Commentary Part 9: Miscellaneous Section 164: Provision of information about children receiving funded education outside school
648.This section will enable the Department for Education and Skills to collect individual information about children receiving education funded by the local education authority otherwise than at a school (which includes children in hospital and those taught by voluntary providers).
649.The section inserts a new section 537B in the 1996 Act. This mirrors section 537A of the 1996 Act which provides for the same data to be collected for children educated in schools.
650.Subsections (1) and (2) of the inserted section allow regulations to be made requiring prescribed information relating to children for whom such education is provided to be provided by the education provider to the Secretary of State, or another prescribed person as defined in regulations. Provision is also made for the disclosure by the Secretary of State and certain other persons of information relating to children for whom such education is provided. Subsection (7) prohibits the publication of information received as a result of the section in a form including the name of the child to which it relates.
651.The main purpose of collecting the information provided for by this section is to enable the Department for Education and Skills to allocate funding to local education authorities more accurately following the introduction of the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant from April 2006: information for these groups has previously been collected only on an aggregate basis, which is less reliable than using individual level data.