Councils will be given funding earmarked for the creation of free schools to deliver specialist places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The Government said it will deliver 10,000 planned free school places, either by building the planned schools or handing local authorities the funding ‘to create the equivalent number’ of places themselves.

The free school policy was among key education policies under the previous Conservative administration but had been paused under the Labour Government, which says that councils can create places ‘often more quickly than through free school projects’.

The announcement has been made as part of a £3bn commitment by ministers to create a total of 60,000 places for children with SEND.

An aim is to create more places closer to young people’s homes to cut down on transport costs. SEND transport costs hit a record high of £2.26bn during 2023-24 according to analysis of official data published in September.

Local Government Association children, young people and families committee chair, Cllr Amanda Hopgood, welcomed ministers’ commitment to ensuring councils can develop their own provision.

She called on the Government to go further and create ‘a single, local funding pot, held by councils, to build appropriate provision quickly and effectively’.

National Education Union general secretary, Daniel Kebede, said new specialist places are needed to ‘reduce waiting lists that cause misery and deep anxiety for parents’ and cut councils’ reliance on using independent special schools, which are ‘bankrupting the system with their profiteering’.

Institute for Fiscal Studies research fellow, Luke Sibieta, says the Government’s expansion of the number of specialist places ‘could help ease pressure and reduce costs over time’

But he warned ministers that funding school places is ‘only a first step’ and they will ‘also need a plan to staff and sustain these places in the long term’.