SEND Building Regulations: What You Need to Know

SEND buildings, within both mainstream and specialist schools, are subject to a range of legal guidelines. These help to ensure that every student has the best opportunities to succeed in a space tailored to their needs. TG Escapes designs and builds a range of SEND buildings throughout the UK, creating safe, positive spaces for pupils. Here are the key guidelines that underpin our award-winning work.

Building Bulletin 103

Building Bulletin 103 sets out non-statutory guidelines for buildings in mainstream schools and their associated sites. Within it, there are measures in place to ensure accessibility for disabled pupils and staff, as well as to identify any additional facilities that may be needed for pupils with SEND. Within both SEND and mainstream guidance, rooms are typically defined as requiring a certain m2 floor space per pupil.

Our SEND facility at Stepgates School incorporated a hygiene room, a sensory room, and spacious, comfortable classrooms

Building Bulletin 104

Building Bulletin 104 is the UK Department for Education’s non-statutory guidance on buildings and grounds for SEND pupils across all educational settings. Published in December 2015, it superseded Building Bulletin 102. BB 104 provides area guidelines for both buildings and external sites across four types of educational provision:

• Special Schools: Special schools cater to both ambulant and non-ambulant pupils. 
• Alternative Provision (AP): This covers pupils unable to attend mainstream schools due to reasons including mental or physical health issues, or behaviour.
• Specially Resourced Provision (SRP): These units provide specialist facilities within a mainstream school for pupils with an EHC (Education, Health, and Care) plan. Students will spend most of their time in mainstream classes, with the SRP offering individual support, and teaching for specific skills like braille, alongside medical and therapeutic support.
• Designated Units: These are similar to SRPs, but in this case pupils spend most of their time learning in the dedicated unit, joining mainstream classes for a few lessons and for non-academic activities like assemblies.

The guidance is split into two key parts:

• Part A: Buildings: This section covers recommended floor spaces for internal areas like basic teaching spaces, PE halls, dining and social areas, therapy rooms, staff areas, and storage.
• Part B: Site: This section covers external area recommendations for things like outdoor PE, informal play, social spaces, and habitat areas.

Like BB103, the guideline offers clear calculations based on an m2 area per pupil. This changes depending on the needs of the pupil and the uses of the space, with larger spaces usually recommended for non-ambulant pupils. To find out more about recommended classroom sizes, we have an article on the subject.

How guidance differs from mainstream schools

The BB104 guidance allows for more space per pupil, smaller teaching groups, and higher staff-to-pupil ratios than BB103. Unlike mainstream guidelines, it also includes specific requirements for therapy spaces, sensory rooms, and mobility equipment storage. In general, the space required for SEND Buildings is higher, due to accessibility needs, larger washroom spaces, and therapeutic areas.

How schools adhere to BB104

BB104 provides formulas and space categories that can help architects calculate an appropriate layout for SEND buildings. While non-statutory, we would look to meet the recommendations whenever possible to ensure that environments are both compliant and functional, with adequate space for specialist support, accessibility, and inclusive learning.

Sensory rooms, such as the one we created for Pengwerm College, provide a vital space for SEND pupils to decompress

Special educational needs and disability code of practice

The SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years is a piece of statutory guidance issued by the UK government in January 2015, under the Children and Families Act 2014. It applies to England and provides a detailed framework for how children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities should be supported across education, health, and care services. Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland have their own rules governing this.

The guidance includes:

• Introducing EHC plans as a replacement for statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments
• Establishing a single, joined-up system for SEND provision across education, health and social care
• Instigating a legal requirement to publish a Local Offer of available support

The rules also reinforce the presumption of mainstream education for SEND pupils, meaning there should be no barriers to them being educated within a mainstream school. 

How does this impact SEND buildings?

A key principle of the act is to support “high-quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEN”. While this doesn’t necessarily mandate that mainstream schools must create new infrastructure for SEND pupils, £740 million in funding for adapting existing buildings and creating new ones for SEND pupils within mainstream schools was announced in December 2024.

Early years providers and post-16 institutions are also required to support SEND pupils under these rules.

The Equality Act 2010: Advice for schools

The Equality Act 2010 is a piece of UK legislation that brings together previous anti-discrimination laws into one clear legal framework. It protects individuals from unfair treatment based on characteristics such as disability, race, sex, religion, and more. Within the standalone paper The Equality Act 2010 and Schools, the government lays out how this applies to schools, including how they must make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils.

How does this impact SEND buildings?

The Act requires schools to plan for and provide an environment where disabled pupils can fully access education. This includes “improving the physical environment of schools to enable disabled pupils to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided”.

Acoustic design of schools: performance standards

This 2015 Building Bulletin sets performance standards for school buildings, with a section covering SEND buildings. Schools must consider special acoustic requirements for pupils with hearing or communication needs, including those with autism, ADHD, or speech and language difficulties. These pupils are especially sensitive to noise, so acoustic design must reduce reverberation, improve sound insulation, and minimise background noise. For special schools or units, an acoustician or audiologist should be involved to tailor spaces appropriately. 

Our award-winning SEND buildings

This specialist classroom block at Woking HIgh School was tailored around the needs of it's visually impaired students

At TG Escapes, we design and build bespoke, eco-friendly learning spaces, with a focus on SEND and SEMH provision. From classroom blocks to music rooms, intervention spaces and more, our team brings a clear understanding of the kinds of buildings that create an accessible, supportive, and positive learning environment for pupils. We’re able to handle every part of a building, from the first design to the handover of keys, delivering permanent timber buildings optimised for more than 50 years of everyday use. Here are just some of the SEND buildings our team has completed:

• SEND hub for the visually impaired at Woking High School:  We created this specialist 3-classroom block at Woking High School for visually impaired students, working with Ecophon to ensure the acoustic performance of the classroom exceeded the requirements set out in the Acoustic Design of Schools SEN Standards.
• SEN classroom block at Hundred of Hoo Academy: Our team designed and built this two-storey block for Hundred of Hoo Academy, including classrooms, toilets, quiet rooms, and offices.
• 60-place SEND facility at Beacon Hill School: Serves students with high-dependency Special Educational Needs and Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities, the building provides 10 classrooms, 2 PMLD bases, hygiene rooms, a staff room and a sensory room as well as ample storage for specialist equipment.

We’ve also been proud to work on the DfE-compliant inclusive learning hub concept, our newest concept building. Designed around 16 or 32 pupils, this multi-use space includes therapy, sensory, and social spaces, helping SEND pupils thrive within mainstream schools. With small adjustments the learning hub is ready for use within a huge range of school buildings, helping them create a positive environment for their SEND students.

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We offer a free design service to help you explore the right solution for your SEND needs, across mainstream and specialist education. With hundreds of educational projects completed over the last 21 years, we create sustainable, positive, and multi-functional buildings. Speak to our team about your needs today.