19 April 2007
24.Section 5 makes amendments to sections 49 and 50 of the 1980 Act regarding the relevance of the nutritional requirements to arrangements made by education authorities with independent schools.
25.Subsection (1) inserts a new subsection (2ZA) into section 49 of the 1980 Act. Under subsection (2)(b) of section 49 an education authority has the power to pay fees on behalf of a pupil attending a fee-paying school. This could happen if the pupil (who must be a pupil in respect of whom the education authority owe a duty to provide school education for) or the pupil’s parents would suffer hardship in taking advantage of educational facilities available to the pupil. New subsection (2ZA) provides that before the education authority decides to use this power to pay fees in relation to a pupil going to an independent school, the authority must have regard to the factor set out in new section 50A of the 1980 Act.
26.Subsection (2) inserts a new subsection (1ZA) into section 50 of the 1980 Act. Under subsection (1) of section 50 an education authority has to make special arrangements for a pupil (in respect of whom the education authority is responsible for providing school education for) if the authority is of the opinion that either;
special arrangements are necessary due to the remoteness of the pupil’s home or other exceptional circumstances; or
school education suitable to the age, ability and aptitude of the pupil can best be provided for the pupil at a specific school.
27.New subsection (1ZA) is concerned with the second of these possible reasons for special arrangements. Specifically, it deals with the situation where an education authority is deciding whether it is best for a pupil to attend a specific school and that school is an independent school. Subsection (1ZA) provides that, in those circumstances, the authority must, in coming to its decision under subsection (1) of section 50, take into account the factor set out in new section 50A.
28.Subsection (3) inserts a new section 50A into the 1980 Act. Section 50A states that the factor that has to be taken into account under new sections 49(2ZA) and 50(1ZA) is the extent to which any food and drink which is provided to pupils at the independent school in question would comply with the regulations specifying nutritional requirements, if those regulations applied to independent schools. The duty to comply with the nutritional requirements under new section 56A(1) of the 1980 Act (inserted by section 3 of the Act) does not apply to independent schools and regulations under that section cannot be made in respect of independent schools. So where an education authority wishes to make an arrangement with an independent school under section 49 or 50, new section 50A provides that they must look at the regulations made under section 56A(1) as if they did apply to the independent school in question.