Somerset schoolchildren with additional needs could soon be educated a lot closer to home if a bid for central government funding is successful.

Somerset County Council has submitted a bid to the Department for Education (DfE) to build a new specialist free school on one of two potential sites in Wells, providing support for up to 64 pupils in the Mendip area.

The site is expected to cater for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), including a wide range of mental health issues and learning difficulties.

This follows a successful previous bid for a similar specialist facility in Ash near Martock, which is expected to open by January 2024.

The DfE has set aside £2.6bn of capital investment to deliver up to 60 new specialists free schools across the UK before the next government spending review (the date for which has not been confirmed).

A free school functions like an academy, insofar as they are funded directly by the DfE rather than through the local authority.

Lewis Andrews, the council's commissioning and performance officer for specialist sufficiency and alternative provision, laid out the rationale behind the Wells bid in a report published on the council's website.

He stated: "Attending a local school would reduce time and money spent on transport, and allow pupils in Mendip to arrive at school ready to engage in their learning (while also reducing travel pollution).

"Good quality provision – where children feel engaged, safe and less anxious – will have a positive impact on attendance rates.

"Attending a local school would allow Mendip children and young people to develop and maintain appropriate peer relationships in and out of school, and will remove geographical barriers which have historically prevented parents engaging as closely as possible in their child's education

"The new provision will help the council reduce its dedicated schools grant deficits through a reduced reliance on placements in the expensive independent and non-maintained special schools' sector."

The council successfully obtainded funding to open a new 120-place specialist school in Ash in the previous round of DfE bidding.

The new Martock-Ash Academy, which will be run by the Wave Multi-Academy Trust, was originally expected to open its doors in September 2022; however, this has now been pushed back to January 2024.

This delay has led the council to spend more money on placing SEND children into independent specialist schools – with the average cost per place in such a facility being £30,000 a year higher than the state-maintained equivalent.

Girls have been especially hampered by this delay, since the Sky Academy in Taunton can only provide education for SEND boys.

Mr Andrews said: "The intention is the new school will cater for children and young people aged 9 to 16 (i.e. pupils in key stages 2, 3 and 4). Our officers have identified two potential sites in Wells that could accommodate a 64-place school of the type envisaged.

"Both areas of land are located within close proximity to the main population centres in Mendip – namely Wells, Street, Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet, Frome and Cheddar. There are no suitable alterative areas that have been identified."

Neither of the specific locations in Wells have been made public due to commercial sensitivity.

If the DfE agrees to fund the school (with a decision being expected by early-2023), the council will hold further consultation with relevant parties – including local multi-academy trusts and other local schools, the Somerset Parent Carer Forum, the Somerset Integrated Care Board, and the Diocese of Bath and Wells.

Any new school would also require planning permission to be granted by the council's regulation committee – or the successor body within the new unitary Somerset Council – before construction could begin.