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Updated 20 July 2022
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-application-guide/how-to-register-your-interest-to-set-up-a-mainstream-free-school
This guidance sets out the process for submitting an expression of interest to open a new mainstream free school. It includes 16 to 19 free schools. We want high-quality applications for free schools in the areas of the country with the greatest need for new schools. This guidance will support you to identify a suitable location for your school.
You have until 5pm on 16 September 2022 to register your interest.
We will only send you a free school application form if you have completed an expression of interest form.
We will publish the application guidance and begin sending application forms in July 2022. The closing date for applications is 30 November 2022. Submitting an early expression of interest will allow you more time to complete the full application.
We want all children to benefit from attending a school that provides a high-quality and inclusive education within the resilient structure of a strong trust.
The Schools White Paper: Opportunity for all set out our intention to deliver a fully trust led system, which will drive up standards through the growth of strong trusts and the establishment of new ones. We will support this aim by increasing capacity in the parts of the country with the most urgent need for the benefits that strong trusts can bring.
Free schools have an important role to play in levelling up opportunities and responding where there is a need for more school places, providing thousands of good school places across the country.
Mainstream primary and secondary free schools are more likely to be rated good or outstanding by Ofsted than state-funded mainstream schools nationally. All open 16 to 19 free schools with an Ofsted judgement are good or outstanding.
The Schools White Paper confirmed our intention to:
We will continue to consider bids for high-quality free schools to open initially as standalone trusts, to support innovation. We will expect trusts formed from free schools to grow over time in a similar way to other trusts, so they can share their capacity across the system and unlock the additional benefits of operating at an increased scale.
Overall, we will approve up to 15 new free schools in this wave.
Identifying a suitable location is critical to the success of new free schools. You will need to think very carefully about the area in which you want to apply to open your school to make sure your proposal and your school has the best chance of success. You should consider the need for the places your school would create and the government’s priorities for this wave of the free schools programme when selecting the area.
We are looking to open free schools in the areas where they are likely to have the biggest impact on improving outcomes and deliver the best value for money. This means areas where there is clear evidence:
We are looking for proposals that have a compelling and achievable vision for a school that will raise standards for its pupils and contribute to wider improvement in the school system.
We are especially interested in proposals that will improve outcomes for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We have a specific focus on pupils identified as disadvantaged through their eligibility for free school meals, though you should consider how your proposal can improve outcomes for other groups of young people experiencing educational disadvantage.
We will prioritise proposals for free schools:
When comparing the relative need to improve educational standards in proposed areas we will also look at:
We will consider the likely viability of your proposed school and the impact it could have on existing providers when assessing your free school proposal.
Your application must be in an area where there is a strong case for a free school for it to be successful. This includes demonstrating a need for a high proportion of the school places that the free school will create.
Speak to the local authority to understand the full and up-to-date picture on the need for additional school places in your proposed area, including any existing plans to meet the need, before submitting an application.
The expression of interest form asks you to confirm you have spoken to the local authority about your proposals.
If you are applying for a pre-16 free school you will need to demonstrate a demographic need for at least half the proposed places that the school will create.
To identify potential areas, we have published 2 maps showing the latest estimates of need for new primary and secondary school places. These maps include the location of the priority education investment areas and the wider education investment areas. When selecting an area for your proposal you should also consider the underlying data behind these maps and local evidence on forecast need. The maps and data are available on free schools: how to apply.
The latest data includes planning estimates of the need for additional school places up to 2025 to 2026 for primary and 2027 to 2028 for secondary. The forecasts show the estimated number of places needed to meet future demand in each national curriculum year group and pupil place planning area, in addition to the local authority planned places reported in the school capacity survey.
The information provided through the school capacity survey is an annual snapshot, so the forecast need for additional schools in an area may change. We will approve proposals based on the latest available data at the time and may cancel approved projects during the pre-opening phase if there is a reduction in the number of places needed in the area.
The estimated need for additional school places only takes account of centrally funded free schools in the pipeline that were due to open in 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023. We recommend you review the full list of pipeline free school projects to see if there are already approved free schools that will meet the estimated need.
If your proposal is for a 16 to 19 school or includes 16 to 19 places, you will need to demonstrate a strong case that there is a need for them and that your school will be financially viable.
The need for places at 16 to 19 is based on several factors, including the breadth of qualifications that students in the area choose to study and the current offer from existing post-16 providers. We do not publish estimates of the need for 16 to 19 places.
You will need to demonstrate that there is a need for the places your school will create based on:
We recommend that you review the lists of pipeline free school projects and providers that have been granted post-16 capacity funding to see if there are any in your proposed area that might meet the estimated need for 16 to 19 places.
The offer of your school may be distinct from existing provision if:
It is important that your proposed 16 to 19 provision has a strong financial model that enables it to provide its target cohort of students with an appropriate and sustainable range of high-quality curriculum options.
We expect any proposals for a pre-16 school that include a sixth form to have credible plans to recruit a minimum of 200 16 to 19 students. If you are proposing a standalone 16 to 19 school with a broad curriculum of A levels (or A levels and technical qualifications, including T Levels), we would expect you to provide places for at least 1000 students.
If you are proposing to open a smaller, more specialist standalone 16 to 19 school then you will need to evidence in your application how your proposed school will be financially viable and support good student choices, based upon the student intake and education model.
Smaller, specialist institutions are more likely to be viable where they are part of a multi-academy trust or have a formalised partnership with an organisation that can provide additional support, such as:
We will assess the basis of any partnerships in your application to make sure that they will continue to provide the support they are intended to offer and that your overall proposal will be financially viable.
Finding a suitable site is an essential part of opening a free school.
You do not need to have identified a specific site or premises at this stage, or when submitting an application for a free school. We have a team with specific expertise that finds and acquires sites for free schools. They also oversee construction, redevelopment and necessary works.
We will, however, give preference to projects where we are likely to secure a value for money site with an acceptable level of risk.
Identifying a site when submitting an application can reduce the risk that the project will be delayed or cancelled in the pre-opening process.
Once you have identified the proposed area for your free school, you must register your interest using the online expression of interest form.
When completing the expression of interest form, you will need to provide some high-level details about your proposal, including:
If you have not identified a site yet, tell us the postcode of a central location in your preferred catchment area. It must be a full postcode, for example, DL1 5QE, not DL1.
You can change the details when completing the application form.
Questions on registering your interest should be clearly identified as ‘mainstream wave’ and emailed to fs.applications@education.gov.uk.
Create: Schools is contracted by DfE to provide free advice, guidance and resources to those applying to open free schools. Further information on the services available to applicant groups can be found on the Create: Schools website.
For the purpose of data protection legislation, the Department for Education (DfE) is the data controller for the personal data processed as part of an expression of interest for groups seeking to open a new mainstream free school.
More information about your data protection rights, how we use your data and how to raise concerns is available in our personal information charter.
The personal data we collect and process as part of the expression of interest will help us to identify:
The categories of your personal data that we will be using for this project are your:
For the purpose of this project, the relevant conditions we are meeting are:
Where we need to share your personal data with others, we ensure that this data sharing complies with data protection legislation.
With your consent, we will share your personal data with Premier Advisory Group (under the brand of Create: Schools) which we fund to support groups to develop their free school application.
We will also share the information you provide with regional directors and their teams, to assess the levels of interest for new free mainstream schools.
We may also share anonymised information to inform discussions with external bodies, such as local authorities, on the need for schools in their local area.
We will only keep your personal data for as long as we need it for this piece of work, after which point it will be securely destroyed. We estimate that we will keep your personal data for no longer than 5 years.
Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.
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