addition demand on the service overall – it’s trying to better meet the needs we know are already there.”