Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of good school places in (a) Solihull and (b) the West Midlands; and if he will make a statement.

The Department has committed £7 billion between 2015-21 to deliver new school places, on top of investment in the free schools programme. The Department is on track to create 1 million places this decade, the largest increase in school capacity in at least two generations.

The West Midlands has been allocated £950.1 million to create new places from 2011-2021 and of this, Solihull has been allocated £28.2 million. Compared to 2010, there are now 1,762 more school places in Solihull and 85,177 more school places in the West Midlands region. As of December 2018, there are 5,559 more pupils in good or outstanding schools in Solihull and 250,227 more pupils in good or outstanding schools in the West Midlands region than in 2010.

As of 3 June 2019, there are 44 open free schools and six University Technical Colleges (UTCs) in the West Midlands. The Department has approved a further 24 free schools from groups it is now working with to establish these schools. In Solihull, there is one open free school and one open UTC. In addition to these, the Department will run competitions to find strong providers to open and run two alternative provision schools along with three special schools in the West Midlands, with one of these special schools being located in Solihull.