Commenting on the Government’s latest announcement of 53 new free
schools and one UTC, Kevin Courtney, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The Government is continuing to use the free school programme as
its sole approach to creating new school places in England when
we know that it is failing to deliver the right number of places,
in the right locations and in the phase of education in which new
places are needed.
“The Local Government Association (LGA) recently warned that
England would face a severe shortage of secondary school places
within the next five years.(1) The LGA has calculated that more
than half the local authorities in England will be unable to meet
demand and expect a shortfall of 134,000 places.
“The NEU agrees with the LGA that councils should be allowed to
open new maintained schools and direct academies to expand where
they have capacity. This situation is now urgent and the
Government must end its obsession with free schools and provide
the mechanism by which local authorities can fulfil their
responsibilities to families to ensure all children and young
people have access to a good local school within their locality.”
ENDS
Editor’s Note
(1) See Half of
councils unable to meet demand for secondary school places in
five years, available at: https://www.localgov.co.uk/Half-of-councils-unable-to-meet-demand-for-secondary-school-places-in-five-years/43711
