Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools with increases in the number of in-year admissions in Hampshire.

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities.

The department engages with local authorities, including Hampshire County Council, on a regular basis to review their plans for creating additional school places. When local authorities are experiencing difficulties, the department offers support and advice.

The department also provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to meet their statutory duty to secure sufficient school places. Hampshire has been allocated just over £22.2 million to support it to create the mainstream school places needed between May 2024 and September 2028.

The Schools Admissions Code also requires every local authority to have a Fair Access Protocol in place, to ensure that vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible, minimising the time the child is out of school.