Education Act 1996

Eligibility

184 Schools eligible for grant-maintained status

(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3) below, any county or voluntary school is for the purposes of this Part eligible for grant-maintained status.

(2) A county or voluntary school is not eligible for grant-maintained status if proposals by the local education authority to cease to maintain the school have been published under section 167 and either—

(a) the proposals have been approved by the Secretary of State under section 169, or

(b) where the proposals do not require the approval of the Secretary of State, the local education authority have determined to implement the proposals and notified the Secretary of State of their determination in accordance with section 170(3).

(3) A voluntary school is not eligible for grant-maintained status if—

(a) notice of the governing body’s intention to discontinue the school has been served under section 173 and has not been withdrawn, or

(b) proposals by the governing body to discontinue the school have been published under section 41 (as applied by section 175(2)(b)) and approved by the Secretary of State under section 43 (as so applied).

185 Duty of governing body to consider ballot on grant-maintained status

(1) The Secretary of State may by order provide for this section to apply to the governing bodies of all schools, or all schools in England or Wales, which are eligible for grant-maintained status.

(2) Where this section applies to a governing body of a school, they shall, at least once in every school year, consider whether to hold a ballot of parents on the question whether grant-maintained status should be sought for the school.

(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in respect of any school year if a ballot has been held in accordance with section 189 in the school year which precedes it.

(4) The annual report of any governing body to which this section applies shall include—

(a) a statement indicating that in the period since their last report the governing body have considered whether to hold a ballot of parents in pursuance of subsection (2) and giving—

(i) particulars of any decisions made by the governing body following such consideration and the date or dates on which they were made, and

(ii) if the governing body decided not to hold a ballot, an explanation of the reasons for that decision, or

(b) a statement indicating that in that period the governing body have not, for the reasons given in the statement, considered whether to hold a ballot of parents on the question of whether grant-maintained status should be sought for the school.

(5) In this section “annual report” means the report prepared under the articles of government for the school in accordance with section 161.