Changes to the system of school organisation

The aim is for schools to be more in charge of their own decisions about size and composition and to be able to respond to what parents want locally, without being unduly restricted by process. In practice, this means that:

• individual maintained schools would have the freedom to make certain changes (eg enlargement of premises) without following a statutory process
• the statutory processes would be slimmed down for certain other changes to maintained schools (eg a single-sex school becoming co-educational) by reducing the length of the process and the level of prescription
• the requirement for academies to apply to the department for permission to make similar changes would be removed

This consultation seeks views on the implementation of these aims.