How to review your provider access policy statement

What this policy needs to do

All maintained schools and academies (including special schools and PRUs) must:

• Give education and training providers the opportunity to talk to pupils in years 8 to 13 about approved technical qualifications and apprenticeships
• Provide a minimum of 6 encounters with technical education or training providers to all pupils in years 8 to 13
• Find out when these must take place in our article on statutory requirements for careers guidance

Schools must have a policy statement explaining provider access, published on their school website. The policy statement must include:

• How your school will comply with the legal requirement to provide pupils with 6 encounters with technical education or training providers, and what times the school will give access
• Any procedural requirements for requests for access, e.g. the main point of contact at the school to whom requests should be directed
• Rules for granting and refusing access, e.g. details of careers lessons, assemblies or careers events that providers may attend. This should include your safeguarding policy
• What providers can expect once access has been granted, including details of premises or facilities to be provided

The policy statement should also include:

• How your school will work with each visiting provider
• A list of providers that have previously been invited to the school
• If your school accepts live online encounters
• The destinations of previous pupils
• Information about to how a provider can raise a complaint and what procedure you'll follow

Your school can design the policy statement in a way that best suits its needs - for example, it could be incorporated into a wider careers plan. However the policy statement is presented, you'll want to make sure it covers all of the requirements above.

This is explained on pages 47 and 48 of the Department for Education (DfE's) statutory guidance on careers guidance and access for education and training providers.

4 questions to ask to challenge this policy

1. What are the principles underlying your rules on granting or refusing access?

The answer to this could include reference to your school's safeguarding policy, such as whether the provider is considered appropriate, or if you're a school with a religious character, whether the provider or training is compatible with your school's religious ethos.

2. How will you know if your policy is effective?

What can governors expect to see when provider access is well managed?

A good answer here might refer to feedback from pupils or their parents/carers about the range and quality of providers within the school's careers programme.

3. How did you decide that the person named would be responsible for arranging provider access?

Will this responsibility put unnecessary strain on this person's workload?

You'd expect the answer to explain that this responsibility ties in with the named person's role or duties in some way (perhaps they have responsibility for the school's careers provision), and that any workload was accounted for within that role.

4. How do you ensure a diverse and comprehensive representation of career paths, including apprenticeships, technical education, and workplace training?

Your leaders could provide a list of providers that have previously been invited to the school and explain how they've made sure that the experiences pupils are given are diverse. 

If they haven't been diverse enough in the past, leaders could outline how they've planned to change this. 

Model policy statement 

This model policy is not meant as a guide for writing your school's statement, as that work will be done by your school's senior leaders. Use it to give you an idea of what a good policy should look like.

It's been approved by Forbes Solicitors and is designed for your senior leaders to adapt to suit your school's context.

Model policy: provider access policy statement

Our model document is aimed at maintained secondary schools and academies, so if you're a governor in a different type of setting, such as a PRU, you'll need to check that your school leaders have taken into account any requirements or considerations specific to your context. 

Examples from schools

Rivers Academy West London has a provider access policy statement, which includes sections on:

• The careers focus for different year groups
• Pupils' entitlement to careers provision
• The contact details to request access

The provider access policy statement from Tudor Grange Academy Worcester includes information about:

• The staff responsible for careers provision across the trust
• Safeguarding
• Premises and facilities