Summarise the Roles and Responsibilities of National and Local Government for Education Policy and Practice

The National Government are responsible for devising policies and ensuring they are implemented. The UK government is split into two departments which deal with education in England. The first is the Department of Education their responsibility is to work with children up to the age of 19 with any issue they may have from child protection to education.

They aim to improve the opportunities and experiences available to children and their practitioners by focusing on the Offering more support for the poorest and most vulnerable children to ensure they all receive the same level of education and opportunities as their peers regardless of background with greater quality provisions in place to meet these requirements.

The second department which makes up the education (National) government is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) they are responsible for further and higher education and concentrate on establishing world-class higher education system to provide the UK with the high level skills needed for economic success.

They are responsible for creating a high quality further education sector that aims to teach workers the skills demanded in a modern day life. The central government is also responsible for the school/education budget, they determine which local authorities should receive the funding and the amounts.

The Local Government are responsible for many areas of the education system in their own region from Strategic Management which involves planning for the education service as a whole, the administration of committees dealing with education and considering how the budget should be distributed to gain full potential from it.

They are also responsible for investigations which the authority carries out on employees or potential employees of the authority or governing bodies of schools. They Advise schools on the conditions of service for non-teaching staff and on the grading of such staff.

Specific Grant-related expenditure. Special Educational Needs are the responsibility of the LEA it is their job to ensure all children have access to the relevant help equipment needed to reach their full potential ideally in main stream education or a placement elsewhere if this isn’t possible. They aim to arrange these extra requirement with minimum fuss and time encouraging all organisations involved work together to achieve this. School Improvements are the main responsibility of the actual school however t is also the responsibility of the LEA to offer support to help achieve these goals and benchmark which are set out.

Access and school transport is also predominantly the responsibility of the LEA as they need to ensure all children have access to a place within an learning environment, from transport, coordination admissions, deciding on closures and alternatives placements for these pupil. They will also provide help, support and placements at referral units where necessary for children who for varies reasons are unable to attend mainstream schools.

Part of their responsibility (mainly Children’s Services Department is ensuring the funds are received and distributed accordingly. Overall the LEA are accountable to both their electorates and to the Secretary of State, their success is monitored using the following information, Ofsted reports, Measuring the schools performances against the targets set and information regarding their financial performance for these reason it is crucial that all LEA adhere to and ensure the schools in their region adhere the policies and procedures in place.