These Regulations may be cited as the Schools Forums (England) Regulations 2012 and come into force on 1st October 2012.

These Regulations apply only in relation to England.

In these Regulations—

• “the Act” means the School Standards and Framework Act 1998;

• “Academies member” means a member who represents the proprietors of the Academies situated in the authority’s area;

• “authority” means the local authority in whose area the schools forum is established;

• “early years providers” means—

  1. a

     persons who are registered as early years childminders or other early years providers under Chapter 2 of Part 3 of the Childcare Act 20062 (which provides for the compulsory registration of persons providing early years provision) or are exempt from compulsory registration by order of the Secretary of State under section 33(2) or 34(3) of that Act,

  2. b

     independent schools, and

  3. c

     non-maintained special schools,

who provide early years provision;

• “early years provision” has the meaning given by section 20 of the Childcare Act 2006;

• “executive member” means any elected member of the authority appointed to the executive of that authority;

• “governor” includes any interim executive member of an interim executive board constituted in accordance with paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 to the Education and Inspections Act 20063;

• “nursery school” means a nursery school maintained by the authority;

• “primary school” means a primary school maintained by the authority;

• “representative” means either a head teacher or a senior member of staff representing a head teacher or a governor of a school maintained by the authority, save for in regulation 8 where it means a representative of the positions mentioned in that regulation;

• “school” means a school maintained by the authority;

• “school category” means one of the following categories of school—

  1. a

     community schools,

  2. b

     foundation schools,

  3. c

     voluntary aided schools,

  4. d

     voluntary controlled schools,

as described in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Act;

• “secondary school” means a secondary school maintained by the authority;

• “senior member of staff” means a principal, deputy head teacher, bursar or other person responsible for the financial management of the school;

• “special school” means a community special school or a foundation special school.

In these Regulations, a reference to a governing body does not include a reference to the temporary governing body of a new school and a reference to a governor does not include a reference to a member of the temporary governing body of a new school, where “new school” has the meaning given by section 72(3) of the Act4.