7.—(1) The authority must appoint non-schools members to their schools forum comprising—
(a)one or more persons to represent the local authority 14-19 partnership(1); and
(b)one or more persons to represent early years providers.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3) and regulation 4(4), the authority may appoint additional non-schools members to their forum to represent the interests of other bodies.
(3) Prior to making any appointment under paragraph (2), the authority must consider whether the following bodies should be represented on their forum—
(a)the Diocesan Board of Education for any diocese any part of which is situated in the authority’s area;
(b)the Bishop of any Roman Catholic Diocese any part of which is situated in the authority’s area;
(c)where there are any schools or Academies within the authority’s area that are designated under section 69(3) of the Act(2) as having a religious character (other than Church of England or Roman Catholic schools), the appropriate faith group in respect of any such school or Academy.
(4) The authority may not appoint any executive member or relevant officer of the authority to their forum as a non-schools member.
(5) Within one month of the appointment of any non-schools member, the authority must inform the governing bodies of schools maintained by them and of Academies within their area of the name of the member and the name of the body that member represents.
(6) In this Regulation “relevant officer” means—
(a)the director of children’s services of the authority,
(b)any officer employed or engaged to work under the management of the director of children’s services, other than one who directly provides education to children or who manages such a person, or
(c)any officer whose work involves management of, or advice on, school funding.
Section 85(2) and (3) of the Education and Skills Act 2008 (c.25) requires local authorities to include arrangements in respect of 14-19 education and training, in their local collaboration arrangements under section 10 of the Children Act 2004 (c.31).
Section 69(3) also applies to independent schools (which includes Academies) by virtue of section 124B, which was inserted by regulations 2 and 3 of S.I. 2003/2037.