The first clause of the Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 is the duty placed on LEAs and Schools to have no classes of over 30 in Key Stage 1 by September 2001.

In order to monitor authorities' progress LEAs were required to write a class sizes plan and have it approved. The implementation of the plan required a great deal of work to justify changes in standard numbers and their admission limits in order to ensure compliance.  Throughout the life of the plan there have been opportunities to bid for contingency funding.

There have been monitoring statements to the DfES and capital and revenue allocations to support the plan plus detailed statistical returns on progress.  In addition the Research and Statistics team have undertaken class size counts in September each year.

Birmingham is on target although some problems have arisen.  These are mainly where schools with an admission limit which is a multiple of 30 experience falling rolls - they might have an intake of, say 32, for which it is difficult to fund two teachers through the formula. As the DfES contingency money reduces the authority will need to address this.