Recently introduced legislation means schools now have a legal requirement to ensure education and training providers are introduced to their students during specified phases of learning, as part of an effort to help boost the numbers of students going on to further education every year.

This is known as the Baker Clause and it first came into existence as an amendment to the Technical and Further Education Act 2017 introduced on 2 January 2018.

The intent was to address skills shortages experienced across several sectors of the UK’s economy by requiring schools to give training providers access to all students in Years 8 to 13 for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships.

However, the original iteration of the Baker Clause was lacking in clearly defined minimum requirements and, within a year of its introduction, a report published by the Institute for Public Policy Research concluded that only a “few schools are complying with their statutory duties set out in the Baker Clause”.

Some commentators went as far as to describe the Baker Clause as the “law without teeth”.

Fast forward to April 2022, and new legislation in the form of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 (the “Act”) has been enacted with the aim of ensuring that the Baker Clause is now legally enforceable.

Furthermore, the Department for Education has just launched a consultation and is seeking views on proposed changes to statutory guidance for schools on access for education and training providers to students in Years 8 to 13.

A few months on and we are finding that some schools have not yet responded to the new legislation but it is important that they take action now, or seek professional advice if they are uncertain of what is required.  

What does this mean for schools and students?

The first thing to outline is what, specifically, this new amendment means for schools.

It states that, as a minimum legal requirement, there is an obligation on schools to give providers access to their registered students on what has been qualified to include a minimum of “at least three occasions during each of the first, second and third key phase of their education”.

To ensure compliance with the new legislation, schools will need to proactively ensure that each registered student meets with a representative range of education and training providers to whom access is given and that the providers are providing the following set of prescribed information:

• Information about the provider and the approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships that the provider offers.
• Information about the careers to which those technical education qualifications or apprenticeships might lead.
• A description of what learning or training with the provider is like.
• Responses to questions from the students about the provider or technical education qualifications and apprenticeships.

The level of access has been qualified further and must be “for a reasonable period of time during the standard school day”.

What would be deemed a reasonable period of time remains unclear but we would advise schools to afford at least an entire morning or afternoon session for the event, ie, a couple of hours.

The requirement to provide access to a representative range of education or training providers will also need to include, where practicable, a university technical college.

Updating school policy statements and key education phases

Furthermore, school policy statements must now include “an explanation of how the proprietor proposes to comply with the obligations” of the Baker Clause.

The amended Baker Clause establishes a set of clear definitions for each “key phase” of a student’s education:

• First key phase: the period beginning at the same time as the school year in which the majority of students in the student’s class attain the age of 13 and ending on 28 February in the following school year.
• Second key phase: the period beginning at the same time as the school year in which the majority of students in the student’s class attain the age of 15 and ending on 28 February in the following school year.
• Third key phase: the period beginning at the same time as the school year in which the majority of students in the student’s class attain the age of 17 and ending on 28 February in the following school year.

Key action points for education providers

There is certainly a heightened focus afforded to careers guidance currently existing within the education sector - the expectancy is that increased scrutiny of non-compliance will follow the enactment of the clearer set parameters of the Act.

Significantly, Ofsted has updated its school inspection handbook to clarify that inspectors will always report where a school falls short of the requirements of the provider access legislation (ie, the Baker Clause) as well as considering how it affects a school’s inspection grade.

With the Institute for Public Policy Research having already identified low compliance across the sector, prior to the Act’s amendments coming into force, now presents a good time for education providers to be proactive in familiarising themselves with the statutory duties, assessing their own compliance with the same and obtaining appropriate advice where necessary.

Danielle Francombe is an associate solicitor and Jordon Waites is a trainee solicitor at Stone King