Primary School Places in Southwark

I'm sure a lot of readers will have been following the ongoing news coverage about the shortage of primary school places in London. Nunhead hasn't had too much of a problem so far, but there were problems this year in East Dulwich and the latest projections suggest that extra places will be needed here soon too.

I've been doing a lot of work on this in my role as Chair of Overview & Scrutiny on the council. My committee conducted a scrutiny investigation into the situation this year in East Dulwich and the what the council can do to prevent further problems next year and beyond. There is a lot of comment on this on the East Dulwich Forum, the Peckham Rye Labour blog and the draft scrutiny report is now available.

Given that this year's problems seemed to be largely caused by a failure of the council to predict the increase in demand, I was surprised to see the Leader of Southwark Council quoted in yesterday's Evening Standard ignoring this fact and trying to lay the blame entirely at the government's door. I agree that London will need more funding to cater for the baby boom, but the Council and GLA must also set it's house in order to make sure that the money goes to the right places.

You can read that article here and today they have published a letter from me on the subject. Letters don't seem to have make it onto their website, so here's the text.

It seems Cllr Nick Stanton, London Councils’ schools spokesman, wants to have it both ways – demanding greater devolved powers for councils one week, then trying to pass the buck back to government over primary school places the next.
This year, in large part due to inaccurate Greater London Authority projections many London local authorities grossly underestimated the demand for places - including Southwark, led by Cllr Stanton.
Following a scrutiny investigation I have no doubt Southwark and many other London councils will need large amounts of additional government funding. But unless London Councils and the GLA also address how they got it so wrong this year how can Londoners be confident that the money will be used to provide the extra places where they are needed?
Cllr Fiona Colley
Southwark Council