Every secondary school and special school in England will receive a visit from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) over the next two years, as part of a major exercise to measure the true size of the school estate.

The visits will take place as part of the Net Capacity Assessment (NCA) programme, which was first announced in June last year, but today has been updated with a raft of new information - including when each school can expect a visit and what that will entail.

Here’s everything you need to know.

What is the aim of the NCA?

In total, around 4,500 schools will be visited to help understand the capacity available in the school system to inform “published admission numbers, admission appeals, and the use of their school buildings for curriculum and estate planning”.

With this information, the Department for Education says it will not only allow existing schools to operate at optimal capacity but, where shortages are identified, better planning for the building of new schools can take place - or conversely where any closures may need to take place.

When will visits happen?

The DfE has published a list of when each secondary school and special school can expect its visit from VOA officers, in one of six tranches (the first of which has already passed and the second is underway) as below:

• Tranche 1: July 2023 - December 2023
• Tranche 2: January 2024 - April 2024
• Tranche 3: May 2024 - August 2024
• Tranche 4: September 2024 - December 2024
• Tranche 5: January 2025 - April 2025
• Tranche 6: May 2025 - August 2025

Schools can search for themselves via this downloadable Excel spreadsheet to see when the visit may occur.

Overall, around 800 visits will take place in each tranche, although the vast majority of special school visits are slated to occur within the first three tranches.

The DfE guidance document states that focusing on special schools will ensure it has an “accurate picture of the existing capacity of our special schools and help target capital for new places for children with SEND [special educational needs or disabilities] to areas where it is most needed”.

What will happen during a visit?

Before the visit takes place, the VOA will contact a school to confirm a date and time to visit and request existing site floor plans.

For schools with no floor plans, the VOA may commission new ones to be created, which may involve an external organisation visiting the school to draw these up. The DfE says, though, that it expects this to only be required in “exceptional circumstances” as such plans should exist within the school or local authority.

Someone from the school will also be required to meet with the VOA property assessor at the start and end of the site visit and confirm room uses with the assessor(s) during their visit.

What will be measured?

In terms of what they will measure, the guidance makes it clear almost all areas of a school will be accessed and included in the plans drawn up:

• All buildings on any site used by a school - including separate stores, garages and temporary buildings.
• Other buildings used by the school for at least 80 per cent of the school week.
• Circulation space.
• Open plan areas.

Also included in this work, but not in the final calculations for each site, will be:

• Early years and childcare facilities.
• Adult learning and skills facilities.
• Specially resourced facilities.
• Parents’ or community rooms and chapels.

How long will visits last?

Visits are expected to last for one to two days, depending on the size of the school.

When will reports be available?

Reports from each visit should be available within three to four months of the site visit, and this will be shared with the school, the responsible body, the local authority and the diocese, where appropriate.

The report should include the following information:

• Data on every room, including size, room type and room use.
• A summary of how many workplaces are available based on the number, size and use of rooms.
• How the number of workplaces is adjusted to allow for appropriate timetabling needs.
• The maximum and minimum capacity for the school - the capacity range.
• A final net capacity figure - based on a formula that takes account of the capacity range and the published admission number of the school.

There will be an opportunity for those that receive the report to point out any inaccuracies they believe exist in the final version.

Will schools have to change admission numbers after a report?

While there will not be an expectation that capacity changes happen immediately after a report is sent, it is clear one of the purposes of the NCA programme is for schools to potentially increase capacity in the future.

For example, for maintained schools under local authorities, the guidance says while there is “no requirement for the school to automatically update their capacity figure based on the NCA outcome”, there would be an expectation of a discussion between responsible bodies and local authorities regarding what would be an appropriate figure for the next School Capacity (SCAP) survey.

For academy trusts, meanwhile, it says as they are responsible for ensuring funding agreements contain accurate pupil capacity figures, the “outcomes from NCAs will help trusts ensure that this is the case” - ie, if the NCA report says you have a different capacity to before, you will have to use that when submitting a funding agreement.

Why are primary schools not included in the NCA programme?

A good question and one the DfE has anticipated with its guidance document, which states: “Demographic data shows that there is currently greater pressure on numbers of school paces [sic] in secondary school age groups.

“Also, a greater proportion of primary schools are still local authorities (LA) maintained and most LAs will still be maintaining and updating Net Capacity Assessments for them regularly.”

How often will the NCA programme take place?

The DfE says it does not intend for this to be a regular event but a one-off programme to ensure there is an accurate and up-to-date database of school capacity.

There will, though, be an expectation that schools and responsible bodies are aware of the importance of assessing capacity regularly.

The DfE hopes to publish the tools and methodology used for the NCA so schools and trusts can then use it themselves in the future.

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