Bristol Expands Specialist School Places But Struggles Remain
A historic and long-running shortfall in specialist provision to continue until 2030
Bristol’s long-running failure to ensure there are enough specialist school places continues into 2026.
Papers for this month’s Children and Young People Policy Committee includes performance data up to the end of November 2025.
There are currently 275 children with an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) requiring a specialist place.
There has been some good news for Bristol City Council. In December last year, the Department for Education (DfE) agreed funding for a brand new specialist free school. The funding came with the Government’s £3 billion Send reform package.
The new school in North Bristol – Trym Valley Academy – will have up to 164 spaces.
Bristol Send Justice said of the new places: “This is excellent news for the 200 children currently waiting for a special school place in Bristol. Does it solve the capacity issues – no, but nevertheless it is very welcome news.”
Further good news came this week with the announcement of another new specialist setting, this time for South Bristol.
Throgmorton House has undergone a refurbishment and will be opening under Briarwood School.
A phased opening from Easter this year has been announced as a possibility ahead of a wider roll-out to full capacity at the start of the new academic year in September.
“At the heart of this development is our belief that every child deserves the opportunity to flourish within a nurturing and aspirational community,” Nicolle Deighton, Executive Headteacher at Briarwood School says.
“By opening this new site we can reach more families, provide rich and personalised learning experiences and build on the strong sense of belonging that makes Briarwood unique. We are proud to continue our mission to help pupils ‘Enjoy, Engage, Learn’, and we look forward to the positive impact Briarwood South will have for children and young people across the city.”
Despite the new schools in the pipeline, there is still a severe shortage of specialist places.
The council says it has identified a shortfall of 569 specialist places. This was particularly for autistic children, those with Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH).
Through its School Organisation Strategy, the council has ‘committed’ to creating those 569 specialist places by 2030. This is now some 15 years after its previous Integrated Education and Capital Strategy 2015 – identified a shortfall of 129 specialist school places by 2019.
The prediction of the impending shortage of specialist places, particularly for autistic children and young people goes as far back as 2010 with Bristol City Council’s School Organisation Strategy 2011 – 2015 below.
Further backstory to this can be found in response to the former Cabinet Education Lead Asher Craig’s Christmas blog post when the former Labour administration tried to rewrite the scandal failures with the city’s Send provision.
Executive Director for Children and Education Hannah Woodhouse says in the January 2026 Children and Young People Committee Update Report:
‘SEND and inclusion strategy – this strategy has a focus on strengthening mainstream inclusion and expanding specialist provision. 72 new specialist places have been confirmed for 2025 and work continues to reach the target of 259 new places by 2029/30.’
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