Education and Inspections Act 2006
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| Long title | An Act to make provision about primary, secondary and further education and about training; to make provision about food or drink provided on school premises or in connection with the provision of education or childcare; to provide for the establishment of an Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills and the appointment of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills and make provision about the functions of that Office and that Chief Inspector; to provide for the amendment of references to local education authorities and children's services authorities; to amend section 29 of the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 in relation to university bodies; and for connected purposes. |
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| Citation | 2006 c 40 |
| Introduced by | Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Education and Skills |
| Territorial extent |
England and Wales Certain Parts of the Act also Extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland. |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 November 2006 |
| Other legislation | |
| Relates to | The School Standards and Framework Act 1998 |
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Status: Current legislation
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| History of passage through Parliament | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
England and Wales Certain Parts of the Act also Extend to Scotland
The Education and Inspections Act 2006 (c 40) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. According to the government the Act "is intended to represent a major step forward in the Government’s aim of ensuring that all children in all schools get the education they need to enable them to fulfil their potential".
In October 2005, the DfES published the White Paper Higher Standards, Better Schools for All — More Choice for Parents and Pupils. It set out plans to "radically improve the system". The blurb distributed with it established a number of key areas that the White Paper was intended to address:
One of the most controversial elements in the White Paper was the proposal to establish a new breed of school called a Trust school. The White Paper introduced a new term to the educational taxonomy when it explained how schools would "acquire a Trust". It was noted that there was a remarkable similarity between Trust schools and voluntary aided schools/Foundation schools. The proposals allowed for each Trust school to decide its own governance model from either the VA or Foundation model. Local authority assets - buildings and land - would be transferred to trust ownership, and the trust would take on the responsibility for the employment of all the school staff.
The governance model of VA Schools would allow the Trust to directly appoint more than half of the governors allowing it to effectively control the governing body. Such a model would also reduce the number of elected Parent governors. To tackle this obvious reduction in parent power it was proposed that a new consultative body - a Parents’ Council to ensure that parents have a strong voice in decisions about the way the school is run - although it was stressed that statutory guidance on this would be produced at some yet unspecified later stage. This notion effectively killed any suggestion that Kelly could be seen as a champion of parents.
The Trusts were intended to be non-profit making and to have charitable status, although they could be formed by commercial enterprises. In fact one of the early DfES-hosted seminars on the establishment of Trusts included representatives from Microsoft and KPMG. But it was their ability to set their own admission arrangements that generated the most criticism.
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