Short-sighted school closures at odds with Government's housebuilding ambitions

Columnist Did you know with a Digital subscription to Yorkshire Post, you can get access to all of our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Too swift to wield the axe, it is leaving children traumatised, communities bereft and taking irreversible decisions over school closures with no thought whatsoever for the future. Lord Bradley, the committee's chair, acknowledges that in England, 'birth rates have been falling for several years' and 'as a result it is unsurprising that primary school enrolment is declining'. However, he contends that the government has not thought long and hard enough about how to deal with this. His committee remains 'unconvinced that the Department for Education has fully come to grips with what is required to tackle declining rolls in an effective manner'. In other words, government has been far too quick to sanction the closure of schools facing substantial drops in pupil numbers - in the name of cost-cutting, clearly - and is not considering the effect on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children facing the loss of their familiar learning environment and being forced to seek new schools further away from their homes. How many of the 6,269 children aged six to nine who attended an A&E department with mental health problems last year - a shocking rise of 62 per cent for such visits since 2019 - had been affected by uncertainties over their schooling? It's impossible to tell, but as the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), which carried out this new research warns, more children are 'reaching crisis point' than ever. Thousands have been waiting at least 12 hours in A&E with problems such as self-harm, anxiety or eating disorders. In total, 75,491 children under the age of 18 attended emergency departments with a mental health concern in 2025, up 36 per cent since 2019. Rates have risen highest among primary school-aged children. This most vulnerable group of youngsters, who should be starting out in life happy and positive, is already worryingly in crisis. Shutting down schools is only going to make matters worse. On its own, this kind of concern should surely make any government minister sit up and take action. However, there is also the major matter of future planning. Once a school is closed, its existing pupils perhaps merged with another, it is usually almost impossible to re-open it again. This is where we need some serious joined-up thinking. This government has vowed to deliver 1.5 million new homes by the end of its parliamentary term in 2029. Although such an ambitious target is looking difficult to achieve, all around the country new housing developments are springing up. Too often, these new homes are being finished surrounded by insufficient infrastructure to turn bricks and mortar into liveable communities. Along with GP surgeries, shops and socialising spaces, these putative communities need their own schools. With such a major national housebuilding programme underway, and by no means all new development signed, sealed and sited as yet, where is the sense in removing from the equation such a key cornerstone? Last year, researchers at the Education Policy Institute (EPI) found that at least 800 primary schools across England could fall empty or close by the end of this decade. Although falling birthrates are a significant factor, this situation is massively magnified in London, where increasing numbers of families are being driven out by rising living costs, moving back abroad or deciding to leave the state sector and educate their children privately - there being a competitive number of independent schools in the capital. The EPI found that nine of the 10 local authorities with the largest declines in primary school pupil numbers were in London, with the boroughs of Islington, Lambeth and Southwark expected to have the steepest declines in numbers over the next five years. Are we looking then at the government applying the rules of London to the rest of the country? As we know, we do things differently in the regions. If a school is losing pupils in London due to a wide range of factors, that is a very different proposition to a village school in Yorkshire which may well end up over-subscribed in the next few years should hundreds, even thousands, of new homes come along.