Issue details

The Council retains the legal responsibility for pupil place planning and has a statutory duty (under section 14 of the Education Act 1996) to provide sufficient school places in its area. In order to achieve this the Council's priority is to ensure there is sufficient provision of school places in the right areas to meet need. These places can be delivered within community, academy, free school, voluntary controlled and voluntary aided schools.
Basic Need (BN) grant is allocated to the Council from the Department for Education (DfE) on an annual basis. The funding is allocated to support the provision of sufficient school places and the statutory duty of the Council.
Ralph Allen School will build a new eight classroom teaching block to enable them to increase their Planned Admission Number from 180 to 210 from September 2019. In addition the School will admit an extra 30 pupils making their PAN 240 over a three year period between the academic years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24. This increase in pupil numbers will enable the Council (as part of the phased approach to increase secondary provision across Bath) to meet the shortfall of places for the projected high numbers in these years.
Failure to provide sufficient places in the right areas will result in the Council failing in its statutory duty; parents and children being required to travel out of their locality to attend another school; increased transport (revenue) costs and schools being unable to take local children.