The Education (School Inspection) (No. 2) Regulations 1993

PART II SCHOOL INSPECTIONS

3.  In this Part of these Regulations–

“action plan” means the written statement referred to, in the case of a school of any kind mentioned in section 204(1) of the 1993 Act, in section 210(1) of that Act or, in the case of any other school, in paragraph 10(1) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act;

“appropriate authority” shall be construed, in the case of a school of any kind mentioned in section 204(1) of the 1993 Act, in accordance with section 204(2) of that Act and, in the case of any other school, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act;

“Chief Inspector” means Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools in England;

“inspection”, except in regulation 7(3)(b), means an inspection of a school under section 9 of the 1992 Act, and in that regulation means an inspection under sections 2(2)(b), 3(1) or 9 of that Act;

“inspection team” has the meaning set out in paragraph 3(1) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act;

“member of the Inspectorate” means the Chief Inspector, any of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools in England and any additional inspector;

“registered inspector” means an inspector registered under section 10(1) of the 1992 Act;

“school”, where used without qualification, means a school to which section 9 of the 1992 Act applies; and

“the 1993 Act” means the Education Act 1993.

Intervals for inspection

4.  The Chief Inspector shall secure that every school is inspected by a registered inspector–

(a) (i) in the case of a secondary school, on or after 1st September 1993 but before 1st August 1997;

(ii) in any other case, on or after 1st September 1994 but before 1st August 1998; and

(b) thereafter, in either case, within four school years from the end of the school year in which the last inspection took place.

Notification of inspection

5.—(1) Where an inspection is arranged, the appropriate authority shall, for the purposes of paragraph 6 of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act, take such steps as are reasonably practicable to notify–

(a) in the case of a county, voluntary or maintained special school which has a delegated budget, a person appearing to them to be an appropriate officer of the local education authority;

(b) in the case of a county, voluntary or maintained special school which does not have a delegated budget, the chairman of the governing body;

(c) in the case of a grant-maintained or grant-maintained special school(1), the funding authority;

(d) in the case of a voluntary school or a grant-maintained school which, immediately before it became a grant-maintained school, was a voluntary school, the person who appoints the school’s foundation governors and, in the case of an aided or special agreement school, the appropriate diocesan authority (if different);

(e) in the case of a school in a group of grant-maintained schools in respect of which any person has power to appoint an externally appointed core governor under a provision of the instrument of government made in pursuance of Schedule 8 to the 1993 Act(2), that person;

(f) in the case of an aided or grant-maintained secondary school the instrument of government of which names a person as a sponsor of the school(3), that person;

(g) in the case of a special school which is not maintained by a local education authority, or an independent school approved by the Secretary of State under section 11(3)(a) of the Education Act 1981(4), the funding authority, a further education funding council or any local education authority, if that body are paying fees in respect of the provision of education to any person at the school;

(h) in the case of any school at which a registered pupil is a child who is looked after by a local authority, a person appearing to them to be an appropriate officer of that local authority; and

(i) in the case of a secondary school, the Training and Enterprise Council for the area in which the school is located, and such members of the local business community as the appropriate authority think fit, having regard, in particular, to the desirability of notifying members who employ or have recently employed former pupils of the school

of the time when the inspection is to take place.

(2) In this regulation–

(i) the expression “a school which has a delegated budget” has the meaning given to that expression in section 33(6)(b) of the Education Reform Act 1988(5);

(ii) the expression “appropriate diocesan authority” means–

(a) in relation to a school in which the religious education provided is provided in accordance with the faith and practice of the Church of England, the Diocesan Board of Education for the diocese of the Church of England in which the school is situated; and

(b) in relation to a school in which the religious education provided is provided in accordance with the faith and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese in which the school is situated;

(iii) the reference to a group of grant-maintained schools is a reference to a group of such schools conducted by a single governing body under Chapter IX of Part II of the 1993 Act; and

(iv) the expression “externally appointed core governor” has the meaning which that expression has in paragraph 2 of Schedule 8 to the 1993 Act.

Meeting with parents

6.  The appropriate authority, in arranging a meeting pursuant to paragraph 6(b) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act, shall–

(a) arrange for the meeting to take place at a time before the time when the inspection is to begin;

(b) in selecting the time and place for the meeting, have regard to the convenience of the parents;

(c) take such steps as are reasonably practicable to give written notification at least three weeks in advance of the time when, and place where, the meeting is to be held to–

(i) the parents of registered pupils at the school and, if a registered pupil is a child who is looked after by a local authority, a person appearing to the appropriate authority to be an appropriate officer of that local authority; and

(ii) in the case of a special school not being a school maintained by a local education authority, or an independent school approved by the Secretary of State under section 11(3)(a) of the Education Act 1981, a further education funding council or any local education authority, if that body are paying fees in respect of the provision of education to any person at the school and a parent of that person so requests;

(d) not permit anyone to attend the meeting except–

(i) the registered inspector and the inspection team;

(ii) any person whom the registered inspector wishes to attend the meeting for the purpose of providing administrative support or recording what is said;

(iii) the parents of registered pupils at the school and, if a registered pupil is a child who is looked after by a local authority, a person appearing to the appropriate authority to be an appropriate officer of that local authority;

(iv) in the case of a special school not being a school maintained by a local education authority, or an independent school approved by the Secretary of State under section 11(3)(a) of the Education Act 1981, a person appearing to the appropriate authority to be an appropriate officer of a further education funding council or any local education authority, if that body are paying fees in respect of the provision of education to any person at the school and a parent of that person so requests;

(v) any member of the Inspectorate monitoring the inspection under section 3(2) of the 1992 Act;

(e) arrange for the registered inspector to have control of the meeting in all other respects.

Reports, action plans and statements

7.—(1) The carrying out of an inspection shall be completed by the expiry of the period of two weeks beginning when the inspection begins to be carried out.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph 9B(2) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act and section 208(2) of the 1993 Act there is prescribed, as the period within which the making of the report of an inspection and a summary of the report is to be completed, the period of five weeks from the date on which the inspection is completed.

(3) For the purposes of paragraph 10(2) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act and section 210(2) of the 1993 Act there is prescribed, as the period within which the appropriate authority is to prepare an action plan,–

(a) where the report does not state that the registered inspector is of the opinion that special measures are required to be taken in relation to the school, or where it does so and also states that the Chief Inspector disagrees with his opinion, the period of forty working days from the date when the inspector reported to them; and

(b) where the person making a report of an inspection of a school states that he is of the opinion that special measures are required to be taken in relation to the school, and either that person is a member of the Inspectorate or the report states that the Chief Inspector agrees with his opinion, the period of forty days from the date on which they receive the report.

(4) (a) In the circumstances referred to in paragraph (3)(a) the appropriate authority shall, within five working days from the date on which they complete the preparation of the action plan, send copies of it to the persons mentioned in paragraph (5) (in addition to those persons to whom they are required to send copies pursuant to paragraph 10(3) and (4) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act or section 210(3) and (5) of the 1993 Act, as the case may be).

(b) In the circumstances referred to in paragraph (3)(b) the appropriate authority shall, within two days from the date on which they complete the preparation of the action plan, send copies of it to the persons mentioned in paragraph (5) (in addition to the persons mentioned in paragraph 10(3) and (4) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act or section 210(3) to (5) of the 1993 Act, as the case may be).

(5) The persons referred to in paragraph (4)(a) and (b) are–

(a) all persons employed at the school;

(b) in the case of a secondary school, the Training and Enterprise Council for the area in which the school is located; and

(c) in the case of a special school not being maintained by a local education authority, or an independent school approved by the Secretary of State under section 11(3)(a) of the Education Act 1981, a further education funding council or any local education authority, if that body are paying fees in respect of the provision of education to any person at the school.

(6) For the purposes of section 211(3) of the 1993 Act there is prescribed, as the period within which a local education authority is to prepare the statement referred to in section 211(2), the period of ten days from the date on which they receive the action plan in respect of the school in question.

(7) For the purposes of calculating the periods referred to in paragraphs (3)(b), (4)(b) and (6) no account shall be taken of Saturday, Sunday, Good Friday and Christmas Day or any day which is a bank holiday.

Fees for provision of the report and summary and of the action plan

8.—(1) Subject to paragraph (2), an appropriate authority may require payment of a fee (not exceeding the cost of supply) where they provide,–

(a) under paragraph 9C(5)(b) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act or section 209(4) of the 1993 Act (as the case may be),–

(i) a copy of a report to a person who is not otherwise entitled to receive a copy of that report; or

(ii) a copy of a summary to any person to whom they have previously provided a copy of that summary; or

(b) under paragraph 10(5)(b) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Act or section 210(6)(b) of the 1993 Act (as the case may be), a copy of an action plan to any person–

(i) who is not otherwise entitled to receive a copy of that action plan and whose home or whose principal office is located outside a radius of three miles from the school; or

(ii) to whom they have previously provided a copy of that action plan.

(2) An appropriate authority may not require payment by the funding authority of a fee under paragraph (1) where they provide to the funding authority a copy of a report or action plan in respect of a grant-maintained or grant-maintained special school and they have not previously provided a copy of that report or action plan to the authority.

(1)

Sections 182 to 186 of the Education Act 1993 are not in force on the date on which these Regulations are made.

(2)

Chapter IX of Part II of, and Schedule 8 to, the Education Act 1993 are not in force on the date on which these Regulations are made.

(3)

Provision for an instrument of government of an aided or grant-maintained secondary school to name a person as sponsor is made by section 4A of the Education (No. 2) Act 1986 (c. 61) (inserted by section 271(1) of the Education Act 1993) and section 66 of the 1993 Act respectively. Neither provision is in force on the date on which these Regulations are made.

(4)

1981 c. 60.

(5)

1988 c. 40.