The Education (School Information) (England) Regulations 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations revoke and re-enact with amendments the Education (School Information) (England) Regulations 1998 as amended by the Education (School Information) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 1999 and the Education (School Information) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2002 which they also revoke. However the 1998 regulations as amended will continue to apply for the publication school year ending in 2003.

The Regulations relate to information to be published by the governing bodies of maintained schools and local education authorities.

There are drafting changes, which include combining the provisions previously in Schedules 3 and 4 to the 1998 Regulations into one Schedule (Schedule 3), and changes arising from the nature of the powers in the substituted section 92 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. The main substantive changes to the Regulations are as follows.

Local education authorities are only required to publish details about admission arrangements in a composite prospectus (covered by Part 4 of the Regulations). The information published in the composite prospectus must contain detailed particulars of the admissions policy for each school (rather than a summary of the admissions policy) including particulars of arrangements for co-ordinated admissions and, where the admission number for a school is lower than the “indicated admission number”, the reasons (Schedule 2 paragraph 3). There are similar requirements for the school prospectus. (Schedule 3 paragraph 3).

These Regulations no longer contain the requirement that information about arrangements for appeals against admission decisions should (in addition to being published as part of the local education authority’s composite prospectus) be published in any document containing the notification to parents of an admission decision. This requirement is now contained in the Education (Admission Appeals Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2002 (SI 2002/2899).

Governing bodies are required to provide authorities with specified information to assist with publication of a composite prospectus (regulation 10).

The information to be published by authorities in respect of transport to and from schools and further education institutions applies only to pupils of compulsory school age and below (Schedule 1 paragraphs 6 and 16).

Local education authorities are not required to publish certain types of information if that information is also published in the composite prospectus (regulation 7(5)). The composite prospectus however is to include information as to where and by what means parents may access sources of general information relating to the school (Schedule 2 paragraph 7).

Copies of the guidance Assessing the Net Capacity of Schools referred to in the definition of “indicated admission number” in regulation 3(1) can be obtained from DfES Publications, PO Box 5050, Sherwood Park, Annesley, Nottingham NG15 0DJ (email dfescommat;prolog.uk.com).