Statutory Policies for Schools April 2013

We published an article on the Statutory Requirements for School Websites complete with checklists to help governors and management in schools bring their website into compliance. Since then, the Department of Education has released another document referring to this requirement.

Department of Education in April 2013 published an update titled ‘Statutory Policies for Schools’. It included a section that requires Maintained Schools, Academies and Free Schools to publish school information on their website in line with the statutory requirements set out in ‘The School Information Regulation 2013.

School information published on a website

• Publish: to publish information required by education legislation on their website
• Live: review frequently and update the website as soon as the information is available or after a change and at least annually
• Approval: must be approved by governing body and it is free to delegate to a committee of the governing body, an individual governor or the head teacher
• Legislation: follow the statutory requirements set out in The School Information (England) (Amendment) Regulation 2012 (SI 2012/1124)

The document contains the outline for the policies and other documents that schools are legally obligated and legally required to hold, these are listed below.

Policies and other documents that governing bodies and proprietors are required to have by law

A. Statutory policies required by education legislation

1. Capability of staff
2. Charging and remissions
3. School behaviour
4. Sex education
5. Special Education Needs
6. Teacher Appraisal
7. Teacher’s pay

B. Statutory policies required by other legislation, which impact particularly on schools (including academies and free schools)

1. Data protection
2. Health and Safety

C. Other statutory documents

1. Admissions arrangements
2. Accessibility plan
3. Behaviour principles written statement
4. Central record of recruitment and vetting checks
5. Complaints procedure statement
6. Freedom of information
7. Governors’ allowances (schemes for paying)
8. Home-school agreement document
9. Instrument of government
10. Minutes of, and papers considered at, meetings of the governing body and its committees
11. Premises management documents
12. Equality information and objectives (public sector equality duty) statement for publication
13. School information published on a website
14. Register of business interests of head teachers and governors
15. Register of pupils’ admission to school
16. Register of pupils’ attendance
17. Staff discipline, conduct and grievance (procedures for addressing)

D. Documents referenced in statutory guidance

1. Child protection policy and procedures
2. Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
3. Statement of procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against staff

For the complete list of school policies, download the Statutory Policies for Schools document.

You can find a handy Primary School and Secondary School checklist to bring your site into compliance in our article Statutory Requirements for School Websites.

Feel free to share this with your colleagues, governing body and senior management team.

If you need help meeting statutory requirements for your school’s website or would like a review of your school’s website please get in touch.