Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 15 March 2016 to Question 30444, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the Government’s proposal for every school to become an academy on the responsibility of local authorities to provide sufficient school places.

Edward Timpson

Local authorities (LAs) have a legal obligation to ensure that there are sufficient local schools to provide a primary and secondary place for all children needing one. Supporting LAs to do this continues to be one of the Government’s top priorities. That is why we have committed to spending £7 billion on school places up to 2021, which, alongside investment in the free schools programme, we expect to create 600,000 new places.

LAs have always relied on their strong relationships with local schools to deliver the places needed and this will remain the case in a fully academised system. LAs will continue to be advocates for their electorate, challenging school providers to deliver high educational standards and better outcomes for all children.