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A debate has been raging for many years about the role that councils should play in education. They retain a very wide range of legal duties to promote high educational standards locally, ensure fair access to schools, and protect the interest of the most vulnerable pupils.
What is not in dispute is the unique responsibility that councils have in making sure there are enough school places available to local children and young people.
There is no dispute, either, that councils are facing an enormous challenge in responding to the recent surge in demand for school places. The Department for Education (DfE) estimates that 417,000 additional places will be needed over the lifetime of the current Parliament (2010 – 2015), with the surge in primary places beginning to move through to secondary schools over the lifetime of the next Parliament.
Our new report ‘The council role in school place planning: Making sure there are enough school places locally' looks at some of the measures taken by councils plus gives a five-point plan which the LGA believes is necessary to ensure councils have the funding and power to create places:
- The LGA would like to see a single capital pot locally for schools capital to allow councils and schools to work together locally to make the best possible use of the limited funding available for repairing, rebuilding and building new schools.
- We would like to see an indicative five-year allocation of schools capital to councils to allow them to work with schools and potential sponsors to plan ahead to commission and deliver the primary and secondary places that will be needed between 2015 and 2020.
- We would like to see the restoration of decision-making on the provision of new schools to local level, as it was prior to the Academies Act 2011.
- Giving powers to create new schools back to councils should include the option of establishing community schools if that is the locally preferred option. Where academies are the preferred option, decisions about sponsors should be taken locally to meet the needs and wishes of local parents.
- We would like to see councils to be given a greater role in judging and approving free school proposals to ensure that new free schools are established where they are needed and in a way that supports councils in their place-planning duties.
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