Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many applications to establish a free school with a focus on inclusion of disabled learners, with or without Special Educational Needs, have been agreed to, and how many refused, by the Secretary of State.

Since 2010 we have received over 1500 applications to open a free school, all of which will have had some focus on the inclusion of disabled learners. Within this number we have received 89 applications to establish special free schools, 22 of which have been approved to proceed to the pre-opening stage and 67 rejected. The 67 applications were rejected because they failed to meet our quality threshold.

Three of the 11 open special free schools have been inspected by Ofsted, (with two being rated as ‘Good’ and one as ‘Outstanding’). Once open, all free schools have a statutory duty to make sure disabled students are not discriminated against and to promote their interests.