School Places

Monday 4th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Education (Damian Hinds)]

My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School System (Lord Agnew) has made the following written ministerial statement.

The Government are committed to creating more good school places through a diverse education system, to ensure that parents have choice and that children of all backgrounds have access to the best education.

We are investing £7 billion from 2015 to 2021 to create new school places. This forms part of our wider plan to invest more than £23 billion in the school estate by 2021. By continuing to announce the profile of allocations ahead of time, we recognise that good investment decisions require certainty.

As part of this, I am announcing a total package of £730 million of capital funding to create new school places. This includes £630 million of basic need allocations to create the places needed by September 2021. Announcing these allocations means local authorities can plan ahead with confidence, and make good strategic investment decisions to ensure they deliver good school places for every child who needs one.

We recently published the 2017 School Capacity Survey, which highlights the progress to date in providing new school places. By May 2017, our investment had already helped to create 825,000 additional school places since 2010, with 90,000 delivered in 2016-17 alone.

The vast majority of these new places are being created in good or outstanding schools. This is demonstrated through the latest school place scorecards released, which show that 91% of the new places added between 2016 and 2017 in both primary and secondary phases were created in schools rated as good or outstanding by Ofsted.

The Government are also committed to investing in school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities. As part of this, I am announcing a further £50 million top-up to the special provision capital fund to take our total investment to £265 million across 2018-21. This additional funding will help local authorities to create further school places and facilities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

I am also announcing £50 million of basic need funding, contributing towards the capital costs of building a new mainstream secondary presumption free school in a targeted number of local authorities.

Details of this announcement will be published on the www.gov.uk website, and copies will be placed in the House Library.

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