Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding will be allocated to schools in Solihull to upgrade buildings and boost school places.

Well maintained, safe school buildings are a priority for the Department. Solihull Local Authority has been provisionally allocated a school condition allocation of £1,830,392 for the 2023/24 financial year to spend maintaining and improving its school buildings.

Large multi-academy trusts and voluntary-aided school groups with schools in Solihull will also have been allocated a school condition allocation to spend on their school buildings. Smaller and single academy trusts have been invited to bid into the condition improvement fund, with outcomes expected in May 2023. Schools in Solihull Local Authority have also been provisionally allocated £989,127 in devolved formula capital to spend on their own capital priorities. Two schools in Solihull Local Authority, Arden and Our Lady of Compassion Catholic Primary School, have been announced for inclusion for the School Rebuilding Programme, which will see transformational rebuilds or significant refurbishments at these schools.

The Department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support Local Authorities provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. They can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and free schools. Solihull will receive just over £7.8 million for places needed for 2026. This takes Solihull’s total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just over £41.2 million.

Solihull has also been allocated a total of just under £6.3 million through High Needs Provision Capital Allocations (HNPCA) for financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. This funding will help the Local Authority to create new places and improve existing provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities or who require alternative provision. Prior to that, the Local Authority received just under £1.1 million through its 2021/22 HNPCA funding announced in April 2021. It is for the Local Authority to determine how to best use their HNPCA funding to address their local priorities, and they can work with any school in their area to do so.