Our associate education expert, Lorraine Petersen, helped us to write this article.
Who this applies to
The Department for Education (DfE)'s statutory careers guidance applies to:
- All maintained schools, including maintained special schools and pupil referral units (PRUs)
- Academies and free schools (including alternative provision (AP) academies and free schools)
The requirements don't apply to non-maintained special schools and independent schools.
If you're in a multi-academy trust, the guidance applies to each academy. Some trusts align their careers plan and education across each school.
Your school's/trust's duties
Your school/trust should have a strategic careers plan
This should be developed in line with the Gatsby Benchmarks (see below) and the DfE’s guidance.
It should show how your careers programme will be:
- Implemented
- Measured – including how your school/trust will assess the impact on pupils
Previously this was only required for pupils in years 8 to 13, but as