FAQs - What Needs to be Measured/Measured but Excluded Areas

Early years/ reception

1. Should 'reception' classrooms for children between 3 and 5 years old be classified as nursery or classbase accommodation?

A. Some LEAs include reception classes in their Early Years and Childcare Development Plan. With the recent introduction of the 'Foundation Stage Curriculum', it is increasingly common for children from 3-5 years to be taught in shared accommodation within a school 'Early Years' unit. Where reception classes are incorporated within 'nursery' or 'early years' provision, the accommodation involved should be measured but can be excluded from the capacity calculation by being marked with an 'E', as long as the LEA enters the normal year of admission on page 1 of the form as 'Y1' rather than 'R' (the number of years will therefore be 6 not 7 in a 'normal' primary school, although the admission number will continue to apply to the reception year). Otherwise, if the reception year is included in the admission details, the accommodation these pupils use should be included in the assessment. The LEA should be clear whether reception classes are part of Early years provision or not, but if there is any overlap in the use of facilities, the former approach is the simpler one.

Private nurseries

2. Can accommodation used as a nursery by a registered private provider (rather than the LEA) still be excluded from the net capacity by marking it with an 'E'?

A. To be excluded as 'Early Years Provision' by marking with an 'E', we would normally expect early years/childcare facilities to be part of the Local Authority's Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership Development Plan (or that they are going to be included in the near future). Where the LEA has not approved such use, the spaces involved should be included in the assessment although they need not be marked as classbases or teaching spaces.

'Part-time' early years provision

3. Should accommodation used for part of the day for early years still be designated on a pro-rata basis, as in the draft guidance (e.g. 50% school use and 50% pre-school group, effectively giving half the measurement)?

A. If the accommodation used for Early Years is available to the school for less than 20% of the normal school week, it can be excluded from the net capacity assessment by being marked with an 'E' at step 4, as long as the use is approved by the LEA. However, accommodation which is part of the school premises and is available to the school for 20% or more of the normal school week should be included in the net capacity assessment, although it need not be marked as a classbase with a 'C'.

'Non-LEA' early years provision

4. How should playgroups using school buildings through local arrangements (not part of the LEA nursery provision) be treated in the assessment? Do they come under the specially resourced facilities which may also apply to other users?

A. The definition of 'Non-school and Support Provision' has been developed to take account of the Government's current policy of encouraging governors to instigate use of school premises for childcare, family learning, etc. However, non-school use of facilities should still have the agreement of the LEA and be unavailable to the school for at least 80% of the normal school week if it is to be excluded from the net capacity of the school. To count as 'specially resourced', the premises related costs of maintaining the accommodation should be covered by specialist funding from the Local Authority or other sources (e.g. a private Early Years provider).

Sure start

5. We have a number of schools which operate the 'Sure Start' scheme with classrooms provided for young (pre-nursery) children and their families in deprived areas. Should these areas be measured and treated as being in line with the advice on other Early Years provision and given status 'E'?

A. Yes. If accommodation used for Sure Start is not available to the school then it can normally be measured but excluded from the capacity calculation by being marked with an 'E' at step 4 of the net area schedule.

Non-net area in non-school provision

6. A nursery that is part of the main school block has teaching space that is included in the net area and then marked with an 'E', but there is also a kitchen, toilets, cloaks etc. Is the toilet area excluded from the net area and is it marked with an 'E'? Are the cloaks included and marked with an 'E' or a 'U'? What about the kitchen?

Net area includes and excludes the same things in relation to nursery accommodation as the rest of the school, so the toilets would be excluded and need not be listed (unless you are listing all spaces, in which case, the area of toilets should be entered in the 'non-net area' column and an 'E' entered in the 'status' column). Spaces in the net area, such as the cloaks area, should be entered in the net area column and marked with an 'E' (although, if it were part of the school, it might be marked with a 'U', if large enough to have basic workplaces). Assuming the kitchen is a small 'kitchenette' used by staff rather than a kitchen used for preparing school meals it should also be included in the net area of the nursery and marked with an 'E'.

'Wraparound' childcare

7. How should 'wraparound' childcare facilities be treated in the assessment?

A. 'Wraparound' provision generally involves the use of school facilities outside the normal school day and therefore does not have an impact on capacity. Non-school provision should only be excluded if it is not normally available to the school during the school day.

'Before and after school clubs'

8. We have a number of 'before and after school clubs'. Generally, these occupy a mobile classroom or rooms no longer used for teaching and they are often operated by private individuals who pay a rent to the LEA. How should these be treated?

A. Normally we would expect 'before and after school clubs' to be included in the assessment because they are only used outside the normal school day and therefore do not affect the capacity of the school. However, if the 'club' is located in accommodation which is not available to the school during the normal school day (e.g. a mobile which is locked when not in use by the club) and is significantly supported by separate funding (in this case a reasonable rent payment), the LEA can designate it a 'specially resourced' facility and it can be excluded from the assessment by being marked with an 'R'.

Meaning of 'LEA designated'

9. Does the term 'LEA designated' mean it is an LEA resourced facility or that the LEA is designating this as an area not in use by the school?

A. 'LEA designated' means the LEA approves that the accommodation is not available to be used by the school because it is used for one of the three types of non-school and support provision described in 'Assessing the Net Capacity of Schools' (pages 12-13). Depending on the type of provision, the accommodation may be resourced by the LEA, but provision can still be described as 'LEA designated' even if funding comes from another source.

Funding for specially resourced facilities

10. Several of our secondary schools are creating Learning Support Units (LSUs). They will be maintained by the LEA and funded through the LMS formula but are not included in the published admission number of the school. Should these be included in the capacity calculations?

A. Although funding may go through the LMS formula, it is additional funding made available specifically to support these facilities. LSUs therefore count as 'specially resourced' facilities for the purposes of net capacity. They should therefore be measured but excluded from the capacity calculation by being marked with an 'R' at step 4 of the net area schedule (they will thereby also be excluded from the indicated admission number).

Limits on excluded provision

11. How many 'specially resourced' spaces can be excluded by marking with an 'R'?

A. There is no limit to the number of spaces that can be marked with an 'R' as long as they are 'specially resourced' in some way.

SEN rooms

12. Many primary and secondary schools have a space that they refer to as a 'special needs base' or 'special needs classroom'. These are not specially resourced facilities but spaces which are available to mainstream pupils who may need learning or behavioural support through the day. Should these spaces be included as teaching spaces and marked with a 'T' in secondary schools or should they be marked with an 'R'.

A. The spaces you describe should not be marked with an 'R'. Whether they are marked with a 'T' will depend on their use - if the space is deemed to be available for teaching or learning then it should be marked with a 'T', otherwise it will not have a status letter at step 4.

13. How can I exclude SEN rooms from the net capacity?

A. Although, SEN rooms are not excluded from the capacity calculation by being given a status letter at step 4 (as they were in the draft methodology published in AMPs Section 5), the basic workplace allowance (box 's') has been increased to 75 to allow every school to have basic workplaces in spaces such as the hall, staff room and an SEN base, that will not count towards the capacity.

Fire-damaged accommodation

14. A school has classrooms that have been badly damaged by fire and as the school is going to be upgraded next year the classrooms are not going to be repaired at this time. This accommodation cannot be used and a 'mobile' will be used in its place (as a temporary stopgap). Do I include the areas of the existing classrooms, or the mobile, or both, in the capacity assessment?

A. Although not strictly 'condemned as structurally unsafe' by the LEA, the fire-damaged classrooms cannot be used at present, hence the need for the 'mobile' so the most accurate representation of the capacity would be to omit the fire damaged accommodation that is not in use from the net area and to include the details of the mobile (assuming that the upgrading mentioned is not due to happen until after the June deadline for net capacity assessments to be completed). When the accommodation is upgraded and if/when the mobile is taken away again the LEA will be responsible for ensuring that the schedule is updated.

Uncompleted/ new accommodation

15. Should we include mobile classrooms which are due to arrive on site after the capacity assessment is completed? We have the mobiles' details, including its proposed use, and a confirmed date of arrival.

A. In theory all net capacity assessments should be completed as at June 2002. Where accommodation cannot be measured at the time the assessment is actually made, the net area schedule should be updated as necessary before the net capacity is submitted to us as part of the Sufficiency data. If one or more mobiles are due to arrive on a site before June 2002 they should therefore be included in the net capacity assessment. Subject to confirmation of the arrival of the mobile(s) on a given date, and the details (areas and use) of the accommodation being available, the accommodation could be added to the net area schedule before it actually arrives.

If building work is due to be completed by September 2002 but is not finished in June the assessment can be made according to the accommodation that will be there (i.e. from the proposed plans).

Shared accommodation

16. A single school building is occupied by two schools with separate DfES establishment numbers. They have shared areas such as the dining and assembly halls. Should we be trying to apportion the areas between the two schools somehow? Or should they all be included in the assessment for one school with the other referenced to it?

A. The spaces should really be allocated to one school or the other. Even if both schools have access for around 50% of the time, the LEA and schools will need to try to come to an agreement on which establishment is the majority user. The spaces should not be included as part of both schools, but equally they cannot be excluded from the assessments. Where there is more than one space involved, it may be possible to 'share' the spaces involved between the two schools, e.g. one school has the dining space and the other has the assembly hall. In some cases, if a single large space such as a hall is shared it may be acceptable to divide the area of the space between the two schools, but this can lead to disproportionate numbers of workplaces being allocated so advice should be sought from the DfES on individual cases.

Joint-use sports facilities

17. Some of our secondary schools have joint-use sports halls. In addition to the spaces that are used by the school (sports hall and changing facilities), the buildings also contain spaces, such as squash courts, fitness rooms and small halls, which are not available to the school. Should these spaces be included in the net area and if so are they excluded from capacity by using an appropriate letter?

A. If the building is on the school site and is maintained (or part of it is maintained) as a school building, then the spaces that are available to the school should be included in the same way as any other school accommodation. If the spaces that are not available to the school are also separately funded in some way they should be listed, including the area in the net area column as appropriate, and marked 'R'.

Non-maintained facilities that are available to the school for 80% or more of the normal school week should be included (by measuring and listing the net area) in the assessment as though they are part of the school. Spaces in non-maintained accommodation that are not available to the school or are available for less than 80% of the normal school week need not be measured and listed as part of the assessment.