Local authorities can combat bulging classrooms with targeted expansion programmes of existing schools
Those of us well versed in the intricacies of pupil place planning know only too well that the Department for Education's annual pupil capacity data report is not so much a case of putting bums on seats, but more a question of there just being too few seats to go around.
The National Audit Office put this in even starker terms, pointing to the need for over 250,000 new school places by autumn 2014– 240,000 of those in primary schools.
London Councils has been warning of the crisis that is beginning to bite. Some 37% of the places now needed are in London, but the prognosis is equally challenging for other major cities, such as Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, Cambridgeshire and Derby.
This shortage of school places has not arrived overnight; it is the product of a boom in birth rates, combined with the fact that many families are choosing not to move out of their inner-city homes to more leafy areas, but instead are renovating and extending existing space. Add to this the influx of new migrant communities into some parts of the country and you have a perfect storm.
As a former local government chief executive, and having overseen one of the largest schools building programmes since the Victorian age, this is an issue with which I am well familiar. Simply filling our classrooms to bursting point is not the answer.
Currently, 20% of our primary schools are full and oversubscribed. The data also paints a picture at council level for the number of places required each year over the coming five year period. Here we can see some startling growth when you look at the detailed projections. Take Croydon for instance: the actual numbers of primary school children in 2011/12 was 28,815. Roll forward to 2016/17 and the forecast is that the local area will need nearly 12,000 more places. Head east to Essex and similar picture emerges: current figures stand at 103,752 but fast forward five years and that figure looks more like 113,500.
The government has announced £4bn to help meet this need and to make repairs to existing schools. In terms of new school places, some of this will be through entirely new schools (and as we know, there is a presumption that these will be academies or free schools), while other places will be through targeted expansions of existing schools.
This is precisely what we are doing in our work with Enfield council, supporting its primary expansion programme, which will see up to 1,800 additional primary school places delivered across the borough.
We are enabling Enfield to supplement basic-need funding through the sale of surplus land to Cornerstone independent financial advisory service. Subject to planning, this will be developed for residential use, creating additional housing stock locally.
This model is applicable across a range of sectors including health, social care and justice, but is a particularly timely way to help address pinch points on pupil places.
I have long believed that local government comes into its own when challenging circumstances necessitate innovation and I am pleased to be able to support councils in their work to meet the needs of local families so they are not forced to play musical chairs with their child's education.
Tim Byles is chief executive of Cornerstone Property Assets
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