The announcement that Bradford's special schools network could be completely revamped under new proposals is a welcome one indeed. The education of children with special needs has traditionally been a controversial and problematic subject and the way forward suggested under this review would seem to offer a positive end to the wrangling.

The six new facilities suggested by the revamp would appear to offer the 904 children on the rolls of the district's current count of 12 special schools the best possible futures.

They would have their own specialised facilities and also direct access to mainstream schools so that the students could be integrated where appropriate.

Many of the special schools operating in Bradford at the moment are housed in poor-quality buildings and the investment offered by these proposals would create an environment more geared to offering the best possible education to special needs students.

However, to make this ambitious scheme reality, serious money is obviously needed. If ever there was a case for Bradford's education system deserving a huge injection of funding then this idea would be the one.

The sheer scale of the development will mean that the Council has to enter into a private finance initiative agreement with the private sector to raise the necessary cash to pay for six new facilities to replace the ten special schools that would close by 2006 at the latest.

It is good to see that Education Bradford has so far involved parents and staff from the special schools in the discussions about the future of special needs education provision, because at the end of the day the most important point of this whole scheme is to give the young people who will attend these schools the best education they can get.