Guidance

Guide for independent special institutions applying for inclusion on the Secretary of State approved list

Updated 3 May 2024

Applies to England and Wales

Introduction

We publish a list of independent special schools and special post-16 institutions approved by the Secretary of State for Education. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set out the criteria for inclusion and removal of institutions.

We only include institutions on the list with their consent. This guidance explains how institutions can apply for us to consider including them on the approved list.

Independent special institutions include:

• independent special schools in England and Wales, which:
  • are on the register of independent educational institutions under the Education and Skills Act 2008
  • offer special educational provision for students with special educational needs
• special post–16 institutions which:
  • are legally established to provide education and are not maintained schools or FE colleges
  • provide specialist post-16 education and support to young people with some of the most severe learning difficulties or disabilities or low incidence needs

Special institutions that are not in scope of the approved list, include:

• non-maintained special schools, which cater for pupils up to age 18
• special academies and free schools
• other local authority-maintained provision, for example:
  • pupil referral units
  • special units attached to mainstream schools

What’s involved

Applying to join the approved list means you are voluntarily subject to certain duties. This includes:

• being on your local authority’s published local offer of support available to children and young people with special educational needs (SEN)
• co-operating with your local authority on arrangements for children and young people with SEN
• following the special educational needs and disability code of practice

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 gives parents and young people the right to express a preference for independent specialist provision in their education, health and care (EHC) plan. If they request an approved independent special school or special post-16 institution, the local authority is under a conditional duty to accept. They can only refuse if:

• it would be unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person
• the attendance of the child or young person would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources

If you are named on an EHC plan, you must admit the pupil or student.

Special post-16 institutions are also able to apply annually for a funding agreement from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). This means they can receive high needs place funding directly (in the same way as general FE colleges). High needs funding for 16- to 25-year-olds includes mainstream 16 to 19 funding (known as element 1) and high needs place funding (known as element 2). Getting a funding agreement is subject to:

• local authorities’ commissioning decisions
• a separate due diligence process

When to apply and eligibility

The application process is annual. The application window opened on 3 May 2024 and closes on 14 June 2024.

Apply to join the approved list.

You must register with the Department for Education (DfE) before the application closing date. We cannot consider schools that have not registered. Special post-16 institutions must be:

• legally established
• registered for the delivery of education with Companies House or the Charity Commission

We will not consider any applications and supporting evidence received after the closing date. Late applicants must re-apply at the next annual application window.

We will not consider applications from:

• special education institutions not in scope
• schools which are not yet registered
• special post-16 institutions which are not legally established or registered with Companies House or the Charities Commission

2024 application window

Date	Activity
3 May 2024	Application window opened
14 June 2024	Application window closes
3 May to 31 July 2024	Applications reviewed and moderated
30 August 2024	Applicants informed and list updated

2025 application window

Date	Activity
2 May 2025	Application window opens
13 June 2025	Application window closes
2 May to 31 July 2025	Applications reviewed and moderated
29 August 2025	Applicants informed and list updated

Application process

We will assess applications against the criteria set out in Part 5 of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.

There are 3 stages to the application and you will need to complete all 3 stages:

• stage 1 – specialism and background information
• stage 2 – quality of provision
• stage 3 – financial health assessment

If you do not respond in full to the questions, we may not be able to progress your application.

Institution type and trading information (specialism and background information)

Select the appropriate institution from:

• independent special school (England and Wales)
• special post-16 institution

Complete all relevant fields in this section. This includes:

• type of company, which must align to the information held at Companies House or the Charity Commission
• whether you currently hold an ESFA funding agreement (special post-16 institutions only)
• your 6-digit unique reference number (independent special schools only)
• your information as on Get Information about Schools
• your web address (if you do not have a web address, enter ‘not applicable’)
• your trading name and address.

We will check the information you provide in this section.

At any time, it is your responsibility to inform us of any changes relating to your trading or legal name. Email changes to hns.sos@education.gov.uk.

Pupil or student cohort (specialism and background information)

We will use this information to confirm that most of the provision you offer is specialist educational provision to pupils and students aged between 0 and 25 with special educational needs. We expect that at least 51% of the pupil or student intake will have an EHC plan.

You should provide the total number of pupils or students as at the start of the previous academic year and show a breakdown of the number of pupils or students with and without an EHC plan. This must align with the supporting information you provide, for example, recent inspection reports.

If you have no pupils or students enrolled at the institution you should not apply.

If we are unable to verify the cohort information, we will ask you to provide confirmation from your local authority of the number of pupils or students they have placed with you in the previous academic year. This must include how many of these pupils or students are subject to a EHC plan that name you. If local authorities do not confirm placements, your application will fail.

Financial health assessment

We will assess your financial health using ESFA’s financial health assessment. Make sure you read the guidance and meet the minimum requirements.

You must provide financial documentation in support of your application. This should be the latest approved or filed full financial statements. They must include explanatory notes to the accounts and contain every page.

If you have not yet prepared your first set of annual accounts, you can submit management accounts to support actual trading to date. They must cover a minimum of 3 months and include forecast information for the remaining period. The combined information must cover a 12-month period. You must include:

• 12 months income and expenditure (a minimum of 3 months must be from active trading)
• a rolling cash flow forecast
• a projected end of period balance sheet
• a full narrative explanation of assumptions behind the figures provided.

We will review the information you provide and categorise your financial health. If we assess your financial health as inadequate or you do not provide the required financial information, you will fail the application process.

We may carry out further financial checks during the application process.

Type and quality of provision

We will ask you what type of provision you offer. This includes:

• day placements only
• residential placements only
• a mix of day and residential placements

If you offer residential placements, you will need to provide the date, rating, reference and link to your latest inspection report. The absence of this information will result in the application not proceeding.

At any time, you must inform us of any changes to your type of provision you offer. Email changes to hns.sos@education.gov.uk.

You should confirm if your education provision is subject to inspection by:

• Ofsted - the education inspectorate for England
• Independent Schools Inspectorate - appointed by DfE to inspect association independent schools in England
• Estyn - the education and training inspectorate for Wales

You should provide the date, rating, reference and link to inspectorate report for the last full inspection. Ofsted and Estyn inspected institutions should confirm their last full inspection rating. Independent Schools Inspectorate inspected institutions should confirm the quality of pupils’ achievement and learning rating.

You will fail the application process if your inspection rated you as inadequate or not meeting the essential requirements.

We will review any published emergency inspection reports that have taken place after your last inspection.

If you have successfully met stage 1 (specialism and background information) and stage 3 (financial health assessment) but have not yet had a full inspection, we will provisionally include you on the list until an inspection takes place.

Special post-16 institutions not inspected by Ofsted

Special post-16 institutions that are not in receipt of funding directly from ESFA are not in scope for inspection by Ofsted. This means we will provisionally include special post-16 institutions who successfully pass stages 1 and 3 on the list.

We will arrange for a DfE education adviser to visit the planned delivery site as part of stage 2 of the process within 24 months of publication of the approved list. This visit will focus on:

• the quality of provision
• the proposed curriculum and study programmes
• internal policies in place
• qualifications and experience of management and teaching staff
• governance arrangements

Following the visit, the education adviser will submit a report to us on their findings. If we are satisfied with their findings, we will include the institution on the main published list. If we consider the findings to be unsatisfactory, we will remove the institution from the list with immediate effect.

Your contact information

The application must include contact details for the principal or head of the institution. If the principal or head application is not submitting the application, you must also provide your own contact details.

We will use this information to:

• notify you of your application outcome.
• ask for further information if needed.

Declaration

All applicants must complete the declaration section. This confirms that:

• you are authorised to submit the application on behalf of the institution
• the information you have provided is accurate

Application submission and next steps

After submitting your application, you will get an automated acknowledgement confirming that we have received your application. We will provide the outcome of your application by 30 August 2024.

We may contact you after the application closing date if we need more information following the validation checks. You must provide the information within the specified timeframe. Failure to respond to requests within the timeframe may result in the application failing.

Decision

We will consider the evidence you provide in support of all the qualifying criteria.

We will inform you of our decision in writing using the email address provided in your application. We will update the approved list on 30 August 2024.

All decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

If you fail to meet some or all the criteria, you can apply again once you have addressed the issues raised in our feedback.

Applications outside the application window

You can submit an exceptional application outside the annual process if you are:

• an independent special school that has registered with DfE in the last 12 months
• a special post-16 institution that has registered with Companies House or the Charity Commission in the last 12 months

To submit an exceptional application, you need to email hns.sos@education.gov.uk and include your institution’s:

• name
• DfE registration number and registration date (independent special schools only)
• Companies House or Charity Commission number
• date when they were legally established (special post-16 institutions only)

If you meet the exceptions criteria, we will ask you to complete an application form. Applications submitted through the exceptions process are subject to the same eligibility criteria as applications received in the annual process.

Review of the list of independent special institutions

We review the list of approved institutions each term. We expect all institutions on the list to continue to meet the qualifying criteria.

We will notify all local authorities in England of an institution’s removal from the approved list. We will remove institutions from the list because of an inadequate inspection or safeguarding concerns.

During this review, we will consider any new information such as:

• recent inspection reports
• emergency inspection reports
• monitoring visits

If the Secretary of State has received serious concerns relating to an institution, we will consider removing them from the list. We will notify an institution if we are removing them, explaining the reason for the removal. The removal of an institution will take effect 28 days after we have notified them. If safeguarding has been judged as ineffective, we will notify and remove the institution from the list immediately.

If you want us to remove your institution from the approved list, write to ESFA stating the reasons for the request for removal. We will remove you from the list at the next termly review. ESFA will notify all local authorities and Ofsted about this voluntary removal. Once removed, you cannot re-apply to appear on the list for one full academic year.

The list includes all institutions we have removed.

Contact us

If you have any questions about any part of the application process, email hns.sos@education.gov.uk.