Ministers plan to send capacity checkers into all secondary schools to see if they can fit in more pupils.
Local authorities could then use the updated numbers to force schools to take more pupils, documents obtained by Schools Week reveal.
Government officials also believe the checks would help to boost funding – as schools could take in more pupils – and would relieve pressure on the government to build new schools to meet any rise in pupil numbers.
A pilot involving “net capacity assessment” (NCA) visits in more than 200 mainstream schools found 6,000 potential extra places, the documents show.
