EA Details Progress on SEN School Places

These relate to children changing from one educational phase or setting to another – e.g. starting or moving schools.

Work is ongoing to confirm further places ahead of the new school year. It is anticipated that, by next week, the number of required additional places still to be confirmed will be less than 15.

Looking to future years, EA is warning that change is needed to properly meet need at an earlier stage in the annual cycle. Put simply, the more capacity we can create, the earlier we can place children, thus reducing anxiety on pupils and parents. To do this, we need all parts of the system to work together.

The initiatives for providing September 2026 places include:

• Engagement exercises targeted at schools in areas of highest need, aimed at significantly increasing SEN specialist provision in mainstream schools.
• Construction projects initiated at 115 schools to create capacity for additional school places. This includes projects to create 192 additional places at special schools, despite the shortage of space across the special school estate.
• An Enhanced Support Package for schools offering specialist provision classes, including funding of teaching and classroom support staff, staff training, enhancement of school premises, annual pupil and administration payments, and cross-school support.
• Placements of individual pupils into specific schools by the EA’s Statutory Assessment and Review Service (SARS).

Intensive work throughout the year means that there will be 129 additional classes, creating more than 1,100 new places for pupils across mainstream and special schools to address need in September 2026 and future years.

At this stage of the process, all additional capacity that can be created by September has been factored in. Further placements will be achieved through the continued support and collaboration of our schools, alongside targeted resource allocation to ensure that placements can be confirmed in a timely and effective manner.

EA is currently on trajectory to confirm the remaining placements by this route by September.

The EA is clear that there is a strategic alternative to the annual pressures, delays and uncertainties around SEN placements. The required changes have to involve:

• substantial investment in expanding special school capacity.
• significant growth in specialist SEN provision in mainstream schools.

EA’s Chief Operations Officer Dale Hanna said:

“Meeting the needs of children and young people with SEN is an absolute priority for us and work will continue throughout the summer to confirm places.

I pay tribute to colleagues in EA and in many schools who have worked really hard to secure additional places this year.

However, I have to warn that the current approach is running out of road. This is due to two factors - the fact much of the current special school estate is close to, or has reached, capacity; and the ongoing relatively low level of specialist SEN provision in mainstream schools.

Given the ongoing pressures, there will be cases where placements for some children, while still being the best available option, will be less than ideal. This will include cases where children are in specialist provision rather than in special schools, and others where travel to schools outside their neighbourhoods will be required. To be very clear, that is not a choice, rather it is a necessity caused by the circumstances we face.”

Mr Hanna continued: 

“As of September 2026, some 30% of mainstream schools will have specialist SEN provision classes – an increase of four percentage points on the 2025-26 school year. Engagement with over 400 mainstream schools has been a central focus this year. It has led to 101 schools establishing new or pathway classes for September 2026 - 49 of which have not previously had any provisions.

“In short, the challenge of meeting the needs of children in our communities is being disproportionately shouldered by a minority of schools. We have had constructive engagement with other schools and this will lead to more places for September 2027 and beyond.

“Unfortunately, in some cases, however, schools in areas of highest need have effectively stonewalled our approaches.
“This is not a sustainable state of affairs. The level of overall mainstream school specialist provision has to expand significantly and at pace to meet growing demand.”