School places system criticised as ‘fragmented and confusing’

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has declared that a lack of cohesive planning means new schools are not always opened where there is most need.

The news comes as parents reach their final day (Friday 15 January) to submit applications to primary schools.

The union warned that local authorities, academies and central government take decisions on school places in isolation, adding that the rise in pupil numbers will make it even harder for parents to secure school places.

Tony Draper, president of NAHT, said there needed to be a local agency with ‘oversight and clout’ to work alongside local authorities and ensure there were school places where they were needed.

He said there were too many areas where children were currently being ‘squeezed into classrooms, taught in mobiles, taught in corridors, and that's not acceptable’.

Draper added that new free schools must be located where there was a need for school places, ‘not just at the whim of a group that want to build a free school in an area where there is already capacity’.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has stated it should be given powers to build new schools, after the Academies Act 2010 meant that local authorities lost their power to create new schools but retained responsibility for having enough school places locally.

Roy Perry, chairman of the LGA's children and young people board, said: “If they are not willing to expand, then powers to create new schools should be returned to local authorities.”