Guidance

Net capacity assessment programme for primary schools

Find out about the net capacity assessment (NCA) programme, when school site visits will take place and how to read your NCA report.

From:
Department for Education
Published
9 June 2023
Last updated
18 September 2025 — See all updates

Applies to England

Overview

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

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) will visit primary 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, 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:

  • identification of spare capacity where demand for places is high
  • more effective use of space and curriculum planning
  • independent verification of capacity for admissions and appeals
  • accurate information to help respond to new policies and developments, such as breakfast clubs and additional childcare places

Guidance

Further guidance can be found in the NCA programme guide (PDF, 337 KB, 11 pages) and How to read your NCA report (mainstream schools) (PDF, 234 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, 45.5 KB).

NCA tool and area guidelines

DfE has also published:

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:

Updates to this page

Published 9 June 2023
Last updated 18 September 2025 show all updates

  1. Added information on the NCA programme for primary schools. Updated the tranche list, NCA programme guide and guidance for mainstream schools on how to read your NCA report.

  2. Updated the tranche list. Added 'How to read your net capacity assessment (NCA) report' guidance for mainstream and special schools respectively.

  3. Updated 'tranche list' document.

  4. Updated 'tranche list' document.

  5. Updated 'tranche list' document.

  6. We have updated the programme guide and tranche list, and added a link to a tool to carry out net capacity assessment.

  7. First published.

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