Commentary on Sections Short stay schools
832.Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 imposes a duty on LEAs to make arrangements for securing suitable education for children who, because of exclusion from school or for any other reason, may not receive such education if the arrangements are not made for them. Thus the LEA has a duty to provide education for every child of school age, if for some reason they cannot attend a mainstream or special school.
833.Section 19(2B) recognises that LEAs may fulfil the duty under section 19 by establishing and maintaining schools which are specifically organised to make educational provision for children falling within that section. Section 19(2B) says that such schools will be known as pupil referral units (PRU). A PRU is therefore a school set up and run directly by the LEA to provide education for children who cannot, for whatever reason, attend a mainstream or special school.
834.LEAs are given the power to establish and maintain schools by section 16 of the Education Act 1996. There is no express power to close a school included here, but it is taken as implicit that where a LEA is free to maintain schools, it is also free to cease to maintain them.
835.The Education and Inspections Act 2006 limits the powers of an LEA to close schools maintained by it (sections 15 and 16 and Schedule 2). However, PRUs are not covered by these limitations as they are not mentioned in the list of schools covered by the act. Therefore there are no restrictions on the ability of a LEA to close a PRU maintained by it.
836.The Secretary of State has the power to direct the closure of a school that is causing concern (section 68, Part 4 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006). This power may be exercised in cases where Ofsted have described the school as requiring special measures. Section 68 is applied to PRUs by paragraph 23 of Schedule 1 to SI 2007/2979.