Education Bill wins Royal Assent - most provisions to come in within 2 months
The Education Bill – which ministers claim will see the removal of “unnecessary” legal requirements on governing bodies, teachers and local authorities - has received Royal Assent.
Key measures in the Education Act 2011 highlighted by the Department for Education include:
- Giving teachers the power to search pupils for items banned under the school rules and issue same-day detentions
- Greater protection for teachers from false allegations by pupils
- Replacement of exclusion appeal panels with review panels. The latter will review decisions but will not have the power to force a school to reinstate an excluded pupil
- Allowing schools and colleges to be exempted from routine inspection
- Expansion of the academies programme to allow 16-19 and alternative provision academies
- Abolition of five arm’s length bodies
- A focus for school inspections on four core areas: achievement, teaching, leadership and management, and behaviour and safety
- Giving the Secretary of State “the powers he needs” to intervene in schools that are failing their pupils
- Giving parents of disadvantaged two-year-olds a right to 15 hours free Early Years provision a week
- Targeting the entitlements to free level two and level three qualifications to those under 24.
- Enabling a “real and progressive” rate of interest to be charged on higher education student loans
- Allowing fees for part-time undergraduate courses to be capped.
The Department for Education Bill said: “The Education Act 2011 is an important step in implementing the government’s education reform programme and helping to create an education system that delivers ever higher standards for all children.”
The DfE said most provisions in the Act would be commenced within the next two months. Those provisions relating to the abolition of arms-length bodies will be commenced at the end of the financial year, and the remainder will come into force at the start of the school year in September 2012.
