REDUCED funding for Bradford Council to create more school places has been described as “a concern” but education bosses say it was expected with increasing numbers of academies and free schools in the district.

The Department for Education has awarded the authority £1,117,249 in “Basic Needs” funding for 2019/20, which is used to provide extra school spaces during that academic year.

It is a massive drop from the funding provided last year for 2018/19, when the Council was given £23.8 million - the highest funding level in years.

But it acknowledges that with fewer schools under its control such drop was likely.

Government policy means councils are not able to open new schools - they instead have to be opened as free schools or academy chains.

It means many future places are likely to be in schools that are outside council control.

The latest funding will be discussed by Bradford Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee tomorrow.

In response to the funding announcement, Councillor Imran Khan, the executive member for education, employment and skills said: “It is obviously a concern that Bradford’s Basic Need Funding allocation for 2019/20 is lower than the amount we received last year.

“However the £23 million allocated last year was significantly higher than the district has ever received before and will help us to meet demand for future places.

“We also know that new school places will be provided in the district with the creation of free schools and three more have been approved by the DfE.

“We have a meeting with the DfE this month where we aim to establish how many extra school places can be provided in total by council maintained schools, academies and free schools.

“We are also waiting to see whether our bid to open a new special education needs free school will be approved by the DfE. This is a key priority for us.

“We will always fight Bradford’s corner to ensure the district gets the funding it needs to provide school places.

“The DfE also announced capital improvement allocations with the authority’s schools receiving £3,718,970 with a further £1,524,922 for voluntary aided schools in the district.

“This figure has reduced from last year, which reflects the fact that 36 schools have transferred to become academies between April 1 2016 and February 1 2017.”