The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many vacancies were identified in free schools in the school census in (a) 2012, (b) 2013, (c) 2014, (d) 2015 and (e) 2016.
Edward Timpson
The school census does not collect information on vacancies in schools.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what comparative assessment her Department has made of the value for money of (a) community schools other than academies and (b) free schools.
Edward Timpson
Since 2010, we have opened around 400 new free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools. These schools offer excellent value for money. They are being built significantly quicker and cheaper than previous school building programmes. The National Audit Office found in its report in 2013 that free schools were built 45% cheaper than other school building programmes. Almost 200,000 new places will be provided. 25% of the free schools inspected by Ofsted have been judged outstanding compared to 20% of all other schools. We plan to open at least 500 new schools during this Parliament.
We monitor the programme’s costs to ensure it continues to offer excellent value. A value for money assessment is made prior to a free school application being approved for the pre-opening stage and again before a capital budget is approved. We consider all aspects of the project, including the size of the school and the location of the site. Sites in London tend to cost more to acquire and this is taken into account when considering the value for money offered by London projects.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of new free schools’ capacity to meet pupil place demand in 2016-17.
Edward Timpson
Data reported at May 2015 showed that local authorities (LAs) already had plans in place to deliver more than 80,000 new places in 2016/17, and we know many more will have been planned and delivered since then, including through central programmes.
Free schools can play an important part in helping LAs meet place pressures, and every free school has been opened in response to either the need to provide extra school places, the need to provide parents with greater choice or the need to provide more high quality school places. 85% of mainstream free schools approved since January 2014 are in areas where there was a basic need for additional school places. An additional group of schools were approved on the basis of more up-to-date LA data on future need for places and where section 106 agreements suggest need related to new housing developments. There are currently 117 mainstream free schools in the pipeline.
Many local authorities are recognising the opportunity that the free schools programme provides and are encouraging new and existing high quality education providers to apply to set up a new school in their area. We encourage all local authorities to do likewise.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the capital and revenue costs of free schools in Kirklees that (a) have been provided to date, (b) are to be provided in 2016-17 and (c) are projected to be provided between 2017 and 2020.
Edward Timpson
The Department for Education’s accounts show that the total capital spend on free schools up to the end of 2013-14 was £1.029bn; the accounts for following years will be published in due course. The capital costs of individual projects are published once contracts are finalised and are no longer commercially sensitive. They are published, along with the costs of sixteen projects in London and one project in Kirklees, on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-funding-for-open-free-schools
The total pre- and post-opening revenue expenditure for free school projects that opened in 2011 to 2013 is also published on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-expenditure-for-free-schools
We plan to publish updated revenue expenditure for free schools that were opened in 2014 and 2015 within the next few weeks. This data will be updated annually each Autumn.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the per pupil value for money of free schools and the effect acquisition of sites (a) in London and (b) outside London has on that value for money.
Edward Timpson
Since 2010, we have opened around 400 new free schools, university technical colleges and studio schools. These schools offer excellent value for money. They are being built significantly quicker and cheaper than previous school building programmes. The National Audit Office found in its report in 2013 that free schools were built 45% cheaper than other school building programmes. Almost 200,000 new places will be provided. 25% of the free schools inspected by Ofsted have been judged outstanding compared to 20% of all other schools. We plan to open at least 500 new schools during this Parliament.
We monitor the programme’s costs to ensure it continues to offer excellent value. A value for money assessment is made prior to a free school application being approved for the pre-opening stage and again before a capital budget is approved. We consider all aspects of the project, including the size of the school and the location of the site. Sites in London tend to cost more to acquire and this is taken into account when considering the value for money offered by London projects.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 1.89 of Budget 2016, how much of the £500 million of additional core funding for schools will be allocated to schools in Lancashire.
Mr Sam Gyimah
The funding announced at the Budget has been provided to support the Department’s school reform agenda. This will allow us to spend around £500 million over the Spending Review period, in addition to the per pupil protection of the core school budget announced at the spending review, to speed up the introduction of a fair national funding formula.
Our current consultation on a National Funding Formula for schools outlines the principles of the funding system and the funding factors that we believe should define the national funding formula for schools. This consultation closes on 17 April, and having considered the responses to this consultation, later this year we will launch a second consultation. This second stage consultation will detail our proposals for weighting each factor, the transitional arrangements and illustrate the distribution of funding for schools and local authorities that that implies, including the allocation of this funding. Until then, I am unable to comment on how additional funding will be allocated to schools in Lancashire.
A link to the consultation can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/schools-national-funding-formula.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with HM Chief Inspector of Schools about the performance of free schools.
Edward Timpson
The Secretary of State meets with Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools regularly to discuss a wide range of issues including the performance of free schools.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of free schools that have participated in local authority pupil place planning in each of the last three years.
Edward Timpson
Data reported at May 2015 showed that local authorities (LAs) already had plans in place to deliver more than 80,000 new places in 2016/17, and we know many more will have been planned and delivered since then, including through central programmes.
Free schools can play an important part in helping LAs meet place pressures, and every free school has been opened in response to either the need to provide extra school places, the need to provide parents with greater choice or the need to provide more high quality school places. 85% of mainstream free schools approved since January 2014 are in areas where there was a basic need for additional school places. An additional group of schools were approved on the basis of more up-to-date LA data on future need for places and where section 106 agreements suggest need related to new housing developments. There are currently 117 mainstream free schools in the pipeline.
Many local authorities are recognising the opportunity that the free schools programme provides and are encouraging new and existing high quality education providers to apply to set up a new school in their area. We encourage all local authorities to do likewise.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of (a) primary and (b) secondary school places in Calderdale.
Edward Timpson
Supporting local authorities to ensure sufficient school places in their area is one of this Government’s top priorities. That’s why we’ve committed to investing £7 billion in new school places up to 2021, which along with our investment in the free schools programme we expect to deliver 600,000 new places. This is on top of the £5 billion the Coalition Government spent between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create 600,000 additional places between 2010 and 2015.
Calderdale received £8.8 million in basic need funding between 2011 and 2015, which helped to create nearly 2,000 new places between 2010 and 2015. Of these, around 960 were primary places and around 1,010 were secondary. Calderdale has also been allocated £17.6 million to create the places required by September 2019.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Sturdy on 2016-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the free childcare pilot scheme budget will be ring-fenced from September 2016.
Mr Sam Gyimah
As you may be aware, the Government has allocated £13m to DfE for early implementation, allowing some families to access the additional 15 hour places from September 2016. The Department plans to ring-fence this funding available for early implementers.