Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) more parents are able to access a place at their preferred school and (b) permanently excluded children are able to access places at alternative mainstream schools.

On Secondary National Offer Day on 1 March, the vast majority of parents will have been offered a place at one of their preferred schools. The 2018 data showed that last year more than nine in ten pupils got a place at one of their top three choices setting them on the path for a successful future. Standards have also risen since 2010 with 86% of schools now judged as good or outstanding, compared to 68% in 2010, meaning there are more good schools for parents to send their children to.

The Department has committed £7 billion between 2015 and 2021 to deliver new school places, which is on top of investment in the free schools programme. The latest data shows that 825,000 additional places were created between May 2010 and May 2017, with many more delivered since then and in the pipeline. The Department is on track to create 1 million new school places this decade, the largest increase in school capacity in two generations.

Local authorities are responsible for arranging suitable full-time education for permanently excluded pupils, and for other pupils who (because of illness or other reasons) would not receive suitable education without such provision.