The DCSF launches a consultation on the impartial careers education statutory guidance

The Education and Skills Act 2008 requires schools to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State when complying with their careers education and guidance duties. This consultation invites stakeholders to comment on the draft guidance. Stakeholders have until 30 July 2009 to comment on the draft guidance.

Young people, supported by their parents/carers and others, must be helped to make their own, informed decisions about the learning and work pathways that are right for them. Many schools already provide high quality, impartial careers education/information, advice and guidance to their students; but research points to some schools promoting their own learning provision and not acting impartially when helping students make decisions about further learning and work. The Education and Skills Act 2008 requires local authority maintained schools, in discharging their statutory duty to provide careers education, to provide impartial information and advice which promotes the best interests of pupils and which does not seek to promote the interests of the school over other options. It also requires schools to have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State when complying with their careers education and guidance duties. This consultation invites stakeholders to comment on draft ‘core’ statutory guidance linked to these duties. 

The DCSF intends to issue, alongside the ‘core’ statutory guidance, more detailed supplementary statutory guidance that will help schools to implement the core statutory guidance. The supplementary guidance will include:

• guidance on effective practice that schools can use to inform their planning;
• classroom resources that provide schools with up-to-date materials to help teachers provide the ‘Key Information’ on 14-19 pathways defined by the statutory guidance;
• information and support to help careers co-ordinators/leaders develop curricula that meet the requirements of the statutory guidance; and
• materials and advice to help schools evaluate the quality of their provision and to inform the completion of the School Self Evaluation Form. These will place particular emphasis on the views of pupils and their parents/carers.

This supplementary statutory guidance will also include a Q and A brief designed to answer any issues that emerge during the consultation process.

You can complete your response online at www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations or by emailing careerseducation.guidance@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk or by downloading a response form and sending it to Annabel Worrall, Department for Children, Schools and Families, Room W4b, Moorfoot, Sheffield S1 4PQ. If you have any enquiries related to the policy content of the consultation you can contact Clare Jones on 0114 2593857 or by e-mail at Clare.Jones@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk