New special schools are ‘too little, too late’

THE Government’s investment in new schools for children with special needs could be “too little too late”, a school leaders’ union has warned.

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced the locations for 16 new free schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send).

It comes after the Chancellor announced in his spring Budget that £105 million would be invested over the next four years to build new special schools.

Among the areas to see new special schools are Bury in Greater Manchester, Solihull in the West Midlands, and Surrey.

But Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the union was worried the investment was “too little too late”.

Government data published in March found that around two in three special schools in England were at or over capacity. There were approximately 4,000 more pupils on roll in special schools than the reported capacity.

Mr Di’Iasio said: “Around twothirds of special schools are at or over capacity, but these new special schools are unlikely to be up and running for several years.

“The pressure on places is happening now and the lack of capacity in the system is the result of the Government’s underinvestment in schools over the past 14 years.”

He added that the Chancellor’s announcement did “nothing to address the wider issue of the strain on special educational needs provision”.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “We’ve created tens of thousands of special school places since 2010 and today’s announcement takes us one step closer to our commitment of a record 60,000 more places for children with additional needs.”

Rob Williams, from school leaders’ union NAHT, said the announcement “did little to address the dire shortage of places in special schools”.