Welcome to School Place Planning: Our Role

Local Authority Pupil Planning Areas - GOV.UK

"Local authorities have a duty under section 14 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that sufficient schools are available for their area to provide primary and secondary education. Each year the department collects information on school places from local authorities as part of the annual SCAP collection in accordance with the Information as to Provision of Education (England) Regulations 2016 (SI 2016/555).

Local authorities are required to provide, for each school within each pupil planning area (PA), information about the number of registered pupils and the capacity of schools in their area. The annual returns also include local authorities' own forecasts of pupil numbers, at PA level, by year group for whom primary and secondary education will need to be provided. The data will be published in the 'School capacity' statistical releases. The releases include place planning tables showing modelled estimates of places needed to meet future demand. The department may also use the data in the calculation of future Basic Need capital funding allocations; to aid departmental monitoring of local authority sufficiency, and to support a range of policy developments and operational decisions. The data may be used in conjunction with other local authority surveys, such as the Capital Spend Survey and School Preference Survey, to support departmental decision making. The data also informs decisions pertaining to the locations and sizes of new schools, or school expansions, provided through centrally funded capital programmes."

Local Authority Pupil Planning Areas - Sept 21