Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Basic Need schools funding.

The Department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support Local Authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. It is targeted according to expected need, which is calculated using Local Authorities’ own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.

Nationally, the primary school population grew by 16% between 2009 and 2019. Between 2015 and 2023, the secondary school population grew by 14% and it is expected to peak in 2024. Despite peaking at a national level, the Department expects growth to continue in some parts of the country.

The Department has now committed Basic Need capital funding of over £14 billion to support the creation of new school places between 2011 and 2026, including a total of almost £2 billion for places needed in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The Department regularly engages with Local Authorities to review their plans for creating additional places and to consider alternatives where necessary. When Local Authorities are experiencing difficulties, the Department supports them to find solutions as quickly as possible.

Local Authorities, schools and communities have risen to the challenge with the support of the Department’s Basic Need grant and the Free Schools programme. Between May 2010 and May 2022, they have created almost 1.2 million school places, the largest increase in school capacity for at least two generations. Many of these places have been built in schools Ofsted has rated as good or outstanding. For example, between 2020 and 2021, 89% of the new primary places added and 88% of new secondary places were in good or outstanding schools.

The support provided by the Department meant that, between 2010 and 2023, the average primary class size has remained stable between 26.4 and 27.1 pupils and the average secondary class size remains low at 22.4 pupils, despite the increase in pupil numbers.

Additionally, in 2022, 92.2% of families received an offer of a place at their highest preference primary school and 83.3% of families received an offer of a place at their highest preference secondary school.

The number of pupils in places that exceed their school’s capacity is down by around 40% since 2010, from over 97,000 in May 2010 to 59,000 in May 2022.