School Organisation Strategy Consultation

What is the School Organisation Strategy?

All local authorities including Bristol City Council, working together with our schools, have a statutory (legal) duty to make sure there are enough mainstream and specialist school places (Education Act 1996, Section 14).

Bristol City Council must make sure there are neither too few nor too many school places in specific parts of the city.

We are consulting on a draft School Organisation Strategy. This draft strategy sets out how the council, working in collaboration with our schools, plan to provide the right number of school places in line with these statutory duties.

pdf Short summary of the School Organisation Strategy(830 KB)

The draft strategy provides key partners with trends in the population, such as the impact of birth rates, and data to inform their future decision-making and is an important framework for planning school provision in Bristol.

The draft strategy considers the needs of children and young people across all educational phases - from Early Years, Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Post-16 education and specialist education. The key aims of the strategy are:

• To review school places in light of falling pupil numbers, particularly in primary education, and reduce surplus capacity by at least 50%.
• To continue our efforts to provide enough Early Years provision now that government policy has changed and government-funded Early Years provision has increased.
• To plan to meet changing primary school, secondary school, and post 16 demand through capital projects and partnerships with our schools.
• To expand and adjust specialist provision to meet the growing demand for Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) support.
• To recognise the impact of socio-economic inequality, population mobility, and sanctuary-seeking children in planning decisions.

The draft School Organisation Strategy sets out a clear and evidence-based approach to the specific actions we will take to shape Bristol’s educational landscape over the next three years, but with a longer term view of the direction of travel and our city’s needs. The strategy would make sure the needs of communities in Bristol will be met while maintaining a commitment to high standards, inclusion, and equity for all children and young people.

Why are we consulting?

We are consulting with Bristol citizens on the proposed recommendations of the draft School Organisation Strategy for each of the education phases (from Early Years to Post-16) and our proposed strategic approach to pupil place planning.

Every primary and secondary school in England is required by law to have a published document outlining the overall procedure, practices and oversubscription criteria used in deciding the allocation of school places, including any device or means used to determine whether a school place is to be offered. This includes the minimum number of places the school has agreed to accept for each relevant year (the PAN).

It is the responsibility of the admission authority, working with our schools, to determine and apply the school’s admissions arrangements and to ensure that processes are compliant with the School Admissions Code (SAC). 

The draft School Organisation Strategy recommends a reduction of Pupil Admission Numbers (PAN) in primary schools which would reduce surplus capacity in the city. We have described below how the School Organisation Strategy would inform the PAN and at which stages Bristol citizens can expect to be consulted.

How will the School Organisation Strategy be used?

Bristol City Council is the admissions authority for maintained schools in Bristol and are therefore responsible for the admissions arrangements of these schools. Schools that are not maintained by the council, such as academies, free schools, foundation and voluntary aided schools, set their own admissions arrangements.

Admission arrangements include:

• Setting the admissions criteria (who can attend the school and who can’t)
• oversubscription criteria (how schools manage being oversubscribed)
• the Published Admissions Number (the number of places each school has available)

All admission authorities (non-maintained schools or the local authority) in England are required by law to publish an admissions arrangements document every year outlining their admission arrangements including the Published Admission Number (the PAN).

The admissions arrangement document, published by the council, must abide by the School Admissions Code. The School Admissions Code (SAC) is a legal document by the Department of Education that all admission authorities must abide by.

The admissions arrangements document must also be informed by the School Organisation Strategy, which sets out how the council plans to provide the right number of school places in line with its statutory duties and the Corporate Strategy 2025 – 2030, and is the subject of this consultation.

If, following the publication of the School Organisation Strategy, there are proposed changes to the admission arrangements for any school, we must specifically consult on the admissions arrangements document before it can be published.

Therefore, the draft School Admissions Strategy sets out the approach for how pupil place planning will be managed but does not make any individual decisions on admissions arrangements including the PAN.

Any changes to admission arrangements including a reduction to a school’s PAN would be subject to a further statutory consultation with the general public, parents and carers of school aged children, schools and other relevant stakeholders.

This process must be completed by 31^st January and will apply for the following academic year.