Special-school leaders have questioned a government claim that too many specialist places have been created for pupils who could be in mainstream schools.
In a to an ongoing parliamentary inquiry into support for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), the Department for Education said the previous Conservative government had sent mixed messages on mainstream inclusion by “creating very large numbers of new special-school places, including for needs that could reasonably be met in mainstream schools”.
But headteachers are now questioning what the DfE has based this claim on and warned that special schools face a places crisis with demand far outstripping supply.
And leaders of special-school multi-academy trusts are urging the government to push ahead with the building of planned special free schools - plans that have been “in limbo” since Labour was elected last year.
The DfE’s comments were made in its submission to the Commons Education Select Committee’s inquiry into solving the SEND crisis.
Simon Knight, co-head of Frank Wise special school in Oxfordshire, said: “It is important that the DfE publish the data that they are using to determine that special-school places are being used to accommodate children with ‘needs that could reasonably be met in mainstream schools’.”
Demand for special-school places
Mr Knight warned that his school received 260 consultations for places, 35 of whom should have been placed in the school, but only 10 were able to be taken on because of pressure on places.
“The insufficiency of special-school places is a crisis and one that deserves a coherent strategic response to resolve,” he said.
Warren Carratt, CEO of Nexus Multi Academy Trust, told Tes he was “appalled” that in the DfE submission “officials are now saying that the opening of more special schools under the last government is a key issue that needs addressing by the current one”.
“This couldn’t be further from the truth,” he added. “The demand for state special-school places massively outstrips supply, which is why we’re witnessing the rapid increase of some profit-generating independent specialist provision - at significant additional cost to the public purse. “
These concerns were echoed by Nic Crossley, CEO of Liberty Academy Trust, which runs three special schools for autistic pupils.
She said she was worried that the government narrative on the need for inclusion in mainstream risked “forgetting about the huge demand that there is on special schools”.
“The demand has not gone down at all. We’ve already, in one of our schools, had more than 100 consultations in the first term and a half of the year, and when we’re already over our PAN [published admission number]. So I really don’t know where they are going to go”.
Dr Crossley also questioned the idea that special-school places are being filled with pupils whose needs could be met in mainstream.
“In my schools the children are generally cognitively able, generally chronologically in line with their peers. However, a large proportion, more than half of my children, have come from mainstream in the past where it has not been working for them.”
Special free schools ‘in limbo’
Both trust leaders have made applications to run new special free schools, which were given initial approval under the previous government. But they have not heard anything about the plans since last year .
Dr Crossley said: “The government needs to look at the pause on special free schools because we’re still, as far as we’re concerned, in a state of limbo.”
Her trust applied to run three approved schools with an autism specialism in Cheshire East, Newham and Stoke-on-Trent. Although these schools were given initial approval under the previous government, the DfE had not yet appointed trusts to run them.
Nexus, which runs 17 academies, predominantly special schools, submitted bids to run two new free schools in the East Riding of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, and has also heard nothing back.
Mr Carratt said: “We have been waiting almost a year now without hearing anything, and councils who are faced with a shortage of places don’t know if they can move forward with the solution that they were originally asked to produce. All the while, more places are needed and no significant new sufficiency is in the pipeline.”
A total of 48 special-school projects were given initial approval in waves three and four of the free school programme by the DfE under the Conservative government, with trusts lined up to run the 32 schools in wave three.
Tes has received responses from councils or trusts in relation to 33 of these projects, and in 30 of these cases authorities or trusts were still waiting for a decision or update from the DfE. Three schools were said to be moving ahead in Birmingham and Worcestershire.
Surrey County Council said that it had been expecting a ministerial decision on the future of three special free schools in the spring of this year but this had been delayed until the summer.
A spokesperson for Bury Council, which got approval for a special free school in wave three, said: “Despite repeated requests for updates, we are still waiting on the DfE to inform us where they are up to regarding sponsors or timescales.”
At a meeting of the Commons Public Accounts Committee yesterday, Susan Acland-Hood, the DfE’s permanent secretary, told MPs that the department was working through the special free schools that were in the pipeline “as quickly as we can”.
A DfE spokesperson said the government “inherited a SEND system left on its knees”.
They added: “We are already making progress by investing £1 billion into SEND and £740 million to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools, paving the way for significant, long-term reform. We are engaging with [local authorities] and trusts in the usual way and progressing work on special and [alternative provision] free schools, in line with our vision for the SEND system.”
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