Consultation regarding a new primary school, East Leake Planning Area

Overview

By law, all new schools in England must be opened as Free Schools, set up and run by Multi-Academy Trusts. The process by which local authorities establish a new Free School, and the Secretary of State appoints a Multi-Academy Trust to run it, is known as the Free School Presumption.

Before embarking on the launch of a Free School Presumption competition, local authorities are encouraged by the Department for Education to conduct local consultation. The aims of this are twofold:

• to publicise the need for a new school among the local stakeholder community and potential sponsors.
• feedback gathered through consultation will be valuable and contribute to formulating and finalising the Local Authority’s specification for a new school before its publication.

Nottinghamshire County Council is therefore conducting a local consultation prior to the initiation of a Free School Presumption. This consultation is in accordance with the Department for Education advice as published in ‘Establishing a new academy: the free school presumption route, (p.8), DfE, May 2024. See:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/844346/Free_school_presumption_051119.pdf