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School Capacity Survey Guide for local authorities
June 2019
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Contents
About this departmental advice 3
Review date 3
Main points 3
Part 1 – Accessing the systems and submitting your returns 4
1.1. Accessing the data collection systems 4
1.2. Using the QA checklist and output reports 4
1.3. Director of Children’s Services (DCS) sign-off 4
1.4. Submitting your return 5
Part 2 - School Capacity Return 6
2.1. Schools to include 6
2.2. Pupil numbers on roll (NOR) 7
2.3. School capacity 7
2.4. Capacity by year group 9
Part 3 - LA pupil forecasts 11
3.1. Pupil forecasts 11
3.2. Housing developer contribution (HDC) forecasts 13
3.3. Forecast methodology 14
Part 4 – Additional Places data 15
4.1. Introduction 15
4.2. What should be included 15
4.3. Places to be included 16
Annex A – Sixth form capacity 19
Annex B – Glossary 21
Annex C – Common queries 24
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About this departmental advice
This is departmental advice from the Department for Education. This advice helps local
authorities understand the data required in relation to the School Capacity (SCAP)
survey as defined in The Information as to Provision of Education (England)
Regulations 2016.
Review date
This advice will be reviewed in May 2020.
Main points
This guidance will provide you with the information you need to complete the SCAP
survey. The survey is split into 4 parts:
1. capacity
2. forecasts
3. additional places data
4. place planning commentary
Forecast, capacity and additional places data will be collected via the COLLECT
system. Commentary should be returned on the provided template to the SCAP
mailbox, [email protected] .
The main change to the survey since 2018 is that the Capital Spend data collection
has been removed from the SCAP survey and has been replaced by the additional
places element, pending the planned introduction of the Capital Spend Survey which
will merge and improve the Capital Spend and Condition Spend Data Collections.
More guidance on how to submit additional places data can be found within this
document.
This guidance document should be read in conjunction with:
• the COLLECT User Manual;
• the Guide to forecasting pupil numbers in school place planning.
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Part 1 – Accessing the systems and submitting your returns
1.1. Accessing the data collection systems
The data collection system for all three elements of the data submission (capacity,
forecast and additional places) is accessed via DfE Sign In.
If you have issues accessing COLLECT, please contact the Data Collection Helpdesk
using the service request form.
1.2. Using the QA checklist and output reports
We have provided you with a QA checklist. This list provides a guide on checking your
data before submission. It is not an exhaustive list and should be undertaken in
addition to rigorous checking of the data as it is entered. Accurate data entry and
completion of this list will reduce the number of questions that we may need to ask
you.
COLLECT includes a reports feature which allows you to view and download output
reports containing your data. The COLLECT system refreshes overnight, so any data
that you input will not show on the output reports until the following day.
You are advised to use these output reports in conjunction with the QA Checklist to
help you address any issues with your data before submission.
1.3. Director of Children’s Services (DCS) sign-off
You will need to arrange for your own internal review of your data and for your DCS to
sign off the data as true and accurate. When your data is initially submitted, your DCS
can assign delegated authority to someone else within the authority for this sign off,
e.g. the senior SCAP contact.
DCS sign off should be obtained once we have finished quality assuring your data so
that your DCS signs off the final data return once any necessary changes have been
completed. We expect this to happen in late autumn once the checks on all local
authorities have been completed.
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A template is provided for this and should be completed and returned on both
occasions.
1.4. Submitting your return
You will be unable to submit your returns if you have not addressed all error messages.
If you are unable to resolve any errors, please e-mail the Pupil Place Planning Team
at [email protected] for advice.
We will be able to respond much more quickly if you give details of the error you
are encountering and which school or planning area it relates to.
All data must be submitted using the online systems. Email copies of the downloaded
spreadsheets or output reports will not be accepted.
Accompanying information should be emailed to the PPP Team at
[email protected] and should include:
a. the commentary;
b. the forecast methodology (if not submitted via the COLLECT system);
c. the DCS/Senior SCAP contact sign off form.
You should submit your data by Friday 27 July.
Your return will only be considered complete when you have provided all
elements.
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Part 2 - School Capacity Return
The school level data within the school capacity return should reflect the position as at 1 May
2019.
The school capacity return is submitted using the COLLECT system. To select a school in
order to view the data and update the record click on the school name. This will highlight the
selected school in blue. Then click the ‘Edit’ button.
You can record notes in the system on certain data items, to help both you and us check that
what you have entered is accurate. We will not be able to accept a return if you have not
provided an explanatory note for all queries. If a note is to address a query then please make
sure the note is against the query itself rather than the data item. If the note is not sufficiently
detailed or does not seem to match what the data shows then we will ask for further
clarification.
2.1. Schools to include
Survey returns must include all mainstream schools with capacity in any of the year groups
Reception to Year 11 inclusive, as at 1 May 2019. This includes schools maintained by the
local authority and academies (including free schools, CTCs, UTCs and studio schools).
Survey returns must exclude:
• special schools
• nursery schools and nursery units within schools
• pupil referral units and alternative provision settings
• dedicated SEN units within schools
• independent schools
• 16-19 establishments
The lists of schools on the capacity strand are prepopulated based on the lists confirmed with
you earlier in the year, and any updates we have been able to infer from information updated
on the Get Information About Schools system. If there have been any updates to this list as
at 1 May 2019, you will need to make them in the system. For example:
• For any schools that have converted to academy status, please mark the existing
school on the list as closed and set the value of the “Close existing school and
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preserve data to create a new school (overnight)” field to “True”.
• For any schools which have merged, you should mark one of the existing schools as
closed. Set the “Close existing school and preserve data to create a new school
(overnight)” field to “True”. You will need to update school name, establishment
number, total capacity, governance code and capacity by year group to reflect the
combined totals for both schools and any changes on amalgamation. The other school
should be marked as closed.
• For any completely new schools (not including those created by academy conversion
or amalgamation), please add these in the ‘new schools’ section. You have to
complete all other data fields for the school, including the number on roll as at May
2019.
• For any completely closed schools, mark them as closed.
2.2. Pupil numbers on roll (NOR)
The NOR information for each school will be pre-populated for all existing schools from the
number of registered pupils on the January School Census1. The final SCAP dataset (and
hence our published tables) will use the more up to date figure from the May School Census.
If you are entering details in the `new schools’ section, you will need to provide the NOR for
each year group for that school. This should include any Year 14 pupils, as recorded on the
May School Census in 2019, so that this data will align with our final data set.
2.3. School capacity
The capacity information for all schools open at 1 May 2019 has been pre-populated using
the capacity figures you provided in SCAP 2018. This includes academy converters and
amalgamations that we have been able to link to the previous schools. Please ensure that
you amend these details 2 where they have changed since May 2018.
Please report capacity as built at 1 May 2019 for local authority maintained schools. This
should be based on an up to date net capacity assessment for each school, and not on how
1 The pupil count includes sole registration and dual main registration. Part-time pupils are included on a head-count basis. All full-time and part-time pupils in designated nursery classes are excluded. 2 You should hold up-to-date net capacity assessments for all LA maintained, Voluntary Aided (VA), Voluntary Controlled (VC) and foundation schools, as these assessments are a statutory requirement.
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many children the school admits or the sum of its PANs. If you are aware of an upcoming
change to a school’s capacity, for example in September 2019, you should still record the
capacity as at 1 May 20193.
You are expected to confirm capacity details with your academies to check they are up to
date. We would usually expect the capacity of an academy to be reported in SCAP based on
what is recorded in the school’s funding agreement. Funding agreements can be found at
https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-tables, under the workforce and finance section.
We will not generally accept capacity figures that are lower than indicated by a Net Capacity
Assessment or the funding agreement, as this indicates more pupils could be
accommodated. We will only do so in exceptional circumstances and where the reduction in
operational capacity is likely to be long-term. For example, an academy may operate below
capacity for a period of time as part of a strategy to improve school performance. In such
circumstances, we would expect this to have been discussed between the relevant RSC, LA,
academy trust and DfE Pupil Place Planning team as appropriate; and we may wish to test
this with you before this is reflected in the capacity figure.
For free schools, you should report the final intended capacity of the school as per the
Funding Agreement, even if it is still filling up or based on a temporary site with limited
capacity. For free schools that opened in September 2018, capacity information has been
pre-populated for you from their Funding Agreement. We would only expect you to make
changes to this information if you think this is incorrect or if there has been a change to the
final intended capacity of the school.
All open schools must have a value in the total capacity field. Given the demand for places,
we would not expect a significant number of schools to lose capacity each year. As such, if a
school has lost a significant amount of capacity since May 2018, we will ask you to add a
note to explain why. This is to help ensure that all relevant capacity is being reported and you
have not made any errors in recording the capacity of any school.
Where the school has both primary and secondary capacity4, you must also complete both
3 If a building project due to open for September has completed before May, you don’t need to include this in total capacity, even though capacity is built. 4 Where type of school is middle-deemed primary, middle-deemed secondary or all-through
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the primary and secondary capacity fields to show how the capacity is split between the two
phases. The combined figures must equal the total capacity of the school. Please do not
complete these fields for primary and secondary schools; if you do, an error will be generated.
If the school has a sixth form please make sure you include sixth form capacity in the total
capacity figure.
2.4. Capacity by year group
Capacity by year group should relate to the number of places available in each year group
as at 1 May 2019. Usually this will be the Published Admission Number for that year’s cohort
but may vary if accommodation was added later. Please include in this figure any bulge
classes (whether they were added at the point of entry or later). If a small number of additional
pupils were admitted through appeals, we do not require you to reflect this in the capacity by
year group.
Capacity by year group will be pre-populated using the information provided in SCAP 2018,
rolled forward a year (so last year’s Year 7 capacity will now be in Year 8, and so on). You
will only need to enter capacity by year group for the missing year(s) of entry to the school,
unless any changes have been made to capacity in other year groups. You must ensure that
you record capacity for each year group from reception to year 11 that has pupils on roll.
For new or expanded LA maintained schools or academies filling up year on year, please
base capacity by year group on the final intended capacity for each year group, reflecting the
capacity that is built as at 1 May 2019. Where school capacity is reducing, record the final
reduced capacity by year group once the reduction in capacity has worked through the
school.
For free schools, you should report the final intended capacity by year group of the school as
per the funding agreement, even if it is still filling up or based on a temporary site with limited
capacity. For free schools that opened in September 2018, capacity by year group information
has been pre-populated for you from their funding agreement. We would only expect you to
make changes to this information if there has been a change to the final intended capacity by
year group of the school.
We appreciate that the sum of capacity by year group will not necessarily equal exactly the
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total capacity, for a variety of reasons. Where there is a large difference between the two
figures5, a query message will appear and you will need to provide an explanation.
We strongly encourage you to report a figure for sixth form capacity for any school that has
a sixth form. Where a figure for sixth form capacity is entered, we ask that you also select
from a drop down list the method used to calculate the capacity. Unless inappropriate for a
given school, please report the sixth form capacity based on funding agreement or net
capacity assessment. If you choose to use another method, we may wish to query your
reason for not using one of these two methods.
5 We define this as a difference of 30 or more for primary, and 100 or more for secondary
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Part 3 - LA pupil forecasts
3.1. Pupil forecasts
We need forecasts of pupil numbers broken down by year group for each planning area in
your local authority. Primary forecasts must extend five years ahead and cover Reception to
Year 6. Secondary forecasts must extend seven years ahead and cover Years 7 to 11 (and
Years 12 to 13 where schools in the planning area have sixth forms). We expect you to
provide forecasts that are as up to date as possible.
Pupil forecasts must include all pupils expected to attend mainstream provision6 in your local
authority area. They should not include pupils attending special schools or pupils attending
SEN units attached to mainstream schools.
Your forecasts should reflect the actual number of pupils that you expect to have to provide
a mainstream place for in each academic year in each planning area. This should be based
on the pupils you expect will attend the schools in that planning area, rather than where pupils
are resident.
Do not include a margin in your forecasts to reflect spare places that you need to manage in-
year admissions, mobility or parental choice. You can and should include your well-grounded
expectations about pupils arriving during the year – not just those coming through the main
application process. Most authorities do this based on their past experience of in-year
arrivals.
Your pupil forecasts should only include expected pupil yields from housing developments
that have a high probability of being delivered within the timeframe of the forecasts. In most
cases such developments will have full planning permission. If you believe a development
that does not have full planning permission will proceed and will yield pupils within the
forecasts timeframe, we expect that development to be present in the relevant planning
authority’s latest five year land supply. Wherever this is the case we may test the suitability
of inclusion of such housing developments in SCAP forecasts by reviewing evidence on the
site’s deliverability and assessing delivery against previous five year land supplies plans in
the relevant planning authority.
6 This includes mainstream community, VA, VC and foundation primary and secondary schools, academies, free schools, CTCs, UTCs and studio schools.
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Where you have sixth form provision in secondary schools you will need to ensure that you
have entered forecast data for years 12 and 13. If you expect any year 14 pupils these should
be included in your year 13 forecasts.
Where you are restructuring your school landscape (e.g. from three to two tier education
systems) you should record your forecasts based on the structure that will be in place in each
of the forecast years. You should then record a return level note to notify us that a restructure
is taking place.
If you are expecting to introduce a new planning area in the future, you should record the
pupil forecasts in the most appropriate planning area that currently exists. Forecasts of pupil
numbers for existing schools must be recorded in the planning area in which they currently
sit.
You should forecast for new free school provision where you are confident that the project
will go ahead and that it will affect the school landscape in your authority., If you know with a
degree of certainty that an independent school will convert to a free school, then these pupils
should be recorded in your pupil forecasts from the year at which you expect the conversion
to take place. Please include a note to explain where this is the case.
Where a school is split between different planning areas because it operates from different
sites, please include the forecasts for each site in the most appropriate planning area. To
ensure that school capacity can be divided to reflect this split, please email
[email protected] to tell us how much capacity should be included in each
planning area.
The data collection portal checks the forecasts for each year group in each academic year
against the data for the same cohort of pupils in the previous academic year. For example
Year 2 in 2019 to 2020 is compared to Year 1 in 2018 to 2019. It also checks Reception and
Year 7 forecasts to highlight any planning areas where there are significant fluctuations in
these year groups from year to year. You will need to provide an explanation for any planning
areas where the numbers differ by more than 15%, to encourage you to reflect on your
forecasts and ensure that they accurately represent the cohorts you expect to provide a place
for in each year.
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You will also be asked to add a note to any planning areas where your SCAP 2018 forecasts
differed significantly from number on roll in 2019, in order to confirm that you have taken
inaccuracies in last year’s forecasts into account when producing your forecasts for SCAP
2019.
We also ask you to add a note to any planning areas where the forecast in the final forecast
year is significantly different7 from the current number on roll. This is to identify the areas
where pupil numbers are rapidly rising or declining and to help us check that forecasts are
robust.
3.2. Housing developer contribution (HDC) forecasts
Last year we renamed S106/CIL contributions to Housing Developer Contributions (HDCs).
Forecasts of places to be funded through HDC should reflect the number of school places
that will be created using HDC funding, or by developers in lieu of funding, from 2019 to 2020
onwards. This will enable the HDC funded places to be split from the main forecasts for
funding purposes.
HDC funded places should be reported wherever the funding is expected or has been
received. Places provided by any projects that will use HDC funds must be included. Where
HDC funds have been received but not assigned to a project you should estimate the date of
delivery and quantity of places to be delivered, and report these in the return. Where you
expect to use HDC to fund places within the forecasting timeframe, but have not yet received
the funds, the places the funding will supply should also be estimated and included in your
return. The annual nature of the SCAP survey offers the opportunity to revise HDC forecasts
in the future, should it become clear that you will no longer receive the previously expected
level of HDC funding.
Where HDC funding supplements an existing project, the number of pupils in HDC funded
places should relate only to the proportion of places generated through HDC funding. There
are many ways in which you can convert HDC funding into places, and you should choose
the method that best suits your circumstances. For example, you may calculate the number
of HDC places based on the amount the developer advised they would fund per place. You
may also look at the project as a whole and calculate the proportion of places attributed to
7 We define this as 15% at primary and 25% at secondary
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HDC funding and the number of places this created. If you have contributed HDC funding to
a centrally funded free school you should not include these places as part of your HDC
forecast.
The reporting of pupils in HDC funded places should be cumulative. Where HDC funded
places have been included in one forecast year, they should appear in future forecast years,
along with any extra places added in those future years. You should split HDC forecasts
across year groups unless you are certain they apply to only one year group.
3.3. Forecast methodology
The methodology statement is intended to set the figures in context. This is important since
projection methodology varies from one local authority to another.
Please provide comprehensive information. We may ask for further detail, including
requesting a copy of your forecasting model, if we cannot follow the methodology you provide.
If you include rates (e.g. cohort survival rates, progression rates or pupil yield rates) that you
apply to existing cohorts or housing data, please explain how these rates have been
calculated.
We must be satisfied with the robustness of your forecasts before we will accept your data.
Please provide as much information as you can about how your forecasts have been checked
and quality assured. We have added an extra section to the template to enable you to provide
this information.
Your forecast methodology should include information on cross-border flows, with
confirmation that import or export assumptions have been checked with neighboring local
authorities.
The forecast methodology can be returned via COLLECT or as a Word document to
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Part 4 – Additional Places data
4.1. Introduction
This year, we have removed the capital spend data collection from SCAP, pending its pro-
posed replacement with the Capital Spend Survey, which will merge and improve the Capital
Spend Data with the Condition Spend Data Collection.
In the new “Additional Places” element of the SCAP collection, we simply require details of
plans to add or remove places, broken down by year group for each planning area, for the
coming three academic years. This is a subset of the information that was previously reported
on the capital spend return.
4.2. What should be included
You should include places related to any project undertaken by the school, local authority or
MAT where the following three criteria all apply:
1. Mainstream school places are being added or removed,
You should include all places that are being added or removed, irrespective of how much
these cost and how that cost is being funded.
You should not include SEN or nursery places, even if they use basic need funding.
2. The addition or removal of places is not centrally funded
You should not include places resulting from projects that are fully funded by any of the fol-
lowing programmes:
• Priority School Building Programme (PSBP);
• Free School Programme (includes Free Schools, UTCs and Studio Schools);
• Academies Capital Maintenance Fund (ACMF);
• School Condition Improvement Fund (CIF);
• Building Schools for the Future (BSF);
• Selective Schools Expansion Fund (SSEF);
If you are providing supplementary funding or places to any of these centrally funded pro-
grammes, then you should record the number of places that relate to that supplementary
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funding only. If you record the total then we will ask you to correct the data.
If you are awaiting a decision on whether a new free school will be opened in your authority
and have had to plan a contingency in case the free school does not open, we would advise
you not to include this, unless you would plan to bring in the contingency regardless of the
outcome of the free school decision.
3. You have a high degree of certainty that the project will go ahead
We would normally expect this to be where funding has been committed, for example where
the local decision maker (e.g. mayor or cabinet) has signed off the capital plans or where
contracts have been let.
This is broadly in line with the reporting requirements for the capital spend data return in
previous years. As such, your additional places return has been prepopulated with figures for
numbers of additional places based on what you reported in this return in 2018. If plans have
changed or your figures do not reflect the reality of your plans then they should be amended.
4.3. Places to be included
The return requires the places to be split into the following types:
Bulge: This should be used to report any additional places which will move through the
school with the cohort. For example, a project to accommodate a one-off addi-
tional form of entry. We would expect to see this move through the school in
your data, so for example if there are 30 places in Year 7 in 2019/20 we would
then expect to see those places in Year 8 in 2020/21 and so on.
Additional: This should be used to report any additional places which will remain in the year
group reported, rather than moving through with a specific large cohort. For
example, a project to increase the size of the Year R to Year 2 accommodation
in a primary school.
Removed: This should be used to report any works which remove capacity from the school,
for example demolition of a block or removal of temporary classrooms.
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If you are adding places and removing places within the same planning area (for example
removing a temporary classroom and replacing it with a permanent build), you should where
possible report this rather than simply reporting the net additional places.
Please report places under the first full academic year that the places will be available in time
for. This should be based on when places are built in time for, rather than when they are due
to fill up with pupils.
If the places will not be available in September, then please record the project under the
following academic year. For example if the places will be built by November 2019 or Febru-
ary 2020, please record this in academic year 2020 to 2021. This is so we do not incorporate
places you are adding into our modelling of shortfalls before they are actually available.
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Part 5 – Commentary Local Authorities must complete a ‘Commentary’ template. This provides information that will
assist in analysis of areas with pupil place planning pressures and areas with spare places.
It offers an opportunity to qualify the impression that might be obtained from your data return.
The commentary must link to your planning area information, identifying any local pockets
where school capacity is an issue. Please use the commentary to explain where there is
planned action to secure additional capacity, indicating whether this is temporary or
permanent and in new schools or expansions.
Please also use the commentary to provide an explanation of any other significant changes
to capacity, such as school closures, when they would be implemented and how this would
affect the places available. In summary, the commentary should include details of any plans
that would significantly impact on available capacity. Please provide contextual information
rather than brief comments alongside particular schools.
Please be as specific as you can. We will compare the commentary for each planning area
against the data you have provided in capacity, forecast and additional places. If the
commentary does not appear to match what your data shows, we may ask for further
clarification to ensure we have understood correctly and that your data is accurate.
Examples might be where:
• You have said an area has high growth or housing developments, but your
forecasts do not appear to show this increase;
• Your data indicates a future pressure in a planning area but the commentary
does not mention this;
• You have said a school will take more pupils from September 2019 but there
are no additional places recorded
It is helpful to us if you ensure any references to specific schools include their 4 digit
establishment number, so that we can match up the information easily.
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Annex A – Sixth form capacity
The SCAP collection has included an additional field in 2018 and 2019 for sixth form capacity,
with an associated field describing the basis on which this figure has been calculated. This
is in response to concerns raised by LAs about the existing Basic Need methodology with
regard to sixth forms.
You will need to report the sixth form capacity of all schools where a sixth form operates,
wherever possible. The existing field that provides the whole school net capacity should not
change and should continue to include the sixth form capacity. The new field should reflect
the number of places out of the overall capacity that are related to the sixth form sector.
From consultation with LAs, we are aware that providing a 6th form capacity can be difficult.
We are not mandating the method by which you must calculate your sixth form capacity.
However, the more consistent the basis on which the data are provided, the more useful that
data will be. We would therefore strongly prefer you to provide data according to options 1
and 2 below.
Option 1: Based on Net Capacity Assessment (NCA)
Use the NCA to calculate the 6th form capacity based on figures already reported in the NCA.
A sixth form capacity can be calculated using the following calculation:
𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑁𝑁𝑐𝑐𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑁𝑁𝑛𝑛 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑁𝑁 𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠
× (𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑁𝑁𝑛𝑛𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑁𝑁 𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠𝑁𝑁ℎ 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑛𝑛𝑛 𝑠𝑠𝑁𝑁𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑛 𝑛𝑛𝑐𝑐𝑁𝑁𝑁𝑁 + 𝑌𝑌12 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑐𝑐𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑐𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑛𝑛)
Net capacity = the figure reported in box y
Number of age groups = the figure box n
Average sixth form stay on rate = the figure in box k
Y12 admission, if applicable = the figure in box n
Using example in the picture below, the sixth form capacity would be calculated as follows:
6𝑁𝑁ℎ 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 8346.95
× (1.28 + 0.67) = 120 × 1.95 = 234
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Option 2: Based on Funding Agreement (for academies)
Funding agreement - To use the post 16 pupil capacity reported in the academies funding
agreement. Funding agreements can be found at https://www.gov.uk/school-performance-
tables, under the workforce and finance section.
Only where options (1) and (2) are unsuitable, then you may use one of the following
methodologies. However, we may request further information from you as to why the
preferred two methodologies are unsuitable.
3. PAN / capacity by year group based measure – subtract the total capacity by year
groups for Y7-Y11 from the overall school capacity to leave a nominal sixth form ca-
pacity. This method is not acceptable where you know that the school is operating at
a substantially lower PAN than the capacity in the NCA or funding agreement indi-
cates.
4. Local Knowledge – using knowledge of your schools typical operating style. For ex-
ample, if you have had a conversation with the school and they have stated their sixth
form capacity, which may differ from other methods but suits their operating style.
5. Other – where you have a well-evidenced source for sixth form capacity that is not
covered by a method listed here. If you chose this option please can you add a note
to COLLECT to inform us how you calculated the capacity.
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Annex B – Glossary Capacity For maintained schools, capacity is defined by a physical
measurement, the net capacity assessment (see below).
For academies, capacity is defined by the funding
agreement. You should report what is recorded on the
funding agreement unless you know of an update to this
figure (for example the school has expanded).
Error An error is an issue that must be resolved before you can
submit your data. Errors will appear in the data collection
systems where something you have entered is incomplete
or inconsistent with another data item. For example, you
may have forgotten to enter a value for the capacity of a
school, or have told us you are using £100,000 of funding
to add SEN places but entered 0 as the number of SEN
places you are adding.
You must correct all errors before you are able to submit
the returns.
Funding agreement Funding agreements are contracts between each
academy and the Secretary of State for Education which
set out the terms on which the academy is funded.
Amongst other information, they contain the capacity figure
for each academy.
You can find academy funding agreements on the school
performance tables website, in the “Workforce and
Finance” section.
HDC Housing developer contributions i.e. Section 106 (S106)
Agreements and Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL).
S106 agreements are legal agreements between local
authorities and developers which are made when a
development will have a significant impact on a local area.
22
CIL is a planning charge that can be used by local
authorities to help deliver infrastructure to support the
development of their area. In SCAP, we ask local
authorities to report on places which are funded by
payments made by developers to local planning authorities
whether through S106 or CIL. These payments are made
in order to offset the costs of the external effects of
development, in accordance with this act.
Net capacity assessment The net capacity of a maintained school is based on the
net area of all buildings that are available to that school, It
should include all extra places that have been added to the
school (even though they may not yet be in use). In
addition, any classrooms that have been mothballed or
non-teaching space that has been re-designated as a
classroom. Further information on calculating the net
capacity assessment of maintained schools can be found
in the guidance document Assessing the Net Capacity of
Schools
Query Queries appear in the system where we require you to
provide further details to confirm the information you have
entered is correct. They appear when your data appears
anomalous. For example if your forecasts fluctuate a lot
year on year. This may indicate you have made a typing
error when entering one of the values – such as entering
84, 58, 86 as your forecasts for consecutive years when
you meant to enter 84, 85, 86. It may also indicate that
there is an issue with your forecasting model.
Queries do not necessarily indicate that you have made a
mistake, but are designed to help you and us pinpoint
where issues with the submission may appear. We need a
satisfactory explanation for each query to allow us to
ensure the quality of the data.
23
We conduct further checks after the survey has closed,
which look at the information you have submitted across
the different returns and against the information we hold
within the department. Further queries may result from
these checks. We will review your response to the system
queries and return any where we require further
explanation to you, along with these further queries.
24
Annex C – Common queries
Capacity
The total of the Capacity
by Year Group fields
does not match total
capacity
We would expect the total capacity to be roughly equal to the
sum of the capacity of each year group.
This query encourages you to consider whether you have
correctly reflected any expansions or contractions to the size
of the school. For example, if you have added a 1FE
expansion to the school, raising the total capacity by 210
places, the capacity of each year group should have
increased by roughly 30.
We add sixth form NOR as a proxy for capacity of Year 12
and Year 13 at schools with sixth forms. If the sixth form has
low pupil numbers compared to its capacity then this may be
a reason for the discrepancy. If this is the case then please
add a note to explain.
If you have made use of the new 6th form capacity field the
value supplied will be used in place of NOR of years 12 and
13.
If the same query was raised on the school last year, the note
will be prepopulated for you. Please update the note if the
situation has changed, taking care to update references to
bulges in specific year groups which are now in the year
above.
Pupils in excess of
capacity
We would expect it to be difficult to fit many pupils into the
school above its capacity.
This query encourages you to reflect on whether you have
forgotten to record an increase to the capacity of the school.
It may be that the school does manage to accommodate extra
25
children, for example by:
- using non-teaching space as classrooms;
- managing to fit a few extra children into each class
than capacity would suggest due to the size of
classrooms.
You will need to explain this in the note you attach to the
query. If the same query was raised on the school last year,
the note will be prepopulated for you. Please update the note
if the situation has changed, taking care to update references
to bulges in specific year groups which are now in the year
above.
Capacity of the school
has substantially
decreased.
We would expect, given the pressure on places in most areas
that capacity would remain static or increase year on year and
that places would not be removed.
If you have decreased capacity at some schools or schools
have closed then please give details in your notes.
26
Forecast
Cohort
progression
e.g. comparison
of Year 3 forecast
in 2019 to 2020 to
Year 4 forecast in
2020 to 2021
We would normally expect most pupils in Year X in one year to
progress on to Year X+1 in the same planning area the next
academic year.
This check is designed to encourage you to reflect on your forecasts
and check that what you have submitted is a true reflection of how
pupils progress through the school years in that planning area.
It may be that you do expect large fluctuations in cohorts, for
example if:
- large housing developments are planned in the planning area
and you expect a large increase in children joining schools
above the standard entry year;
- there is a drop or increase every year at a specific cohort due
to schools with unusual age ranges.
You will need to explain this in the note you attach to the query.
Year on year
check
e.g. comparison
of Year 7 forecast
in 2019 to 2020 to
Year 7 forecast in
2020 to 2021
We would not normally expect large fluctuations in pupil numbers
year on year, as we would expect schools to take a relatively stable
number of pupils each year.
This check is designed to encourage you to reflect on your forecasts
and check that what you have submitted does not contain any
mistakes.
It may be that the planning area does experience large fluctuations,
for example because it is rural and birth rates are highly variable.
You will need to explain this in the note you attach to the query.
27
Additional Places
Places added or
removed are not a
multiple of 15
In most scenarios, we would expect places to be removed in forms
of entry or half forms of entry. This is based on evidence from
previous CSD returns.
This check is designed to make sure that you are entering the data
in numbers of places rather than, for example, numbers of forms of
entry, and have not made any typing errors.
You will need to explain this in the note you attach to the query.
28
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