Ex-Cameron adviser follows the data to where free schools are needed

From Get West London:

'We set up the charity seven months ago and started off by looking at studies by the Greater London Assembly into where in the capital was in most need of primary schools...'

Floreat Education... is solely focused on opening up new primary free schools across London, and Brentford (Hounslow) is one of the first places it is hoping to do this. (It has also taken over an academy in Wandsworth/Earlsfield)


James O’Shaughnessy - (related research) and his team started talking to parents in the area last week to see how they feel about a new school and to let people know what their vision is.'

According to the report he was:
1 David Cameron’s former head of policy between 2010 and 2011
2 Before that he was director of the Conservative research department where he wrote the Party’s general election manifesto.
3 Prior to that he was deputy director of Policy Exchange
4 He started with Conservative Central Office in 2001 as a special adviser to the then shadow education secretary, Damien Green.

The paper said Floreat was working with: Jubilee Centre at the University of Birmingham; Cuckoo Hall Academies Trust and Wellington College.


From Hounslow's Local Plan Consultation:

'According to GLA population projections, the number of school-age children in the borough will continue to increase over the first ten years of the plan period and then begin to stabilise and decline. Additional school places will be needed for all types of statutory education provision; with significant demand for secondary places emerging around 2017 as those born during the initial population rise reach later stages in their education. Planning for school expansion and provision should take into account that population change is likely to peak and trough and unsustainable overprovision of facilities is a potential risk. Temporary places and facilities should therefore be provided when and where appropriate.

8.11 Free schools will also provide new school places within the borough. The provision of free schools is supported where the school is likely to meet an identified need for places within the borough. The need for school places should be regularly reviewed to take account of the provision of places through free schools in the borough.'