Commentary on Sections Local education authority Legal background Sections 154 and 155: Maintained schools in England: behaviour and attendance etc
193.A school governing body already has the power under section 29(3) of the 2002 Act (as amended by the 2005 Act) to “require registered pupils to attend at any place outside the school premises for the purposes of receiving any instruction or training included in the secular curriculum for the school”.
194.Section 154 introduces a new section 29A which allows a governing body of a maintained school in England to require a registered pupil to attend at any place outside the school premises, but for the purpose of receiving educational provision which is intended to improve the behaviour of the pupil. In exercising this power, it is intended the governing body will be obliged under regulations (made using the power in subsection 29A(4)(a)) to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State.
195.The inserted section 29A compels the Secretary of State to make regulations requiring persons (it is intended this will normally be parents) to be given information about the imposition of the requirement to attend a place off the school premises and to require the governing body to review their exercise of the power. The Secretary of State may make regulations requiring the governing body to request that persons (it is intended this will normally be parents) take part in a review of the exercise of the power; stipulating the timings of the initial and subsequent reviews; specifying the maximum number of days for which the requirement may be imposed in any school year; and in connection with other matters relating to the exercise of the power. It is intended that regulations will impose a requirement to review an off-site direction every 30 days during the time that the pupil is attending off-site provision, and will prohibit governing bodies from requiring a pupil to attend off-site provision for a greater number of days in a school year than is specified in the regulations.  The Government's intention is that the requirement for an individual pupil to attend off-site provision must be for a limited period and subject to regular review.
196.Section 155 makes amendments to section 444ZA of the 1996 Act. That section extends the circumstances in which a parent or a carer can be prosecuted for failing to ensure that a child for whom he or she is responsible regularly attends the alternative provision that has been made for the child.
197.Section 155 extends the ambit of section 444ZA to cover pupils who have been directed off-site for receiving educational provision which is intended to improve the behaviour of the pupil to take account of requirements imposed by governing bodies under the new power introduced by section 154. There is also a change to section 444ZA to clarify that failure of the parent to secure regular attendance at a school where provision is made by the governing body of a school under section 100 of the 2006 Act (duty of governing body or proprietor to provide education where pupil is excluded for fixed period) is within the ambit of the section 444 offence, where the governing body has not expressly exercised its power under section 29(3) of the 2002 Act to require the attendance of the pupil there.