Schools: Facilities
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage schools in high-density constituencies such as Leicester East to open sports facilities to accredited grassroots charities during winter evenings and weekends.
Answered by Department for Education
The department encourages schools to make their facilities available to benefit their wider communities outside core school hours, where appropriate. Governing bodies of maintained schools have powers to provide community use of their facilities, and, whilst recognising the need to work with the relevant freeholder, academy funding agreements outline the expectation that academies play a similar role in their local communities.
The department does not set hire charges for school facilities. Decisions on access arrangements and pricing are made at a local level by the school, academy trust or, where relevant, landowner, accounting for individual circumstances and operating costs.
The department is committed to improving access to high-quality sports and recreational facilities, with an over £1 billion investment announced on 21 May 2026 for school sports and their facilities. Almost £200 million of this investment will support schools to improve their sporting facilities, for the benefit of pupils and local communities.
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