The Education and Inspections Act represents a major step forward in the Government's aim of ensuring that every child in every school in every community gets the education they need to enable them to fulfil their potential.

The Act gives local authorities an enhanced strategic role as champion of pupils and parents, with a duty to promote choice, diversity and high standards for every child. As the commissioner of school places, they will take all decisions relating to school organisation. All schools will be able to become Trust schools and acquire new freedoms, and there will be new safeguards allowing for a Trust and trustees to be removed in certain circumstances. There will be a strong voice for parents through Parent Councils.

The Act will give local authorities a new duty to promote fair access to educational opportunity.  The admissions framework will be tightened to ensure fair access for all; reaffirming the ban on new selection by ability; outlawing interviewing; strengthening the status of the Code on School Admissions; and giving Admission Forums new powers. Fair access will also be supported by an extended duty on local authorities to provide free transport for the most disadvantaged families.
The Act will create a power for staff to discipline pupils, extend the scope of parenting orders and contracts, and improve provision for excluded pupils. It will put in place a new entitlement to specialised Diplomas for young people, establish new nutritional standards for food and drink served in maintained schools, and give local authorities responsibility for making sure young people have a range of exciting things to do in their spare time. It will also merge several existing inspectorates into a single inspectorate to cover the full range of services for children and young people, as well as life-long learning.

The DfES has produced an Implementation Chart which sets out when provisions of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 come into force and when relevant consultations are taking place. This is available to order from the Online Publications website.