SUMMARY
The system for funding new schools and new places in existing
schools is increasingly incoherent and too often poor value for
money.
The Department for Education (the Department) is spending well
over the odds in its bid to create 500 more free schools while
other schools are in poor condition. Many free schools are in
inadequate premises, including many without on-site playgrounds
or sports facilities.
The Department believes it is acceptable to appropriate community
facilities and parks for routine school use. Add to this that
local authorities are legally responsible for ensuring that there
are enough school places for all children to attend good schools,
even though they have no direct control of free school or academy
places or admissions policies.
All this made us question how much of a grip the Department
really has in providing school places where they are needed.
Having enough school places in safe, high-quality buildings in
the areas where places are needed is a crucial part of an
effective education system. Without this, parents may have less
choice, pupils may have inconvenient journeys to school and the
learning environment may be less effective, putting educational
outcomes at risk.
The Department provides capital funding, totalling £4.5 billion
in 2015–16, to maintain and improve the quality and capacity of
the school estate. It faces significant challenges over the next
few years in this regard.
Many school buildings are old and in poor condition, and the
condition of the estate is deteriorating. Poorly maintained
buildings can affect the quality of children’s education, and in
extreme cases schools may have to close while buildings are made
safe.
In addition, a further 420,000 new school places will need to be
created by 2021 to cater for the growing school-age population.
Some of these places will be in new free schools.
We are concerned that there is a tension between setting up new
free schools and supporting existing schools. Free schools are
helping to meet the need for new school places in some areas but
are also creating spare capacity elsewhere.
Some localities have spare capacity of over 20%, which has
financial implications—schools with unfilled places have less
income than if they were full because funding is linked to the
number of pupils.
In the context of severe financial constraints it is vital that
the Department uses its funding in a more coherent and
cost-effective way.
The Department indicated that its priority is to meet the
Government’s target of creating 500 more free schools by 2020,
but we remain to be convinced that this represents the best use
of the limited funds available.
