Free Schools FAQs - application process

The deadline for submitting an application to open a Free School in 2013 and beyond closed on 24 February 2012.

No. You will be contacted if there is any news about your application. Only contact the Department if do not receive an acknowledgement of receipt. Applicants will hear in April 2012 if they are being called for interview.

No, not unless we specifically ask for it.

We will let applicants know the outcome of their application during the summer.

It will be considered both on its own merits and in comparison to other applications submitted. All applications will be assessed against our published criteria and a range of other contextual factors including, but not limited to:

• the age range of the Free School
• its overall cost and value for money
• the level of deprivation in the community that it serves
• the standard of education in local schools

Short-listed applicants will be called for an interview to explain aspects of their proposal where government officials, education advisers, and finance experts require further clarification. Being invited to interview does not guarantee that your application will ultimately be successful. 

We will hold interviews from 23 April to 1 June. We will inform applicants about the exact date of their interview in due course.

No. However, we may have to publish some information contained within it, under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act (2000) if requested. Personal information will be redacted.

There is no fixed capital allocation for each Free School project. Ministers will take into account the estimated or potential cost of each application when deciding which ones to approve. We will be looking for projects that not only offer value for money but are also low cost.

Yes. However, if an independent school becomes a Free School, it will not be able to charge fees. As well as the requirements outlined in the application guidance, independent schools must meet the following additional criteria:

• they must have no significant or outstanding issues on compliance in their most recent inspection report;
• they should have achieved a judgement of good or better in the key areas of their most recent inspection report (see the How to Apply guide for details); and
• they must show a good track record of managing their accounts.

We will also take into account factors including examination performance; the popularity of the school; demand from parents who do not currently have children at the school, the level of deprivation in the area and whether the case for becoming a Free School offers good value for money. Further information is included in the application guidance.

You don't have to enter into any negotiations for sites and must not do so if you expect the Government to fund the acquisition of your site.

It would be helpful if, in your application, you were able to identify up to two potentially feasible sites for your school to give us some idea of where you would prefer your school to be located. 

Advice and guidance on how to find potential sites, as part of developing your application, is available from the Education Funding Agency. You can contact them at FreeSchools.EFAcapital@education.gsi.gov.uk

You may find the Free Schools Kit a helpful tool. The New Schools Network may also be able to help you look for sites. 

We have provided details about a number of sites including two of the Department for Education’s buildings: Mowden Hall in Darlington and Castle View House in Runcorn. You will see information about their location, size and the type of Free School for which they might be suitable.

If you are interested in any of these sites please contact the Education and Funding Agency by email on FreeSchools.EFAcapital@education.gsi.gov.uk

The Free Schools KIT online map browser also contains information about many other potential Government buildings. Enter your postcode to find buildings in your area.

Not financial support, no. Our experience this year shows that the strongest groups have the capacity to prepare strong applications by themselves. However the New Schools Network will continue to offer advice and guidance. The vast majority of successful applications last year had sought such support from the New Schools Network.

The detail of what we require is contained within the application guidance and this should be your starting point. For further help and guidance contact the New Schools Network.

Yes. In order to judge the capacity and capability of the applicants we need to know you considered and agreed who should be involved in the establishment and running of the school.

Applicants should set up a company limited by guarantee, using the model memorandum and articles of association on our website. The company limited by guarantee – sometimes commonly known as the Academy Trust – is the legal entity that will be responsible for running a Free School. Guidance on registration can be found on the Companies House website.

Model memorandum and articles of association are available from the Department’s website. Whilst these are legal documents, and you should take care to ensure that you understand your obligations under them, they are relatively straightforward to complete. Once you have done this, you can register your company limited by guarantee online on the Companies House website.

The company limited by guarantee must have at least three members (those people who establish the company). They are responsible for appointing the Free School’s governing body.
 
Groups should be aware that whilst it is not impossible for a member of the company to be employed by it, for the purposes of establishing a Free School, in most cases it is undesirable. Therefore if a member of your group wants to be employed by your proposed school, you should seriously consider whether they should be a member of the company, even at this early stage.

No.  Any group that is able to successfully establish and manage a school will not find it difficult to set up a company limited by guarantee. We will not be offering support to groups to do this.

No. However, you may find it helpful to discuss your application with your local authority, as they have an important strategic role as champions of parents and children. They can provide an important resource of skill and experience to help groups wanting to set up a Free School, particularly on understanding where new school places are most needed. 

We will talk to them about your application, so we fully understand the local context and circumstances, and the Secretary of State will consider this information when taking a final decision on whether to enter into a funding agreement with the group setting up the Free School.

In the case of special and alternative provision applications, local authorities have responsibility for specific types of referrals to alternative provision and for naming a school in a child’s statement of special educational needs (SEN). It is, therefore, in your interests to work with both your own, and neighbouring, local authorities.

In the case of alternative provision, it is also important to work with local schools and academies, as they can also refer pupils to alternative provision. Therefore it is important to provide evidence with your application that local authorities, schools and academies will use your proposed alternative provision Free School. Any evidence of support you provide from these commissioners is likely to strengthen your evidence of demand. 

No, although we welcome applications from areas where there is such a need. What you do need to show is demand from parents and the local community for the school that you want to set up – not just a school.

No. Unlike last year, we are no longer having an initial assessment process with minimum criteria - all applications will undergo a full assessment. However, as the guidance says, the more you can show that your school will fill its available places the better. 

As your application will be judged against others it is impossible for us to say what level of demand you will need to show to be amongst the strongest contenders. 

We can say that last year the vast majority of applicants invited to interview had evidence of demand from parents of the relevant school age for more than 50 per cent of the available places in the first two years, and the strongest showed that they would be full or oversubscribed. It is our expectation however that the overall strength and quality of applications will continue to increase. 

The external assessment centre for principals designate is a mandatory element of the Department’s assessment process for groups who wish to directly appoint a candidate who does not have relevant experience of headship in the particular phase of education proposed as the Free School’s principal designate. The exercise will result in a recommendation on whether each proposed candidate will be able to meet the challenges involved in setting up and running a Free School. The activities involved in the assessment centre will all contribute to the recommendation, which will in turn feed in to the Department’s assessment of the application as a whole.  

Setting up and then leading a Free School will involve a different set of challenges for any principal. Whilst we recognise that groups may have run their own recruitment processes prior to submitting their application, the Department needs to be assured that standards are high across the board and that every candidate has the potential to meet the particular challenges involved in running a Free School. Ensuring parity between applicant groups is also important: the Department will play an advisory role in all principal designate appointments made in the implementation stage (i.e. after applications have been approved).