Overview

From 2023 to 2025, the Department for Education’s (DfE’s) NCA programme will ensure that accurate and up-to-date information on pupil capacity is available for every government-funded mainstream secondary school and special school in England.

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will visit approximately 4,500 schools in England to collect data on pupil capacity.

The VOA will:

• measure rooms
• record room types
• use the NCA tool and methodology to calculate the number of childrenpupils a school can accommodate, based on the size and use of the spaces available

NCA reports will be shared with:

• schools
• local authorities
• dioceses
• multi-academy trusts

NCA programme guide

Further information can be found in the NCA programme guide (PDF, 177 KB, 13 pages).

Benefits

The benefits of the the NCA programme programme include:

• identifying spare capacity where demand for places is high
• providing a complete record of pupil capacity in special schools for the first time
• more effective use of space and curriculum planning
• independent verification of capacity for admissions and appeals
• providing more accurate information for responding to emergencies, such as school places for refugee children

Guidance on the NCA programme

Further information can be found in the NCA programme guide (PDF, 177 KB, 13 pages).

How to read your NCA report

Guidance on how to read your NCA report is available for:

• mainstream schools (PDF, 219 KB, 3 pages)
• special schools (PDF, 218 KB, 3 pages)

Scheduled school site visits

Find out the dates of school site visits using the tranche list (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 487483 KB).

Assessment NCA tool and area guidelines

DfE has also published:

• athe tool used to carry out net capacity assessment
• guidelines on the area of school buildings and grounds, and the number of pupil places available