Department for Education

October 2020 edition of the DfE’s school governance update, where you will find key announcements and information to support you in your governance role here.

For this edition we have created one version to cover both maintained schools and academy trusts– the articles are listed below for information.

A new version of the Governance Handbook has been released (22 March) by the Department for Education (DfE).

Changes from the previous version (January 2017) include:

• An updated emphasis on parental engagement
• A new subsection on workload
• A number of compliance updates including on the board’s duties in relation to safeguarding, statutory careers guidance and clarifications on dealing with complaints

The DfE issued new guidance on 28th March 2019. The DfE’s ‘Best practice guidance for school complaints procedures 2019’ offers advice for schools on setting up and reviewing their complaints procedures, and it now includes new information on complaint campaigns, informal resolutions, legal representation, complaints about staff and more.
You can read the updated guidance here. 

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed a number of changes to primary assessment. These were initially proposed in a consultation earlier this year.