It is a statutory requirement for schools to ensure that there is an opportunity for a range of education and training providers to access all students from year 8 for the purpose of informing them about approved technical education qualifications or apprenticeships. This is the Baker Clause which came into effect on 2nd January 2018.
Our Governors are legally responsible for ensuring that the Baker Clause requirements are met and that they are …” part of a broader approach to ensuring that young people are aware of the full range of academic and technical routes available to them at each transition point.”
Schools are not required to accept every request from a provider to visit but must demonstrate, through their policy statement on provider access, that a number of opportunities are available to all students in each year group from year 8. Schools must make provider visits available to all students in the relevant year group and should not do anything which might limit the ability of students to attend.
Our policy statement includes: procedural requirements in relation to requests for access; grounds for granting and refusing requests for access; and details of premises or facilities to be provided to a person who is given access.
POLICY LINK: view our Provider Access Policy (Baker Clause) on our Policies page.