Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2023 to Question 132392 on Admissions: Academies, whether her Department has provided (a) additional support and (b) guidance to local authorities to help them meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for all children living in their area.

The Department supports Local Authorities with capital funding for additional school places provided through the Basic Need Grant. Based on Local Authorities’ forecasted pupil numbers, the Department has provided £535 million to create school places needed for September 2023, a further £745 million for places needed by September 2024 and £195 million for places needed by September 2025. At a national level, births have been dropping since 2013. There will continue to be a need for new school places, particularly if areas have a higher birth rate, new housing developments or increased migration from the UK and overseas.

Local Authorities can use the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) to manage significant growth in pupils’ numbers. As part of the DSG, the Department has allocated £259 million in Growth and Falling Rolls funding to Local Authorities in 2023/24. This is an increase of £13 million on funding allocated for 2022/23.

The Department also provides funding to Local Authorities for children who have arrived due to humanitarian and resettlement schemes. In 2022/23 the Department has so far allocated £160 million funding for children who have arrived via the Homes for Ukraine scheme and will allocate a further £30 million at the end of March 2023 for children from Afghanistan in bridging hotels.

Guidance on the process to create a free school, where a Local Authority has identified the need for a new school, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/establishing-a-new-school-free-school-presumption.

Guidance for Local Authorities on the prescribed alterations process to increase places at existing maintained schools can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-organisation-maintained-schools.

The Department engages with Local Authorities on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When Local Authorities are experiencing difficulties, the Department provides additional support and advice to help them find solutions as quickly as possible, including when there are sudden population influxes.