DfE announces £3bn national investment in specialist SEND places

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SEND Local Offer

The Department for Education (DfE) has announced a £3bn investment to create 50,000 additional specialist SEND places across England.

This forms part of a wider national plan to expand capacity, reduce waiting times for specialist support, and improve consistency of access to provision for children and young people with SEND.

According to the DfE, the investment will support:

  • new special schools and alternative provision
  • expansions to existing specialist settings
  • targeted capital improvements within mainstream schools
  • a broader programme to address the “postcode lottery” of specialist place availability

The funding will be delivered over several years, with capital allocations issued directly to local authorities to support local sufficiency planning.

Update on the Enterprise Academy special free school project

Alongside the national announcement, the DfE has written to Worcestershire County Council regarding the next steps for planned special and alternative provision free schools, which includes the Enterprise Academy in Malvern.

As the school has an appointed trust, MacIntyre Academies, the DfE has provided two options to the Council:

  1. continue with the planned special free school

The Enterprise Academy can continue through the existing free school programme, with the appointed trust in place and the project progressing to delivery.

2. choose an alternative funding route to create the places in a different way

The DfE is offering an additional capital funding settlement, to be paid from summer 2026 alongside our high needs capital allocation. The DfE consider that this option would give the Council flexibility to deliver specialist places through alternative approaches such as expanding existing schools, creating or enlarging SEN units, or adapting and enhancing mainstream provision. The DfE notes that local authorities can often deliver places more quickly through these routes than through constructing a new free school, although the option to proceed with the Enterprise Academy remains fully available.

What happens next

The choice between these two options will be taken forward as part of a Cabinet decision, informed by our ongoing SEND sufficiency planning and our continued work with the DfE, MacIntyre Academies, and other partners. Further updates will be shared with colleagues as this work progresses and as additional national guidance becomes available.

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