Maintained schools: standards for school premises
Information about the standards for school premises for maintained schools, including consultation responses.
Documents
Details
Reducing the regulation and bureaucracy around school premises was recommended in the independent Review of Education Capital carried out by Sebastian James. The Secretary of State indicated his intention to consult on this recommendation in July 2011 in the initial government response to the review.
In November 2011, the Department for Education launched a consultation on making identical the requirements for the maintained and independent sectors and to reduce the number of regulations. This document sets out the responses to the consultation.
Our intention was to deregulate and end the confusion and unnecessary bureaucracy surrounding the current requirements. We also committed to simplifying the regulations and the supporting guidance. Schools will be required to meet fewer standards and it will be easier for them to understand what they need to do.
The school premises regulations for maintained schools have been revised and the changes came into force in October 2012. We made the same changes to Part 5 of the Independent School Standards, and these came into force on 1 January 2013.
The published advice explains to schools and local authorities how they can meet the regulations. It also provides signposts to other, more general building and premises related legislation and guidance of relevance to schools.