Star date: 20th June 2019

'PRESSURE FOR SCHOOL PLACES...RELATING TO DEMAND FROM NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS'

Salford City Council's new 'risk register' notes that beyond the next academic year, there will be "a need for an expansion programme across a number of areas of the city" for secondary education, and that an "additional 11 forms of entry may be required over the next 10 years".

The report adds that the pressure on school places is "especially relating to demand from new housing developments" – which is what the community has been saying for years.

Full details here...

"This places greater emphasis on the pressure for school places, especially relating to demand from new housing developments..." Salford Council report

Many people in the community have noted that with all the new development in Salford, there is little infrastructure being put in place to cope – in terms of roads, doctors, dentists and schools...

Now, the latest 'risk register' report from Salford City Council has an amber warning for school places. While it states that an extra five thousand permanent primary school places have been created to meet demand over the next four years, current forecasts show than an additional 2,000-2,500 secondary school places are going to be needed over the next five to seven years...

"A number of contingency options have been identified and can be introduced quickly to meet any further demand, but this would only be for the immediate" the Council report states.

"For September 2019, in the main we have been able to meet Yr.7 demand" it adds "That said in order to ensure that we could allocate reasonable offers and ensure we are carrying a suitable level of surplus it has been necessary to create additional capacity (extra 83 places) via bulge classes. Using data of pupils already in the system there will be a need to create additional capacity to meet demand that will be felt year on year.

"The current physical capacity within the existing secondary school estate means we will be able to meet immediate demand within the short term strategy (2018/19 & 2019/20 academic years)" it explains "Beyond this and to ensure we can continue to meet year on year demand there will be a need for an expansion programme across a number of areas of the city. Work has already been undertaken to identify options and solutions to meet demand."

The report concludes that "Overall it should be noted that the ability to trend and predict the numbers of pupil places required has become more difficult to manage due to a growing City, its extensive regeneration and development schemes and housing land availability. This places greater emphasis on the pressure for school places, especially relating to demand from new housing developments.

"Current housing yield projections produced in December 18 indicates that an additional 11 forms of entry may be required over the next 10 years" it adds "This remains a risk, particularly in those areas across the city where we have very few options in terms of future expansion and additional land would be required. This will need to monitored and managed in line with the Local Authority's strategy duty to provide sufficient school places."

Salford Council has put a 'kiddie bedroom tax' or 'education contribution' levy on developers of new houses (see here). The last figure from Salford Council shows that just £884,067 was spent on primary schools from this source in 2017-18 from all the development in Salford.

Figures for the last quarter of 2018 (October-December) show that contributions were only received for three primary school expansion projects. Nothing, as far as figures show, has been put aside for secondary school expansion from Section 106 payments.