The Government is failing to do enough to reassure stressed parents worried about getting a school place for their child, London Councils warned today.
Delays in announcements about funding for extra classrooms are causing unnecessary anxiety for parents and will leave more children without a school place, according to the organisation that represents 33 London local authorities.
Its warning comes as thousands of children are expected to miss out on their first-choice secondary school when they are allocated a place tomorrow. London already faces a shortfall of 90,000 school places but London Councils said this will worsen because funding delays mean councils are unable to start building schools to meet demand.
The Government should have told each local authority last December how much “basic-need funding” money they would be receiving so they could decide how many new classrooms to build and budget accordingly.
But the Government has still not made the announcement, meaning there is not enough time to complete building work in time for September 2014. Peter John, the executive member for children and young people with London Councils, said: “The Government needs to reassure worried parents by announcing how much money is available — and so allowing boroughs to get on with building much-needed classrooms.”
He added: “London boroughs are doing their utmost to provide every child with a school place but this is becoming increasingly difficult with ongoing increases in demand and a lack of surety of funding from the Department for Education.”
A spokesman for London Councils said the places shortage had been made worse by a fall in the number of families moving areas, as well as a drop in numbers of pupils attending private schools and the rising birth rate.
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “The capital allocations announcement has not yet been made because we were continuing to check the quality of the data provided to us by councils on which these allocations are based. It was then delayed by restrictions in place for the Eastleigh by-election… The announcement will be made tomorrow.”
