Seven new special free schools will open in areas with SEND budget black holes, as ministers also confirm which councils will be trialling their green paper reforms.
The Department for Education will now open new 41 special free schools nationwide amid a critical shortage of special school places.
The seven extra schools – totalling over 1,000 places – have been approved through the “safety valve” route, a £1 billion programme where councils make sweeping changes in exchange for government bailouts to plug high needs deficits.
It comes amid a places crisis in special schools. A Schools Week investigation previously exposed how schools are forced to cram vulnerable pupils into converted therapy spaces and staffrooms.
