Council bosses give assurances over Kirklees school closure fears amid falling birth rates
Council bosses have made moves reassure parents despite it being “unable to rule out” school closures in Kirklees.
Cohorts of Reception-age pupils have been getting smaller since the population peaked in 2015/16 and are expected to drop even further.
Action has been taken to help mitigate the problem, with the number of students a school can admit – the ‘Published Admission Number’ (PAN) – being reduced in some primary schools.
The move has already seen “some success” but needs to go further, with some areas still struggling with surplus places.
The areas of Holme Valley and Skelmanthorpe and Denby Dale were highlighted as having an especially large number of surplus places, standing at 26.1 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.
A surplus of between 5 per cent and 10 per cent is considered “healthy” and able to account for fluctuations in the population.
A report to Kirklees Council’s Children’s Scrutiny Panel stated if action wasn’t taken in areas with significant surpluses, there was a “real risk” the continued pressure on school budgets could result in the need for closures. However, assurances have been given by council officers.
Head of Education Places and Access Strategy, Martin Wilby, told the meeting: “We don’t have any plans to close schools but ultimately, if schools can’t be sustainable, that is an ultimate destination in some ways.
"So really, what we’re just flagging here is – if we can’t resolve this, there’s a heightened risk where there are surplus places, rather than anything beyond that.”
Later in the meeting, service director, Learning and Early Support, Jo-Anne Sanders, spoke of trying to “strike the right balance” with the number of school places and spoke of the ways schools could work together to help themselves.
She continued: "We’d want to exhaust opportunities like that before we even think about closure.
“But sometimes – and I suppose that’s why it says this in the report – sometimes difficult decisions do have to be made but I think we’re a long way away from that at the moment.
"What we’re trying to do here is get ahead of the curve and say ‘how can we work together with all the stakeholders in the system?’”