Twenty-five multi-academy trusts have been chosen to run 30 new special free schools, the government has announced today.
Some trusts have been selected to run more than one school. For example, Wellspring Academy Trust will be run three new special schools in Birmingham, North East Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.
Ethos Academy Trust will open two schools in South Yorkshire and Leeds; Ascendency Partnership will run two schools in Wokingham, Berkshire; and MacIntyre Academies Trust will run two schools in Worcestershire and Leicestershire.
However, the Department for Education has said that the process of choosing a trust will have to carried out again in the case of three new special free schools, where the local council has successfully bid for funding to open them.
SEND support: New special free schools
The process will be re-run on the Isle of Wight to open a 9 to 16 school for autistic pupils and those with social, emotional and mental health needs. This school would have 75 places.
The DfE is also looking again for a sponsor to run two 4 to 19 free schools in Cheshire East, one to serve autistic pupils and the other for pupils with social, emotional mental health needs.
Commenting on the programme, education secretary Gillian Keegan vowed that the government “has a plan” to deliver 60,000 more places to meet the needs of pupils and their families.
The DfE said new special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision (AP) places were being delivered to meet children’s needs, and that councils will get “a record £850 million cash boost”.
A school leaders’ union, however, said the “blizzard of figures looks very much like previously announced spending commitments”.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said that while investment in education is always welcome, the latest figures are “a very long way short of the level of funding that is needed”.
At ASCL’s conference earlier month, Ms Keegan admitted that the government “haven’t built enough special educational needs places or schools”.
Government figures published last week showed that around two-thirds of special schools were at or over capacity in the past academic year.
Last year Tes reported on warnings from sector leaders that relying on the free school programme - where the government approves council bids and then trusts are found to take them on - will not solve the SEND places crisis.
This was after the DfE had announced that councils had been successful in bids to open 33 new free schools. In total, 54 bids were not approved.
