Tackling falling primary school rolls
Many areas are facing a serious decline in their primary school population. Local authorities and primary schools faced with falling rolls need to take action to ensure they are equipped to deliver the best possible quality of education with the resources available to them.
Schools
School-level decisions are fundamental in tackling falling rolls. Schools losing resources as pupil numbers fall should themselves take the initiative. Head teachers and governors should consider the issues and options on the pages for schools.
Local authorities
In most cases falling rolls is a local authority-wide issue that needs to be tackled at a local authority level. Local authority members and officials working with schools and other partners have a duty to obtain value for money through:
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Removing surplus school places through reorganisation: this involves amalgamating and/or closing some schools in order to release resources for distribution to the schools that remain. It requires commitment from the highest level within the local authority and strong political leadership to take the necessary decisions and see them through.
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Making better use of capital finance and revenue finance: this involves looking at the formula for distribution of resources to schools.
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Encouraging schools to work more closely together: this is likely to involve schools joining up to share resources through a range of options from amalgamation, federation or collaboration through to other less formal kinds of cooperation.
Local authorities looking to rationalise school space should consider broadening the services their schools offer in line with the likely future pattern of children's services and the needs of local communities. The opportunities and issues are covered in the section on extended schools.
Dioceses and other providers
Dioceses and other bodies providing primary schools also have a key role to play in dealing with the challenges presented by falling rolls. They need to work in partnership with their local authority and ensure they are consulted on all decisions affecting local school provision.
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In their role as planners they should follow the local authority sections above.
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In their role as coordinators they should look at the pages for schools.
Context
To find out more about the scale of the falling rolls problem or the work on which this toolkit is based, see the section on context.
Print version
A printable Word version of the falling primary rolls toolkit is available to download:
