The priority schools building programme. A library in every primary school. The free schools programme since 2024. And now, the 10 year estates strategy.
What do all these DfE policy programmes have in common?
They all deliberately marginalise special and AP schools, sacrificing their essential investment needs on the altar of hubs, resources and “belonging” spaces in mainstream schools.
The same mainstream schools that are, in many areas, seeing swathes of space open up as pupil numbers nose-dive, and where almost all pupils coming into the special and AP sector have arrived from.
The case for a more inclusive system is clear. Nobody wants to see the continuation of what has been an exponential increase in movement of children into the specialist sector.
If more children and be supported and thrive in mainstream schools by throwing huge sums of capital funding in that direction, that’s great.
However, I’m not aware of any mainstream school leader saying that the number one inclusion issue is physical space.
It’s not all about physical space
Rather, it’s expertise (which is funded from revenue budgets) and the tension between “unapologetically high expectations” and the marginalising of some vulnerable learners.
There’s a clear correlation between our nation’s rise up the PISA rankings and the demand for special and AP places. Millions of capital funding doesn’t change that in any way.
Even if there was to be a big change in the accountability system and what the DfE measures, values and rewards in mainstream schooling, it does not mean the specialist sector is surplus to requirements.
The special school estate cannot be left to rot and crumble under the false narrative that more inclusive behaviours will reduce a forecast £14 billion high needs overspend to zero.
Our trust operates across seven local authority areas, working with and for 25 special and AP schools, some part of our trust and some in the process of joining.
We have excellent relationships with local authority officers, and we’ve done everything we realistically can to stay ahead of the demand curve, with tribunals directing more and more placements every year.
Growth isn’t a choice
That means growth isn’t a choice for our schools: it’s an unavoidable necessity. The majority of our schools were built in the 1970s for around 40 per cent of the pupil population they now have to accommodate.
Our leaners have the most complex needs in some of the most dilapidated public buildings. Our annual condition allocation averages out to £66,000 per school. It would take us nine years to save it up and build one replacement site.
If I had the energy, and if I thought it would make a modicum of difference, I would ask questions like “where is the equality impact assessment that considered the current special and AP school estates needs in the development of this 10 year plan?”.
But we know that won’t have factored into the thinking. Or more accurately, it was deliberately ignored.
State special and AP schools appear to be constantly blamed for the chronic overspend in high needs blocks.
This overlooks the fact that special schools are not in control of their admissions, and that councils independently and objectively assess and commission provision and can place even when we say we can’t meet need.
Those facts have nothing to do with the prevailing “truth” of this matter.
Don’t pretend we don’t exist
All the while, the market share of private equity-funded independent specialist providers continues to increase pace, raking in billions in public funding.
To be fair, the estates strategy does talk about creating more specialist places, but these are either preceded or closely followed by references to units in mainstream settings. “Mainstream school” appears 13 times in the new DfE estates strategy.
Special school doesn’t appear once (other than the two times they are listed as types of schools within responsible bodies).
The subtext appears depressingly clear. It’s not that we don’t love you, special and AP schools. It’s that we want to pretend you don’t exist.
I remain hopeful that when the white paper lands, it is explicit about how essential special and AP schools will continue to be in a reformed system.
It must also be unequivocal in its commitment to invest in a world class education for all children in our society, and that our most vulnerable learners and their schools aren’t pushed further to the edge.
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