Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support schools experiencing falling pupil rolls.

The department recognises that demographic change requires local areas to adapt to changing demand for school places.

Schools are funded on the basis of pupil numbers in the previous October census. This gives schools with falling rolls some time to reorganise staffing before their funding is affected.

Falling rolls funding is also provided to local authorities for schools seeing a short-term decrease in pupil numbers. We have also broadened the scope of growth and falling rolls funding to allow local authorities to use growth funding to meet the revenue costs of removing surplus places.

As announced in our Education Estates Strategy, we are also supporting local areas to plan budgets strategically. We are developing a decision-making framework for the use of mainstream school space through demographic change, with publication expected in autumn 2026.