This methodology provides information on the data sources and measures used in the ‘Scorecards 2025’ release. For more detail on the methodology see the technical notes tab in the Scorecard (opens in new tab).
Local authority school places scorecards
- Published
- Last updated
See all notes (2)
Updated to reflect the 2025 scorecard
June 2023
Introduction
Quantity of school places measures
The ‘quantity’ measures in the scorecard data have been derived from three data sources:
- School Capacity survey (SCAP) – an annual survey returned by local authorities that collects information on the topics listed below. Further detail is available at School capacity survey: guide for local authorities - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) (opens in new tab)
- School capacity
- Pupil forecasts, including forecasts of the number of places to be funded through housing developer contribution (HDC) and housing infrastructure fund (HIF) agreements
- Local authority planned places, including additional permanent places, permanent places to be removed and temporary bulge places to accommodate large cohorts.
- School Census – a termly census of all schools in England, used to provide pupil number on roll figures.
- DfE Central Programmes data – administrative data about the provision of places through centrally funded programmes.
The number of pupils on roll from the School Census 2009/10, 2014/15, 2018/19 and 2025/26 have been used to calculate actual change in pupil numbers.
The number of pupil on roll from the School Census 2025/26 and pupil forecasts for 2027/28 from the SCAP survey have been used to calculate anticipated change in pupil numbers 2025/26 to 2027/28. This provides context when assessing the number of places that have been created and are yet to be delivered. Anticipated change in pupil numbers should be viewed in conjunction with an LA’s forecast accuracy. Low one-year ahead forecast accuracy may result in the anticipated change in pupil numbers not being representative of the trend of an LA’s pupil forecasts.
Places created (difference in school capacity between May 2025 and May 2010 as per local authority survey return) reports net increase in places only, so if phase capacity in a local authority has reduced between May 2010 and May 2025, this is recorded as zero places created. This means that the sum of the LA-level figures will not equal the overall increase in places at national level.
Planned places are the number of places planned for delivery from 2025/26 to 2027/28 and represent an LA’s firm plans for new permanent additional places, places to be removed, new temporary bulge places as well as capacity changes (increases and decreases) from Central Programmes. These include Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), School Building Programme (SRP), Voluntary aided (VA) scheme, the Selective Schools Expansion Fund (SSEF) as well as places from Free Schools opened in September 2025, those planned to open in September 2026 and reduction in places from Free School and academy closures.
Estimated number of additional places still needed to meet demand and estimated spare places relate to the academic year 2027/28. These estimates factor in existing capacity reported as at 1 May 2025, additional capacity and places to be removed from LAs’ planned places and additional capacity being provided through centrally funded programmes (e.g. Free Schools). This capacity is then compared with the forecasts provided by the local authorities to estimate the number of places needed to meet demand in addition to places to be provided by local authorities and through Central Programmes.
places needed = forecast demand - (existing capacity + additional capacity).
The comparison of demand and capacity takes place for each national curriculum year group within each planning area to estimate places needed in each. The estimates in the scorecard do not allow for spare capacity in one year group or planning area to be off-set against need in another or vice-versa. This approach avoids the risk of spare places in one or more planning areas masking areas of need for additional places in planning areas elsewhere in the local authority. The estimated need for additional places is aggregated to planning area level and then to LA level. Similarly spare place estimates are aggregated to planning area and then LA level. It is common for an LA to have both a need for additional places and spare places, reflecting pockets of localised need or pockets of localised spare places.
For further information on the methodology used, see the School Place Planning Estimates Technical Guidance 2025.
Care should be taken when interpretating these estimates. Please refer to the technical guidance.
Forecast accuracy measure
Forecast accuracy quantifies how well LAs predicted pupil numbers on roll for academic year 2025/26. The measure is a comparison of actual pupil numbers from January 2026 School Census, against LA pupil forecasts for academic year 2025/26 made one year previously in SCAP 25 and three years previously in SCAP 23. Primary forecast accuracy is calculated by subtracting the years R-6 actual numbers from the years R-6 forecasts to give the absolute inaccuracy. Absolute inaccuracy is then divided by the R-6 actual number to give the relative percentage inaccuracy. The same is done for secondary but using years 7-11. Positive percentages denote an over forecast and negative percentages denote an under forecast.
Quality of new and existing school places
To derive the quality of places, all schools found in the school capacity survey have been matched with the following data:
- Ofsted Inspection data (opens in new tab)
- For scorecard years 2023/24 and earlier – each school has been matched with the Ofsted judgement of 'Overall effectiveness: how good is the school’ as at 31 August of the appropriate year (published in November). At the time, there were four Ofsted categories: 'Outstanding', 'Good', 'Requires improvement' and 'Inadequate'.
- For scorecard years 2024/25 and later – each school has been matched to its Ofsted judgement as at 31 August of the appropriate year (published in November). For inspections which took place after 1 September 2023, schools were given graded judgements across four areas: ‘Quality of education’, ‘Behaviour and attitudes’, ‘Personal development’, ‘Leadership and management’. These graded judgements are used in the scorecard. For schools which have not had an inspection since 1 September 2023, the ‘Overall effectiveness’ grade has been used in the scorecard in place of each judgement area. There are four Ofsted categories: 'Outstanding', 'Good', 'Requires improvement' and 'Inadequate'.
- Progress 8 (opens in new tab) – secondary schools are matched with the Progress 8 data for academic year ending July 2024 (published February 2025). There are 5 possible Progress 8 bandings: ‘well above average’, ‘above average’, ‘average’, ‘below average’ and ‘well below average’. It is not possible to calculate Progress 8 for academic years ending July 2025, as there is no Key Stage 2 (KS2) prior attainment data available to use to calculate Progress 8 (due to the relevant cohort’s primary tests and assessments being cancelled in academic years 2019 to 2020 due to COVID-19 disruption).
- Key stage 2 reading and maths progress (opens in new tab) – primary schools are matched with key stage 2 reading and maths progress for academic year ending July 2023 (published December 2023). The 5 possible progress bandings are the same as listed above for Progress 8. It is not possible to calculate KS2 progress measures for academic years ending July 2024 and July 2025. This is because there is no relevant KS1 data required to calculate KS2 progress measures for these cohorts, as primary tests and assessments were cancelled in academic years 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 due to COVID-19 disruption.
- Get Information About Schools (opens in new tab) – the following school types, identified using GIAS have been excluded:
- former independent schools which have not had an inspection since opening
- sponsored academies which have not had an Ofsted inspection since opening as an academy
- schools that have amalgamated and have not been inspected since amalgamation.
New places are identified as an increase in capacity of 30 places or more between May 2024 and May 2025 at each school. The calculation counts the number of new places that have been created in schools of each Ofsted category and the number of existing school places in each category.
The quality measure represents the point in time when places were added; this is not necessarily the same quality as when the LA decided to add those places.
Cost of providing additional school places
Cost refers to the average cost per place of permanent expansion, temporary expansion and new build projects from local authority reported projects in 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18, adjusted for inflation (rebased to 1st Quarter prices) and regional variation. The cost data used in the scorecard remains the Capital Spend Data from SCAP18.
Average cost does not include costs associated with land acquisition but does include costs associated with maintenance and building condition or enhancement works.
This data can be used to help establish developer contributions per school place. The national average costs, adjusted for regional location factors, are shown in the scorecard. See technical notes in scorecard for more information on how to adjust this further for inflation.
Additional data sources
School preference refers to the proportion of applicants who received an offer of a place in one of their top three preference schools for entry in September 2025 and September 2026 in the selected local authority and in England. Data and more information on methodology can be found here: Secondary and primary school applications and offers, Academic year 2025/26 – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK (explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk)
Total basic need funding 2011 to 2028 refers to the total amount of basic need capital funding that the Department for Education (DfE) has allocated to each local authority to support them to create new mainstream primary and secondary places from 2011 to 2028. Data and more information on methodology can be found here: Basic need allocations. (opens in new tab)
Help and support
Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about Local authority school places scorecards statistics and data:
Pupil Place Planning team
Email: SCAP.PPP@education.gov.ukContact name: Josie Brett
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