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Title:	School Place Planning and Administration
Petition Overview:	It is the council’s responsibility to provide a place for every child to be educated within their community. The council have responded to rising demand for school places with bulge classes and free school proposals. However, these measures have not been well co-ordinated, leaving a significant number of primary aged children with long journeys to school. It adds to traffic, pollution and parking tensions. It is bad for children’s wellbeing and fractures local communities. - Outcomes versus predictions from the past - The assumptions the council is making about future demand - How extra in-year school places are provided and funded when new housing developments are built. And a review of policies and individual cases where the council has failed to find a suitable primary place within 2 miles travel, either for an individual child, or for the full sibling group where there is more than one primary aged child in a family. Without proper planning and leadership this problem will become more acute.
Relevant Area(s):	Not Specified
Opening Date:	12/03/2015
closing Date:	13/03/2015
Signatures:	196
Petitioner Name:	Kate Roberts

Hertfordshire County Council has a statutory duty to ensure there are sufficient school places available for those residents who want one. In recent years the demand for reception places across Hertfordshire has been unprecedented, with large variations across the county and change being rapid and unpredictable. Since 2010 the number of Hertfordshire residents applying for a reception place has risen by 2047 pupils – the equivalent of around 70 additional reception classes or forms of entry (f.e.). Hertfordshire has a good record of meeting this challenge - actively planning school places in line with forecast demand through a programme of temporary and permanent expansions. Since 2012 the County Council has made available an additional 1500 permanent places (50 f.e.) and 1350 temporary places (45 f.e.) as a result. For more information on how we forecast and plan school places visit http://www.hertsdirect.org/services/edlearn/aboutstatesch/ The outcome of this approach is that the Council has continued to meet its duty to provide sufficient school places, despite the significant increase in demand. It has also continued to maintain a high level of parental satisfaction in terms of meeting the preferences expressed by parents through the application process for reception places. In 2014/15, 97% of pupils were allocated one of their four preferred schools following the first round of Continuing Interest*. Of the total Hertfordshire pupils applying for a school place in that year only 0.21% were allocation a non ranked school over the statutory walking distance of 2 miles – 31 pupils out of a total cohort of 15092. In addition to the increased demand for reception places there is also in-year pressure in a number of areas for primary places. We are currently exploring ways in which this issue can be addressed across identified areas within the constraints of class size legislation and school organisation considerations. We continue to work hard to ensure the sufficiency of places across the county and acknowledge the importance of continual review and monitoring of processes. Therefore, in addition to our usual performance reporting, school place planning is included on the programme of upcoming scrutiny topics expected over the next 12 to 18 months. * Continuing Interest statistics used as this includes additional places made available post-allocation day

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