Section 12 Planning the local curriculum (section 116I of the Education Act 2002)
43.A local authority’s decision as to which courses of study to include within its local curricula under section 116A will be heavily dependent upon local educational capacity. There will be little point in including courses that local schools and Further Education Institutions are not geared up to deliver. Accordingly, this section requires those responsible for delivering 14 to 16 education within a local education authority’s area to assist the authority in planning its local curricula.
44.Subsection (1) specifies that the following people must assist the local authority in this regard:
the governing body of any maintained secondary school in the authority’s area;
the head teacher of any such school;
the governing body of an institution within the further education sector situated in the authority’s area; and
the principal of any such further education institution.
45.Subsection (2) defines “planning the local curriculum or curricula” as the process by which a local education authority decides which courses of study to include in a local curriculum or curricula. Subsection (3) provides for the Welsh Ministers to issue guidance and give directions as to the exercise of a person’s functions under this section and requires those persons to have regard to the guidance and comply with directions.
46.This section does not prevent plans being made for cross-authority co-operation in the delivery of local curriculum courses, for example the delivery of a course of study by a Further Education Institution on behalf of schools from a different local education authority area to that in which the institution is situated. But any such arrangement will be voluntary and not subject to the duty and central (Welsh Minister) controls provided for in this section.
