Around 50,000 specialist places are to be created nationwide at a cost of £3 billion to ensure more children with SEND can thrive alongside their friends at their local school.
The announcement follows the launch of the largest national conversation on SEND in a generation.
Places due to be created by planned special free schools, will either be built as planned schools, or local authorities will be given the funding to create the equivalent number of specialist places themselves, potentially more quickly than through free school projects.
The government launched a review into whether free schools offer value for money, and are now bringing to an end the Conservative party’s original free school model.
The Department for Education has indicated that projects will be categorised as going ahead as intended, be minded to cancel, Local Authority considering alternative funding or alternative funding will be provided. Of the 58 special and AP free schools, 18 have been cancelled, ACE Cranbrook School in Devon is marked as ‘Local Authority considering alternative funding’.
Councils will be able to decide whether to carry on with plans to build the 58 special and AP free schools now in limbo or receive cash to create places. For the 18 cancelled specialist free schools, which were at an early stage with no trust approved, they will automatically receive money.
Full plans to improve the SEND system will be set out through the Schools White Paper early in the new year.
14-05-2026