Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the financial support available to Central Bedfordshire Council to facilitate its transition from three-tier to two-tier schools.

Central Bedfordshire Council has decided to transition from a three-tier to a two-tier school system. In these instances, it is a local authority’s responsibility to manage such a transition.

The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to provide sufficient school places. While this funding is not designed to fund transitions from a three-tier to a two-tier system, it is not ringfenced (subject to published conditions), meaning local authorities are free to use this funding to best meet their local priorities. Central Bedfordshire Council will receive just under £36.1 million for places needed between May 2022 and September 2026, paid across the five financial years from 2021/22 to 2025/26. This takes their total funding allocated between 2011 and 2026 to just under £121.3 million.

It is ultimately the council’s responsibility to manage the three-tier to two-tier process. The department has a support, a challenge and a decision-making role for changes made to academies.