Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of school places that will be needed in Leeds in each of the next five years; and how many schools she expects to be built in that city in that period.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to balance the supply and demand for primary and secondary school places in their area and to secure a place for every child of statutory school age who wants a school place. Each local authority forecasts future demand for school places, using its own methodology.

As part of the annual School Capacity Collection, the Department collects information from all local authorities on school capacity (number of school places) in state-funded primary and secondary schools (except special schools) and local authorities’ own pupil forecasts (5 years ahead for primary places and 7 years ahead for secondary places). The most recent data available relates to the position at May 2014 and can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-capacity-academic-year-2013-to-2014

The published data shows that Leeds local authority is anticipating an increase of 6,700 primary pupils and 5,200 secondary pupils between 2014/15 and 2018/19. The department will publish the 2015 School Capacity data collection in the coming months.

The Department also publishes local authority basic need scorecards for primary schools, based on data provided by local authorities. The latest scorecards contain the Department’s estimates of the number of additional primary school places needed to meet demand in 2016/17, once existing capacity and plans for new places at 1 May 2014 have been factored in. The Department does not currently publish basic need scorecards for secondary school places. The data and details of the methodology used for the estimates can also be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/primary-school-places-local-authority-basic-need-scorecards-2014

The Department provides capital funding to local authorities to assist in providing additional school places and monitors the situation regularly to ensure there are sufficient places to meet local need. The funding is allocated on the basis of data provided by local authorities themselves, taking into account their pupil forecasts and existing capacity. Therefore, the allocations reflect the need for school places as identified by the relevant local authority.

Leeds will receive £72.9 million from the funding allocations that were announced in February 2015 for the period 2015 to 2018. This brings their total funding allocations for the creation of new school places to £157.5 million between 2011 and 2018. They have an additional £14.6 million through the Targeted Basic Need programme. These allocations will support Leeds to meet the need for school places in their area as identified by the local authority.

The free schools programme is also helping to meet demand across the country. Many local authorities are recognising the opportunity that the free schools programme provides and are encouraging new and existing high quality education providers to apply to set up a new school in their area. We encourage all local authorities to do likewise.