Special School and PRU Academy Conversion: What Is Different

Almost all published guidance on academy conversion is written with mainstream schools in mind. If you lead a special school, a pupil referral unit or an alternative provision, you will recognise the general shape of the process and then find that several of the details do not apply to you.

The differences are real and they matter. The application route is different. The relationship with the local authority is more complicated because it is also your commissioner. The due diligence questions are different, and some of them are considerably more consequential.

This article sets out what is genuinely different for specialist settings, alongside the general process covered in our step by step guide to academy conversion.

The Application Route Is Different

Mainstream primary and secondary schools apply through the Department for Education's online service. Special schools do not. They use a separate paper application form.

Pupil referral units apply to convert into alternative provision academies, using a form specific to that route.

Stand alone nursery schools cannot currently convert.

This sounds like administrative trivia and it is not. It means that guidance, checklists and timelines written for mainstream schools describe a process you are not following, and that people advising you may not have done this before. Ask directly whether your solicitor and any adviser have handled a special school or PRU conversion specifically. Many have not.

The Local Authority Relationship Is More Complicated

This is the single biggest difference, and it is frequently underestimated.

For a mainstream school, the local authority is the outgoing maintainer. After conversion, the relationship is largely at arm's length.

For a special school or PRU, the local authority is also your commissioner. It places the pupils. It funds the places. It holds the education, health and care plans. That relationship continues after conversion and in many respects becomes more important, because it is now contractual rather than automatic.

This has practical consequences.

Place funding and top up funding arrangements need to be understood before conversion, not after. How places are commissioned, how numbers are agreed, what happens if numbers fall, and what the notice arrangements are.

Your negotiating position changes. As a maintained school you were part of the authority. As an academy you are a provider it commissions. Some settings find this clarifies the relationship helpfully. Others find that a conversation that used to be collaborative becomes transactional.

Relationships that were informal need formalising. Arrangements that worked because two people knew each other need writing down, because those people will move on and you no longer share an employer.

Handle this early and openly. A local authority that learns of your conversion plans from the department, rather than from you, is not a good starting point for a commissioning relationship that has to work for the next decade.

Funding: Specialist Settings Were the Last Exception

This is worth knowing, because it is recent and frequently misunderstood.

When the Department for Education narrowed eligibility for the academy conversion support grant in September 2024, restricting it to schools converting in groups of three or more, special schools and alternative provision settings including pupil referral units were specifically exempted. They remained eligible as single school conversions, in recognition that specialist settings rarely convert in clusters.

That exemption ended with the grant itself. The academy conversion support grant closed on 1 January 2025 for all schools, specialist settings included, and no replacement has been announced.

The practical effect is that a special school or PRU converting alone now carries the full cost, without the protection that briefly applied to it. Where you are joining a trust, ask directly whether the trust will meet conversion costs. Our guide to academy conversion costs covers the current funding position and the options.

The Due Diligence Questions Are Different

Whether you are converting or a trust is assessing you, specialist settings raise areas that mainstream due diligence does not reach. Our general guide to due diligence covers the standard scope. Add these.

EHCP provision and deliverability. Are pupils actually receiving the provision specified in their plans? Where there is a gap, that is both a cost and a legal exposure that transfers.

Therapy and health provision. Speech and language, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, nursing and mental health input. Who employs these people, who funds them, and what happens to those arrangements on conversion. This is frequently a mess and frequently missed.

Place numbers and commissioning agreements. Commissioned places, actual occupancy, the trend, and the funding implication if numbers move.

Designation and admissions criteria. What the school is designated for, whether the actual cohort matches that designation, and whether the setting is accepting pupils whose needs it is not resourced to meet.

Transport. Often local authority provided and often a significant practical issue.

Premises suitability. Accessibility, specialist facilities, hoists, changing facilities, sensory spaces, and any adaptation needed for the current cohort rather than the one the building was designed for.

Staffing ratios and specialist roles. Whether the staffing model is affordable at current and projected numbers, and how dependent it is on individuals with specialist skills.

Safeguarding, with weight. Specialist settings work with children who are more vulnerable, often less able to communicate, and sometimes subject to physical intervention. Safeguarding due diligence here needs someone experienced in this context, not a general checklist.

Alternative provision arrangements. For PRUs and AP academies, what happens to the young people who are dual registered, and how reintegration is managed.

Which Trust Is a Harder Question

For a mainstream primary, there are often several credible trusts within a reasonable distance. For a special school, there may be one, or none.

The choice is between a specialist trust, which understands your context but may be geographically distant, and a mainstream trust locally, which is close but may have limited SEND expertise at central level.

Neither is automatically right. What matters is capability rather than composition. A mainstream trust with genuine SEND expertise centrally, and a board that understands what it is taking on, can be an excellent home. A mainstream trust that sees your school as a useful addition to its inclusion offer, without any real understanding of what a special school requires, will struggle and so will you.

Ask specifically. Who at central level has led a special school. How would your school improvement model apply to us. Who would carry out our review, and what is their background. Our guide to choosing the right trust covers the wider assessment.

If there is genuinely no suitable trust, forming one with other specialist settings is a real option, and specialist trusts have grown this way. Our guide to joining or forming a trust covers what that requires.

Consultation Needs Particular Care

Families of children with SEND have usually fought hard for the placement their child has. Many have been through tribunal. Almost all have experienced systems that let them down before this one worked.

For those families, any change is frightening in a way it is not for a mainstream parent, and a standard consultation letter will not do. Our guide to running the consultation covers the general process. For specialist settings, add:

• Explicit reassurance that the local authority retains responsibility for EHCPs and that provision specified in plans continues.
• A clear statement about whether therapy and health arrangements change.
• Individual conversations, not just meetings, for families who need them.
• Accessible formats, and consultation with pupils in ways that suit their communication.
• A named person families can contact directly.

From Our Experience

Many leaders tell us that the therapy arrangements were the thing nobody had thought about.

We often see a special school where the speech and language therapist is employed by the health trust, the occupational therapist is commissioned by the local authority, and a physiotherapist visits under an arrangement that predates everyone currently in post. Nobody can produce the paperwork because there may not be any. Then conversion raises the question of what those arrangements actually are, and the answer takes months to establish.

It is entirely resolvable. It is not resolvable in the final fortnight before conversion. Start it in the first month.

We also see specialist settings undersell their position. A good special school or AP is a scarce and valuable thing, and trusts know it. Settings sometimes approach conversion as supplicants when they are in fact bringing expertise a trust badly wants. That matters, because a school that negotiates from a position of confidence gets better commitments written down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a special school become an academy?

Yes. Special schools can convert, using a separate paper application form rather than the online service used by mainstream schools.

Can a PRU become an academy?

Yes. Pupil referral units can convert to become alternative provision academies, using a specific application route.

Do EHCPs change on conversion?

No. The local authority retains responsibility for education, health and care plans, and the provision specified in them continues. The SEND Code of Practice applies to academies as to maintained schools.

Does the local authority still place pupils?

Yes. The commissioning relationship continues, though it becomes contractual rather than internal. This should be documented clearly before conversion.

What happens to place funding?

Place and top up funding arrangements continue, but the mechanism and agreements need to be understood and confirmed. Do not assume continuity without checking.

Should we join a specialist trust or a mainstream one?

Assess capability rather than category. What matters is genuine SEND expertise at central level and a board that understands specialist provision. Distance is a real consideration but not the only one.

Can an independent special school convert to an academy?

No. Conversion applies to maintained schools. An independent special school is a different route entirely and would be considering registration and free school routes rather than conversion.

A Common Misconception

The misconception we meet most often is that conversion changes a school's relationship with its local authority for the better by making it independent.

For a special school or PRU, independence is partial in a way it is not for a mainstream school. You are no longer maintained by the authority, but you remain dependent on it for placements, for funding and for the plans that determine your pupils' provision.

That is not a reason to avoid conversion. It is a reason to understand that the relationship is being restructured rather than ended, and to invest in getting the new version right. Settings that treat conversion as an escape from the local authority tend to find that the relationship they neglected is the one they most need in year two.

Questions for Leaders

• Have we confirmed the correct application route for our setting type?
• Have our advisers converted a special school or PRU before?
• Have we spoken to the local authority as our commissioner, not just as our maintainer?
• Do we know exactly how our therapy and health provision is employed and funded?
• Are our pupils actually receiving what their EHCPs specify?
• Does the trust we are considering have real SEND expertise centrally?
• How will we reassure families who fought for this placement?

Our Perspective

Specialist settings are often treated as an afterthought in the academies programme, working from guidance written for other people and advised by professionals who have done this mostly for mainstream primaries.

That is not a reason to be cautious about conversion. Some of the strongest specialist provision in the country now sits within trusts, and the expertise and resilience that brings can be genuinely valuable for children with complex needs.

It is a reason to insist on advice that fits your context, to ask harder questions of any trust you are considering, and to give the commissioning relationship the attention it deserves. The children in your school depend on arrangements that are more intricate than a mainstream school's, and those arrangements need protecting through the change.

How Can Jarvis Education Help?

Jarvis Education specialises in special schools, SEND settings and alternative provision, which means we bring both academy conversion expertise and genuine understanding of your context.

We support specialist settings through conversion, provide due diligence tailored to SEND and AP, assess trusts on their actual SEND capability rather than their stated commitment, and advise trusts taking on specialist provision for the first time.

Our consultants have led and inspected special schools and alternative provision, and have supported MATs through growth, merger and rebrokering.

Explore our academy conversion and MAT growth support, or contact us for a conversation about your setting.