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A bid to build two new special schools in in Gloucestershire: update
Published
In the autumn of last year, the Department for Education (DfE) invited Local Authorities to make applications for central government funding for the creation of new special schools.
We worked hard on an application for two new special schools to open in our area, and a number of parents and carers participated in the engagement activities which helped to support the process.
Earlier this month the DfE published details of the Local Authorities whose bids were successful, and we were disappointed to learn that our bid had not been identified as one to carry forward. Whilst the initial feedback we have received suggests that it was a well put together application and was ‘approvable’, the feedback is that other LAs were prioritised over us on the basis that they had a greater level of need. As anticipated, there was a high level of interest nationally and the DfE simply received many more bids than the number they were able to approve.
Despite being unsuccessful in our bid to secure additional special school places through this route, the need to create additional capacity continues and we are committed to ensuring a sufficiency of special school places. Therefore, we are continuing to develop proposals that support our locally agreed strategies and will work towards establishing the necessary additional places through an alternative route and we aim to provide further updates as these proposals progress.