Free School Funding (Sixth Forms)

Mike Freer Excerpts

Friday 22nd January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mike Freer (Finchley and Golders Green) (Con)]

Free schools are a notable achievement of the last Government and, of course, of this Government. My constituency has embraced the free school concept and we have many excellent examples. The Archer Academy is one of them: a free school providing inclusive education for secondary-age children in N2 and the surrounding communities of N3 and NW11. It opened in September 2013 after a long and persuasive campaign by local parents. It has been over-subscribed since day one, and currently has 452 students on the roll, across years 7, 8 and 9. In the most recent round, it received 915 applications for the 150 places available from September 2016.

The children come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds but enjoy an ambitious and stretching curriculum, with an extended day enabling all to participate in creative, sporting and character-building activities. The success of the school was underlined by Ofsted, which recognised behaviour and safety as “outstanding” and gave the whole school a grade of “good.” Children at the school are making outstanding progress, and senior leaders estimate that 80% to 92% are on course to achieve A* to C grades at GCSE, or the equivalent, including in English and maths, when the first cohort takes those exams in summer 2017. Those high levels of achievement are a result of the relentless ambition and outstanding teaching being provided by the staff team. That is all the more remarkable given the mixed intake of children from a variety of backgrounds, many of whom face significant barriers to success as a result of deprivation, family breakdown and language challenges. It truly is a mixed London school.

When the founders applied to the Department for Education to establish the school, they evidenced the clear demand to provide much-needed spaces in the London borough of Barnet, given its acknowledged shortfall. The school was approved in July 2012 to serve 11 to 16-year-olds, and it opened to students in September 2013 on one site while a second site was acquired and works were completed in time for its opening in September 2015. The applicants made it clear in their original application that their aim was to provide sixth-form provision in time for the initial cohort, but they understandably focused initial efforts on developing the immediate key stage 3 and 4 phases. In the next academic year, the school will operate a lower and upper school using both sites. Barnet is one of the most popular boroughs for development, and one of the fastest-growing London boroughs in terms of population. Land restrictions in Barnet are the reason behind the need to operate across two sites and they contribute to the complications as the school seeks to offer a sixth form. Given the requirement from the Government for all children to remain in education to 18, the school is encountering significant pressure to meet need.

With the first cohort of children commencing their GCSEs, attention is turning to the post-16 offering, how to meet the needs of the pioneer cohort, and the continued demands of the local area. Discussions about options for expanding to include a sixth form started with the Education Funding Agency in 2015.

Barnet remains a net exporter of sixth-form age students. That highlights the continuing shortage of provision in the borough. Students have to travel some distance to get a sixth-form education. Provision is an issue most acutely felt in the south of the borough, where the Archer Academy is sited. Most of my constituency suffers an acute shortage of places and will continue to do so unless we can allow good free schools to expand. The local authority’s school place planning process recognises the shortfall across all ages, and its most recent strategic planning documents stated:

“The primary pressure will feed through to the secondary phase in the next few years and there is projected to be a significant shortfall in secondary school places by the end of the decade and beyond.”

The shortage is projected to continue through to 2029-30. All this is set against a growing population in Barnet, and in Finchley in particular.

Let us turn to the process of approval for a sixth form and the funding sources available. In theory, the decision to approve the extension of provision rests with the regional schools commissioner, with whom I am in touch, as is the school. I have arranged for him to visit the school next month. However, his power to approve such a change is hampered by the specific problems arising from current funding provision, and the barriers that the process puts in place for schools where there is a shortage of sites. While schools out of London may be able to expand their offer to include a sixth form by expanding their premises or re-profiling existing space, the pressures on the Archer Academy mean that a new site is the only way forward. It is the only way that children can continue their now compulsory post-16 education at a through-11-to-18 school.

Current funding is provided through the condition improvement fund, a competitive fund capped at £4 million. Try buying a site for a new school in Finchley for £4 million. That would be a struggle and it would take up the whole fund. The fund’s guidelines prioritise essential works, such as major repairs to boilers and roofs, from among all the applications received from schools across England.

Clearly, the provision of a sixth form is essential to enable the pupils of the Archer Academy to meet their potential, but the competitive nature of CIF makes it inappropriate for funding such essential provision. The cap of £4 million means that schools in areas such as Finchley, and especially in London, which require capital investment to acquire sites and develop and build new provision are effectively barred, as the cost of land and the low availability of sites make such expansion virtually impossible. Furthermore, the guidance from CIF recognises its limited role as a route for sixth-form expansion. Its own document states:

“The core priority for CIF is condition: keeping academy and sixth-form college buildings safe and in good working order…Most CIF funding aims to address issues with significant consequences that revenue or Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) funding cannot meet.”

A second priority for CIF is expansion, providing a smaller proportion of CIF funding to support high-performing academies and sixth-form colleges that need to expand their facilities or floor space to increase the number of admissions in the main year of entry, or to address overcrowding. The CIF priorities do not specifically mention allowing existing cohorts to have an 11-to-18 education in one school. In 2015-16 CIF was four times over-subscribed. It is expected that over-subscription will continue in the coming financial year. Only applications that demonstrate a high project need aligning with those priorities are likely to be considered, let alone successful.

The guidance states that applicants preparing expansion projects should consider the alternative option of setting up a free school. I cannot believe that such a flagship policy that is working so well would say to successful schools, “The only way you can expand is by setting up another free school to meet that sixth-form need.” That cannot have been the Government’s original intention in supporting parents and meeting local demand by opening parent-led schools. Anybody who has tried to support parents through the process of opening a free school knows that it is cumbersome, lengthy and stressful for all involved.

Once again, this process of opening a new school or seeking to access CIF is not suitable for schools in densely populated areas where there are land shortages, and where the cost of that land is exorbitant. Also, forcing free schools to open an additional school to meet that need will deprive that school of any economies that arise from running schools on one site. Suggesting that the Archer Academy should run on three sites is nonsense. It would only create a less financially secure profile than is necessary or desirable. In the case of the Archer Academy, the need to address the issue is pressing. In two years’ time, 150 children will complete their GCSEs without an obvious and appropriate sixth-form offer—and there will be a further 150 in each year after that. Clearly, although the need and demand for such provision exists, the funding structure is weighted against those in London and densely populated areas. The current funding options will penalise a successful and thriving school.

I will finish by touching on the local area-based reviews. These are perfectly laudable in terms of trying to ensure that the DFE has the right capacity to meet the needs of students and employers in each area—capacity provided by institutions that are financially stable and able to deliver high-quality provision. The reviews are ongoing and establish a long-term picture. However, this approach will not deliver for Barnet and for Archer Academy in time. It will not allow the academy to meet the pressing need of the existing cohort, who need to start their A-levels in September 2018 and are looking to make their decisions on their sixth-form placements in the imminent future. For those reasons, it is urgent that we are able to secure clear guidance as to how funding can be made available, recognising the particular circumstances of this thriving free school.

I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to explore how funds in the existing financial settlement for free schools can support the expansion of good free schools, and to say whether he or a colleague will meet me and the chair of governors to look at what urgent support the Department can provide.