Capital Funding of New School Places

Book excerpt: 256,000 new school places are still needed by 2014/15 to meet increased need. Although the Department for Education has increased the funding it provides to local authorities and there has been a net increase of almost 81,500 primary school places in the last two years, there are indications of real strain on school places. Just over 20 per cent of schools were full or over capacity in May 2012. The number of infant classes with more than 31 children has doubled since 2007. 240,000 of the new places required by 2014/15 are primary school places, of which 37 per cent are in London. The Department's 2010 assessments of necessary funding were based on incomplete information. At the time, it estimated it would cost a total of £5 billion to fund 324,000 new places. The Department makes a significant financial contribution towards the cost of new places, and since the Spending Review, it has earmarked £4.3 billion for local authorities towards the cost of providing places. An additional £982 million for schools capital was announced in December 2012, some of which the Department intends to fund further places by 2014/15 and some in 2015/16. Local authorities reported that they made a higher average funding contribution towards the cost of places than the Department had assumed they would. Although the Department has improved the information it uses to make decisions it currently lacks sufficient information about how local authorities are using the funding they have already been given