Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative estimate she has made of the number of specialist-school places (a) in Rushcliffe constituency and (b) nationally; and what plans she has to increase capacity of those places.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision sits with local authorities.

The requested data on state-funded special schools can be found in the annual School Capacity statistics publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2023-24. This has been available since March 2025.

School level capacity data can be combined with information on constituency from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS), which can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2023-24. For ease, data on the special school in Rushcliffe parliamentary constituency can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/1da3dffd-c9cd-4d3c-a168-08dde2cf2374.

Nationally, local authorities reported that there were 153,000 special school places in England as of 1 May 2024.

The department has now published allocations for £740 million in High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for the 2025/26 financial year. The funding can be used to adapt schools to be more accessible for children with SEND, to create specialist facilities within mainstream schools that can deliver more intensive support adapted to suit the pupils’ needs and to create special school places for pupils with the most complex needs.

Nottinghamshire County Council has been allocated just below £14 million for the 2025/26 financial year. It is up to local authorities to make decisions about the places they create and to prioritise their funding to meet local needs.