Agenda item

The report provides information on primary and secondary demand patterns for school places. Pupil numbers in secondary schools are set to increase over the next few years as larger cohorts feed through from primary schools.

Shirley Parks presented the report which provided information on primary and secondary demand patterns for school places. She emphasised that a key message of the report was that demand for primary places was reducing while pupil numbers in secondary schools were set to increase as larger cohorts fed through from primary schools. Ms Parks said that this was phenomenon observed across London and it was possible that the level of demand could recover in the next few years as demographics changed (Table 1 on page 16 to the Agenda pack).

In relation to secondary places and projections Ms Parks pointed out that two new secondary free schools had been approved by the Secretary of State, but the Council had not received confirmation from ESFA of the sites for these schools nor the planned opening times. However, as provision would be required prior to the completion of these schools, the Forum heard that the Local Authority would be exploring options for expanding existing secondary schools in order to relieve the pressure for places. Ms Parks noted that in June 2017, Cabinet had approved a refresh of the School Place Planning Strategy 2014-2018 that reflected the latest forecasts provided by the Greater London Authority. Moreover, she referred to a series of policy questions presented on page 20 to the Agenda pack and explained the rationale behind them – for example, one of the key questions related to primary schools was whether the Local Authority had to support primary schools which had expanded and if it did, what kind of assistance would be provided to them.

A Member of the Schools Forum requested additional information related to the discussions about the potential use of spare capacity that had taken place between the Local Authority and schools. Ms Parks explained that the talks had been focused on supporting schools find alternative solutions to issues associated with pupil growth – for instance, pupils could be redistributed internally in order to avoid the need to open an additional class for a small number of children. A Primary Head Teacher commented that the impact of expanding schools had been felt across the Borough and noted that it had not been possible to control the opening of free schools neither the expansion of existing ones. Gail Tolley reminded the Schools Forum that although Ark Somerville Primary Academy remained part of the School Place Planning Strategy, she did not anticipate any more primary free schools. Highlighting the need for alternative provision in the Borough (through free schools), Ms Tolley emphasised that the focus would be placed on secondary, special needs and alternative provision and not on primary schools for free schools.

Members of the Schools Forum raised concerns that related to the impact on school budgets of the responsibility to maintain expanded buildings after protected funding had ceased and when pupil numbers were lower than expected. This led to a discussion about the fact that primary and secondary schools did not have sufficient resource to work with children with special needs so there might be a need to support them to become more inclusive. Moreover, schools which did not offer the extended 30 hours childcare entitlement had experienced a reduction in their nursery numbers which affected their primary provision.   

In relation to the percentage of children attending school outside of the Borough, Ms Tolley said that Brent was a net exporter of secondary school students. The Forum heard that places often depended on provision in other boroughs and this had been taken into account when calculating future needs.

A Member drew the Forum’s attention to paragraph 5.8 of the report (page 20 to the Agenda Pack) and raised the issue of the one-off payment of £25, 000 used to support schools absorb the impact on management capacity of a school expansion. A Secondary Academy Head Teacher suggested an alternative approach which looked at increasing capacity without constructing new buildings or employing additional members of staff.

RESOLVED that:

(i)        The contents of the Pupil Demand and Pupil Growth Support report, be noted;

(ii)       A Pupil Demand and Pupil Growth Working Group be established to look at the future policy for allocation of Pupil Growth funding, demand for places and falling primary rolls; and

(iii)      A report detailing 2017/2018 Pupil Growth Funding and proposals for 2018/19 be presented at the meeting of the Schools Forum in December 2017.