The Education (School Information) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 1999

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 92(1) and (6) of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 place local education authorities under a duty to publish such information about the admissions arrangements of maintained schools in their area in such manner as may be prescribed by regulations. Section 537 of the Education Act 1996 enables the Secretary of State by regulations to impose additional requirements relating to the publication of information.

These Regulations make amendments to the Education (School Information) (Wales) Regulations 1997 requiring local education authorities in Wales to publish for each school year a composite prospectus of admission information for schools in their area. The Regulations come into force on 1st April 1999.

Regulation 3 inserts a definition into the 1997 Regulations.

Regulation 4 inserts a new Part IIA into those Regulations, containing three new regulations. The first new regulation states the application of the new Part (which does not cover special schools and does not require publication of composite prospectuses for admissions before the school year 2000/2001). The second new regulation requires a local education authority to publish a composite prospectus containing specified information relating to admissions about all maintained schools in the consultative area for a school maintained by the authority. The third new regulation contains requirements relating to the time and manner of such publication.

Regulation 5 places a duty on the governing body of every maintained school that will be covered in a composite prospectus to provide the necessary information to the local education authority.

Regulation 6 inserts a new Schedule 1A into the 1997 Regulations listing the information to be included about each school in the composite prospectus. This information relates to: the name and address of the school and contact details, classification of the school, a summary of the admissions policy, a statement of any religious affiliation, and (in the case of secondary schools) numbers of places and of applications for those places in the previous year.