| answer text |
<p>Local authorities are under a statutory duty to ensure that there is a school place
available for every child. The Department provides basic need funding for every place
that is needed, based on local authorities’ own data on pupil forecasts. Local authorities
can use this funding to provide places in new schools or through expansions of existing
schools, and can work with any school in their local area, including academies and
free schools.</p><p>Basic need allocations to local authorities to provide new school
places from 2011-2021 can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/basic-need-allocations</a>.
Data for allocations prior to 2011-12 is not readily available.</p><p>The Department
has also invested a total of £365 million through the Special Provision Capital Fund
from 2018-19 to 2020-21. This funding will help local authorities to create new places
and improve facilities for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.</p><p>Special
Provision Capital Fund allocations to local authorities can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-provision-capital-funding-for-pupils-with-ehc-plans"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-provision-capital-funding-for-pupils-with-ehc-plans</a>.</p><p>In
addition, the Department has funded thousands of good new school places and opened
schools across the country through the free schools programme. The Department’s total
capital costs of establishing free schools are listed below. These annual costs include
all aspects of site acquisition, design, and construction expended in that year.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Financial
year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Total capital costs (million)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>£1m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>£50m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13</p></td><td><p>£275m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14</p></td><td><p>£704m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>£761m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>£931m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>£965m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18</p></td><td><p>£872m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018-19</p></td><td><p>£1,004m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019-20</p></td><td><p>To
be confirmed [1]</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>£5,563m</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>There
are also some much smaller additional capital programmes which have also created places,
however this is not their primary objective. In total, the Department is on track
to create one million places this decade (2010 to 2020), the largest increase in school
capacity in at least two generations. This follows a decrease of 100,000 places between
2004 and 2010.</p><p>[1] This figure will be available once the Department lays its
annual accounts before Parliament in 2020.</p><p> </p>
|
|
