Why Is Legislation Important In Schools

A variety of legislation affects how schools work as they are legally obligated to comply with them. The 1988 Data Protection Act states that information obtained by a school should be kept confidential and only shared with authorised individuals. Therefore school staff (i.e. admin, teachers and support staff) has a duty to keep information confidential and to only share it with others with the consent of parents i.e. by obtaining written confirmation. Children cannot give consent themselves, for instance if a child says to a member of staff that they do not mind certain information (i.e. that they have diabetes) being shared staff still need to act with professionalism and keep the information confidential. Certain roles i.e. SENCO require
There are also a number of school specific regulatory bodies which are specifically created to monitor different aspects of schools. The Office for Standards in Education, Childrenâ€TMs Services and Skills (Ofsted) inspects and regulates the services of childcare providers I.e. schools. For example they would make sure that all adults working with children or young people are Disclosure and
Barring Service (DBS) checked. Once Ofsted have inspected a school they have to report its findings to Parliament as well as publicly publish an evaluation of the schools effectiveness. Independent schools are regulated by the Independent Schools Council and inspected by
Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI). Similarly to Ofsted they are required to regulate the services independent schools provide to make sure they are within the law. An example of this would be that they have to check that an independents school curriculum meets the correct standards. The General Teaching Council body regulates the whole of the teaching profession, as all teachers are legally obligated to be members of it. It ensures that all teaching members of staff have