Pledge to speed up new school places for Lancashire, as three districts are revealed as having children left out of class

Defined as “children missing education”, their status is the result of factors including Brexit, “which saw a rapid increase in the movement of people, followed immediately by the pandemic, which has impacted on travel patterns into these areas”, Lancashire County Council's new school place provision strategy states.

At a recent cabinet meeting where the document was approved, members were told that “significant numbers” of school-aged children who are new to the country are settling in Preston, along with Burnley and Pendle, “where the pressure for school places may already be a concern”.

In Burnley, more than 60 percent of the pupils on the children missing education list have not previously attended a UK school, while in Preston and Pendle, the proportion is over a third. The situation means that there is a need for language and other support for families to help them through the school admissions process and any subsequent appeals.

A full council meeting back in October heard that some children in Burnley and Pendle had been out of class for over a year.

Under the new strategy, the county council says that it will try to address the problem by reducing the time it takes to secure a school place once the academic year has begun. A new pupil access system was introduced last month and there are also plans to improve support for families moving into Lancashire, including the development of a physical single point of contact via which they can access a variety of services.

Separately, right across the county, the process of creating new classrooms at schools in parts of Lancashire where there is a shortage of pupil places will be sped up.

It is one of a raft of measures contained in the new strategy, in which the authority has committed to a more “innovative” approach to ensuring that there are enough “high quality, accessible” places for the area's children.

The plan is to use standardised designs for new school premises and modern methods of construction - such as the off-site manufacture of additional accommodation - in order to shorten the time it takes to deliver extra space. That could include temporary facilities to allow for a rapid increase in places, with the buildings able to be removed at a later date if pupil numbers reduce.

It comes as falling birth rates have seen a drop in demand for primary school places in some areas, but increased pressure on secondary school capacity as more pupils move into that phase of their education.

Although the Lancashire birth rate has reduced by 6.5 percent in the last five years, primary places remain at a premium in districts where demand is being fuelled by new housing - specifically, parts of Preston, Wyre, Fylde and Ribble Valley, which have been identified as "hotspots". Seventeen place planning areas - in parts of Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Ribble Valley, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre are deemed "coldspots" (see full list below).