Unitary that used emergency powers to create extra school places, has not had a plan for years, education officer says
North Northamptonshire Council has not been planning enough school places for children
By Sarah Ward
North Northamptonshire Council (NNC), which last year had to use emergency powers to create extra school places, has not had a plan in place for years.
Education officer Marsha Brown, who is head of access and sustainability at NNC, told the area’s school’s forum last week that extra places will be needed once again and revealed that the authority has never had a school sufficiency plan since it was set up in 2021.
More than 900 extra school places have been needed this financial year, as the number of homes in the area continue to grow. There are significant housing developments in Wellingborough, Kettering and Corby which have been progressing at pace.
The role of the council as local education authority is to ensure there are enough places for every child living in the area. The authority was led by former chief executive Rob Bridge and Adele Wylie took over as chief officer in January 2024.
Since it began the authority has had five directors of children’s services with former children’s trust deputy Cordelia Andrecut now in charge. Tory Cllr Scott Edwards was the cabinet member with responsibility for children from 2021 until this year and Reform UK’s Cllr Elizabeth Wright now holds the portfolio.
Marsha Brown told the schools’ forum committee, which is made up of senior teachers from across the North of the county:
“Up until now we haven’t had an organisation strategy since, I think 2018 or 2019 [under the former shut down county council] and this is the education strategy that underpins sufficiency in North Northants, so I have developed this new strategy. It’s really important because it underpins the work we do for place planning with schools. It supports schools to expand in a way that meets housing and demographic growth.
“It provides adequate capacity by creating the right number of places and where possible there may need to be capital expansions and it also supports young people to be able to attend school in their community.”
She said that school census data, health data and housing development forecasrs were now being used so the authority can ‘know what’s coming down the track’ and said that work in the past had been reactive.
In June last year the former Conservative administration led by Cllr Jason Smithers had to take an emergency decision without his cabinet to spend more than £3m on extra SEN units at Greenfields Primary School in Kettering and Southfield School.
Two months later his Conservative administration signed off emergency places and investment at Wollaston Secondary School in Wellingborough and Wrenn Secondary School. This year extra capacity has also been added at Prince William in Oundle, Latimer Arts College in Kettering and Alfred Lord Tennyson School in Rushden.
The report presented by Marsha Brown to the council, said that 668 additional secondary places will be created in the current 2025/26 financial year and 255 primary places. On top of that, 372 extra secondary and 120 primary places are needed the following year.
208 of the secondary places being added in this year were for the Kettering area, which has not had a new secondary school built in a generation, despite significant house building.
Head teacher at Woodford Primary Kathryn Murphy asked about the additional places needed for Kettering - which predict another 102 needed in 2027 and said:
“Unless I’ve missed something there’s no evidence of a secondary school being built at Hanwood Park in anybody’s lifetime. Where are the places coming from?”
Hanwood Park is a large development in the East of Kettering, which was given planning permission in 2011 and is for 5,500 homes. The promised secondary school has not materialised.
Marsha Brown said the additional places in Kettering had come from a permanent expansion of pupil admission numbers Kettering Science Academy and there were still ongoing conversations with the Department for Education about Hanwood Park.
When asked about whether SEN places were looked at within the sufficiency planning she said a piece of work was ongoing about SEN places and also alternative provision.
The council is facing a £40m schools budget deficit by the end of this year and local democracy reporting service has reported that the West unitary could face a huge £53m overspend on its schools budget by the end of April. It currently has a £21.5m overspend, but expects a huge overspend of £31.1m this year.
Currently school budget overspends are kept off the parent councils’ balance sheets due to a temporary statutory override, which allows them to maintain negative balances. However this is only until 2028 and it is not known as yet how the government will propose to handle these deficits, which if added to the balance sheet of local authorities, is predicted to bankrupt some.
Speaking at the West Northants schools forum meeting on Tuesday (October 14), WNC Assistant Director of Education Ben Pearson said:
“We are certainly not an outlier in terms of really high overspends at the moment. We are right in the middle of an increase in demand, an increase in complexity and cost.
“We are continuing to lobby for West Northants and the entire sector to get fair and equitable funding for all local authorities. A child just over the border in Buckinghamshire receives 60 per cent more funding than a child in West Northants with an EHCP.
“That is not fair, that is morally wrong, and I’m really hopeful that is going to be addressed through the [government’s education] white paper.”
James Birkett, chair of the North Northants schools forum, which met on Thursday (October 16), also commented:
“Who knows what the white paper will bring, but I suspect there’s recognition from the DfE and all stakeholders actually that the current position in SEND is not just unsustainable for NNC, but right across the country.”
Local authorities across England are expected to carry a massive £5bn SEND deficit by the end of this financial year.
Additional reporting by Nadia Lincoln
Another nightmare Labour have inherited from the Tories.
Failure at local as well as at national level.
Cornelia Andercut looks exceptionally bored. The photo really doesn't inspire confidence.