As part of the free school application process, it is important to have an understanding of how your proposed school will impact on the existing provision in your area. In previous waves, demonstrating basic need for a new school has been a key requirement. This resource outlines a variety of resources that applicants can use to build a basic need case for their chosen area and explains how to interpret the school capacity (SCAP) data tables.
Planning your free school proposal may feel daunting. We have aimed to simplify this process by collating a range of guidance available from the Department for Education (DfE) and other sources. This resource includes a list of documents intended to help groups who are applying to open a primary, secondary or 16-19 mainstream free school.
This guidance is for central route mainstream school applicants only. This guidance will help you to identify what you can and cannot do in the application stage to identify potential sites for your free school and will explain what information you will need to provide in section H of the free school application. This guidance will also explain some of the things you should consider when looking for potential sites, and what you can expect if your project is approved to the pre-opening stage.
An academy sponsor is an individual or organisation that has been approved by the Department for Education to support an underperforming academy or group of academies. This guidance provides an overview of the process of applying to become an approved academy sponsor.
