Education Act 1968
| Year | 1968 |
Education Act 1968
1968 CHAPTER 17
An Act to amend the law as to the effect of and procedure for making changes in the character, size or situation of county schools or voluntary schools to enable special age limits to be adopted for existing as well as for new schools, and to make certain other amendments as to the approval or provision of school premises; and for purposes connected therewith.
[10th April 1968]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Changes in character, size or situation of schools.
(1) For purposes of the Education Acts 1944 to 1967 and any other enactment relating to the duties of a local education authority, references in whatever terms to discontinuing a school (and, in particular, those in section 13 of the Education Act 1944 to a local authority ceasing to maintain a county school or a voluntary school), or to establishing a new school, shall not be read as applying by reason of any change which is made to an existing school—
(a ) by education beginning or ceasing to be provided for pupils above or below a particular age; or
(b ) by education beginning or ceasing to be provided for girls as well as boys, or for boys as well as girls; or
(c ) by any enlargement or alteration of the school premises or transfer of the school to a new site;
and the school existing before an event mentioned in paragraph (a ), (b ) or (c ) above shall be regarded as continuing despite that event and as being the same school before and after that event (unless it is to be regarded for other reasons as discontinued).
(2) In section 13 of the Education Act 1944) subsections (1) and (2) shall be amended as follows:—
(a ) in subsection (1) there shall be inserted after paragraph (c ) the words ‘or where a local education authority intend to make any significant change in the character, or significant enlargement of the premises, of a county school’; and
(b ) in subsection (2) there shall be inserted after the words ‘as a voluntary school’ the words ‘or where the managers or governors of a school maintained by a local education authority as a voluntary school intend to make any significant change in the character, or significant enlargement of the premises, of the school’;
and at the end of that section there shall be added as new subsections (9) and (10)—
(9) Where proposals are made under this section for the enlargement of school premises, subsections (6) and (7) shall apply, with the necessary adaptations, as they apply in the case of proposals for the establishment of a new school (any reference to the persons by whom the proposed school is to be established being read as a reference to the managers or governors).
(10) References in this section to a change in the character of a school include in particular changes in character resulting from education beginning or ceasing to be provided for pupils above or below a particular age, for boys as well as for girls, or for girls as well as for boys, or from the making or alteration of arrangements for the admission of pupils by reference to ability or aptitude’.
(3) In the enactments mentioned in Schedule 1 to this Act there shall be made the amendments provided for by that Schedule, being amendments arising out of or related to the provisions in subsections (1) and (2) above; and the enactments mentioned in Schedule 2 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in column 3 of that Schedule.
(4) Subsection (1) above shall be deemed to have had effect since the beginning of April 1945 in so far as the effect is—
(a ) that a school is to be or have been regarded as being the same school before and after any such event as is there mentioned; or
(b ) that anything may be or have been lawfully done without proposals being approved under section 13 of the Education Act 1944 .
(5) Subject to subsection (4) above, this section shall not apply in relation to things proposed to be done before the end of the summer term 1968, nor in relation to proposals approved before then under section 13 of the Education Act 1944 or to anything done or to be done in pursuance of any such proposals; and for this purpose ‘summer term’ means, in the case of any school, the term ending last before the month of September.
2 Schools with special age limits.
2. Section 1 of the Education Act 1964(which enables new county or voluntary schools to be established to provide both primary and secondary education) shall apply where it is proposed that an existing school maintained or to be maintained by a local education authority should provide both primary and secondary education, and accordingly in subsection (1) of that section—
3 Approval or provision of school premises \(miscellaneous amendments).
(1) In section 13 of the Education Act 1944—
(a ) in subsection (6) (which requires submission to the Secretary of State of specifications and plans of the school premises of a proposed new county or voluntary school) after the words ‘specifications and plans of the school premises’ there shall be inserted the words ‘if the premises are new premises (that is to say, if the premises do not comprise buildings used for a school at the time when the proposals are approved) or if the Secretary of State so directs’; and
(b ) in subsection (7) (which requires those concerned to give effect to proposals for a new school after the proposals, specifications and plans have been approved under the section) after the words ‘under this section’ there shall be inserted the words ‘or, in a case where specifications and plans are not required, when the proposals have been so approved and the Secretary of State has notified the authority or persons by whom the proposed school is to be established that specifications and plans will not be required’, and after the words ‘so approved’ there shall be inserted the words ‘(if any)’.
(2) In section 7(2) of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948 (which enables the prescribed standards for school premises to be relaxed by the Secretary of State in approving specifications and plans of a new school under section 13(6) of the Education Act 1944 of that Act as set out in subsection (1) of the said section 7) after paragraph (b ) there shall be inserted the words ‘or if the Secretary of State is satisfied, on the submission to him of the specifications and plans of the school premises where the premises are to comprise the existing site or buildings of another school, as to the matters mentioned in paragraph (a ) set out in the preceding subsection’.
(3) In the proviso to section 10(2) of the Education Act 1944, as set out in section 7(1) of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948 (which proviso enables the Secretary of State in certain circumstances to permit school premises not to conform to the prescribed standards) for the words ‘having regard to shortage of labour or materials’ in paragraph (c ) there shall be substituted the words ‘having regard to the need to control public expenditure in the interests of the national economy’.
(4) If upon representations made to him by a local education authority the Secretary of State is satisfied—
(a ) that the managers or governors of a voluntary school propose to make a significant enlargement of the school premises or alterations to those premises, and that it is desirable for them to do so for the better provision of primary or secondary education at the premises, or for securing that there is available for the area of the authority a sufficiency of suitable primary or secondary schools, or for both those reasons; and
(b ) that, having regard to the need to control public expenditure in the interests of the national economy, it is not reasonably practicable to effect the enlargement or alterations by providing permanent accommodation;
then, subject to proposals for any significant enlargement being approved under section 13 of the Education Act 1944, the Secretary of State may authorise the authority to provide, or assist in providing, temporary accommodation in accordance with arrangements approved by him; and Schedule 1 to the Education Act 1946 (which relates to the duties of the local education authority and the managers or governors with regard to the provision of sites and buildings for voluntary schools) shall not apply in relation to temporary accommodation provided by virtue of this subsection.
4 Expenses.
4. There shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament any increase attributable to this Act in the sums so payable under the Education Acts 1944 to 1967.
5 Text of certain provisions as amended by this Act.
(1) In accordance with the provisions of this Act (apart from the transitional provisions in section 1(5)), the following sections, namely,—
section 13 of the Education Act...
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