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What statutory documents must my school have in place? We set out the policies and documents that governing bodies are required to hold, as listed by the Department for Education. We link to information on how often these policies must be reviewed, and requirements for different types of schools.

Contents

1. 1  List of statutory policies and documents
2. 2  Policies and documents which are not listed by the DfE
3. 3  Other documents that schools must have in place
4. 4  In what format should policies be made available to parents?
5. 5  Additional sources and further reading

List of statutory policies and documents

The Department for Education (DfE) has set out the policies and documents which governing bodies and proprietors of independent schools are required to hold.

It explains that academies and free schools have greater freedoms than maintained schools in relation to school policies and other documents. Arrangements applying to academies and free schools are outlined in legislation or in their funding agreements.

While governing bodies are required to hold each of the documents, the drafting of school policies can be delegated to any member of school staff. Schools are also free to adopt model policies as they see fit.

For each policy and document, the guidance sets out:

• Which types of school are required to hold the policy/document
• How often the policy/document must be reviewed
• Which legislation requires the policy/document to be held

The guidance sets out ... how often each policy must be reviewed

Statutory policies

• Charging and remissions policies
• Performance management policy
• School behaviour policy
• Sex education policy
• Special educational needs policy
• Teachers’ pay policy
• Data protection policy
• Health and safety policy
• Risk assessments (linked with health and safety policy)

Other statutory documents:

• Admissions arrangements
• Accessibility plan
• Central record of recruitment and vetting checks
• Complaints procedure
• Freedom of information publication scheme
• Governor’s allowances (schemes for paying)
• Home-school agreements
• Instrument of government
• Minutes of, and papers considered at, meetings of the governing body and its committees
• Premises management
• Publication of equality information and objectives (Public sector equality duty)
• Register of business interests of headteachers and governors
• Register of pupils
• Staff discipline, conduct and grievance (procedures for addressing)

Statutory policies for schools, DfE (Adobe pdf file)
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/s/statutory%20policies%20for%20schools.pdf

Policies and documents which are not listed by the DfE

The DfE explains that from September 2012, subject to parliamentary procedure, maintained schools will no longer be required to hold a:

• Curriculum policy
• Prospectus

Statutory policies for school, DfE
http://www.education.gov.uk/a00201669/statutory-policies-for-schools

The following policies and documents were listed as statutory in Annex 2 of A Guide to the Law for School Governors 2010, but are not included in the DfE’s updated list:

• Allegations of abuse against staff (policy on)

• From September 2012 ... schools will no longer be required to hold a curriculum policy or prospectus

  Attendance targets
• Child protection policy
• Collective worship (policy on)
• Community cohesion
• Curriculum policy
• Designated teachers
• Disability equality policy
• Early Years Foundation Stage
• Exclusion of pupils
• Gender equality policy
• Governors’ annual report to parents
• Prospectus
• Race equality policy
• Review of staffing structure document
• School companies
• Staff appraisal policy (linked to the performance management policy)
• Target setting for schools

A Guide to the Law for School Governors 2010, DfE, see pages 238-241 (Adobe pdf file)
http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/guide%20to%20the%20law%20for%20school%20governors.pdf

Other documents that schools must have in place

School profile

Currently, all schools, except for maintained nursery schools, are required to publish a school profile. The requirements for this are set out on page 209 of A Guide to the Law for School Governors 2010.

Although the duty to publish a school profile has been repealed by section 32 of the Education Act 2011, this part of the Act has not yet commenced. It will come into effect at a later date, by order of the secretary of state.

The DfE has put the school profile website “under review” until further notice.

Education Act 2011, legislation.gov.uk, see page 41 (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/21/pdfs/ukpga_20110021_en.pdf

Freedom of Information

Under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2000, schools are required to produce a publication scheme, which outlines the information the school will routinely make available to the public. In 2008, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) published a definition document which gives examples of the kinds of information that it would expect schools to provide.

This guidance is not intended to give a definitive list, and does not take account of recent legislative changes, such as the repeal of the duty to publish a school profile explained above.

Definition document for the governing bodies of maintained schools in England, ICO (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/detailed_specialist_guides/schools_england_v2.pdf

In what format should policies be made available to parents?

We asked the DfE if there are any regulations about the format in which school policies should be made available: for example, whether they should be published online, on the school's managed learning environment (MLE) or in hard copy.

A spokesperson said that this would be a matter for the school to decide, as long as the policies were made available for inspection on request.

Contact us, DfE
http://www.education.gov.uk/help/contactus