School Organisation Plan 2024 - Introduction

Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that sufficient places are available within their area for every child of school age whose parents wish them to have one, to promote diversity, parental choice, high educational standards, to ensure fair access to educational opportunity, and to help fulfil every child's educational potential.  Cumberland Council seeks to fulfil this duty in partnership with Schools, Governing Bodies, Dioceses, Academy Trusts, head teachers, local communities, and other key stakeholders. 

Via the annual School Capacity (SCAP) submission to the DfE, the Council is also expected to explain its plans for addressing any high levels of surplus places in the area.  

Planning future education provision and predicting future demand for school spaces is a complex process. To do so, the local authority uses a range of information including birth rates, local demographic data, migration data, information regarding planned housing developments and historic patterns of admissions to schools.  By analysing this data, we can determine and review trends in pupil numbers, allowing us to effectively forecast future demand for provision. 

Planning for school places is, however, based on probabilities, not certainties; our projections are derived from reliable data and sound calculations, but they cannot predict every possible outcome.  As such, whilst they come with a proven historical accuracy, they are not a guarantee.  The projections contained within this plan give an indication of what is likely to happen based on existing data and known trends.

Since 2011, new providers of school places have been able to establish state-funded ‘free schools’ outside of the local authority school planning process and now all new schools are deemed to be free schools.  There are also a growing number of schools that have converted to become academies, which are also independent of the Council.  Whilst the Council is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places available to meet the needs of Cumberland children and young people, it does not have direct control over a large number of schools in the area – the majority of secondary schools in Cumberland, for example, are academies.   

This School Organisation Plan shows local communities, and those interested in their development, how we expect demand for school places to change over the next few years, and how we think this will impact on individual schools and ‘planning areas’. It brings together information from a range of sources and sets out the issues the Council will face in meeting its statutory duties for providing nursery and school places up to January 2028/2029 for primary and 2030/2031 for secondary.  

The School Organisation Plan includes present and predicted future pupil numbers on roll, together with information about birth rates, school capacity and new housing. The Plan sets out proposed changes in the number of school places available over the next year and it identifies where other changes may be necessary in the future. The Plan also sets out our policies on school organisation and the statutory framework for making changes such as opening, closing, enlarging, or reducing the capacity at schools.  

For school aged children (aged 4 to 16), the Council works with schools and governing bodies to address school place supply or demand issues in the shorter and longer term. The information below explains how we plan places for school aged children.