School organisation: local-authority-maintained schools
Statutory guidance for proposers and decision-makers about opening, closing or making organisation changes to local-authority-maintained schools.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
From 1 September 2026, the guidance on ‘closing maintained schools’ should be followed.
‘Opening and closing maintained schools before 1 September 2026’ is relevant only where proposals to open schools were published under sections 10 and 11 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 prior to 1 September 2026.
These documents are for:
- local authorities
- governing bodies
- dioceses or other relevant religious authorities
They describe opening, closing or making school organisation changes to local-authority-maintained schools.
They set out how you can make those changes and the areas where you must follow a statutory process.
This guidance is based on:
- The School Organisation (Prescribed Alterations to Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2013 as amended by the 2026 regulations
- The School Organisation (Establishment and Discontinuance of Schools) Regulations 2013 as amended by the 2026 regulations
- Education and Inspections Act 2006
- Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
Statutory guidance sets out what schools and local authorities must do to comply with the law. You should follow the guidance unless you have a very good reason not to.
Trustees of the school, the diocese or relevant diocesan board, or any other relevant faith body, parents or carers and those affected by a proposal may also find this information useful.
Updates to this page
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Updated to reflect that ‘Opening and closing maintained schools before 1 September 2026’ is relevant only to opening proposals published under sections 10 and 11 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 prior to 1 September 2026.
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Updated with new guidance that will come into force on 1 September 2026.
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Updated 'Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools' to clarify Diocesan Board of Education involvement in the prescribed alterations process. The legislation remains the same.
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Updated 'Making significant changes (‘prescribed alterations’) to maintained schools'.
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Updated guidance to reflect Ofsted's removal of single word judgements.
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We have reviewed this guidance and removed out-of-date information. The legislation remains the same.
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Updated 'Opening and closing maintained schools' document.
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Removed 'Deciding prescribed alteration and establishment and discontinuance proposals'.
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Removed 2016 document 'Opening and closing local-authority-maintained schools'. Has been replaced with document from November 2018.
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Replaced file 'Making significant changes to maintained schools' with 'Opening and closing maintained schools'.
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Attached new version of 'Making significant changes ('prescribed alterations') to maintained schools' to update the guidance from 2016.
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We have comprehensively reviewed and updated all 3 documents. The changes include corrections to discrepancies in the guidance on making ‘prescribed alterations’ to local-authority-maintained schools.
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Updated page to explain that we are currently reviewing our guidance to local-authority-maintained schools. We will update it shortly.
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First published.