Net capacity assessment programme for primary schools

Overview

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

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

VOA will:

• measure rooms
• record room types
• use the NCA tool and methodology to calculate the number of pupils a school can accommodate,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

Benefits

The benefits of the NCA programme include:

• identifyingidentification of 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 forto respondinghelp respond to emergencies,new policies and developments, such as schoolbreakfast placesclubs forand refugeeadditional childrenchildcare places

Guidance on the NCA programme

Further informationguidance can be found in the NCA programme guide (PDF, 177337 KB, 1311 pages).

How toand read How your NCA report

• mainstream schoolsschools) (PDF, 219234 KB, 3 pages)
• special schools (PDF, 218 KB, 3 pages)

Scheduled school site visits

We have published the list of primary schools to be visited between September and December 2025 in the first tranche. Once final approvals are received, we will publish an update with a full tranche list.

Find out the dates of school site visits using the tranche list (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 48345.5 KB).

NCA tool and area guidelines

DfE has also published:

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

NCA programme for secondary schools and special schools

The primary school programme follows the successful 2023 to 2025 programme that ensured that accurate, up-to-date information on pupil capacity is available for government-funded mainstream secondary schools and special schools.

Guidance on how to read your NCA report for the secondary and special school phase is available for:

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