Section 29 of the Education Act 2011 placed schools under a duty to secure access to independent careers guidance for their pupils in school years 9 to 11.

From September 2013 this is extended to years 8-13 and revised statutory guidance has been published to reflect this change.

Headteachers, school staff and governing bodies must have regard to this statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State in exercising their functions under this section.

About this guidance

This is statutory guidance from the Department for Education. This means that recipients must have regard to it when carrying out duties relating to the provision of careers guidance for young people.

This guidance has been updated to help schools plan for the extension of the duty to secure independent and impartial careers guidance down to year 8 and up to years 12 and 13 from September 2013. 

The purpose of this guidance is to identify the key responsibilities of schools in relation to careers guidance for young people. Schools have a role to play in supporting their pupils to make well informed and realistic decisions by providing access to impartial and independent information and guidance about the range of education and training options that are most likely to help young people achieve their ambitions.

Apart from the elements identified in this statutory guidance, it is for schools to decide the careers guidance provision to be made available based on the needs of pupils and the opportunities available. Schools should meet the costs of provision from their overall budgets.

Review date

This guidance will be reviewed by March 2014.

What legislation does this guidance relate to

This guidance is being issued under section 45A of Part VII of the Education Act 1997 and schools must have regard to it.

Who is this guidance for

This guidance is for:

  • Headteachers, school staff and governing bodies in all community, foundation or voluntary schools and community or foundation special schools (other than one established in a special school) that provide secondary education. The extension to year 8 pupils will extend the careers duty to middle schools for the first time, ensuring pupils can access careers guidance during their final year to help support the transition to a new school.
  • Local authorities that maintain pupil referral units. They should have regard to this guidance to ensure young people in alternative provision receive appropriate support.
  • Academies and Free Schools (including alternative provision academies and Free Schools) are subject to the same requirements through their funding agreements. This includes all those which opened from September 2012 onwards. A deed of variation is being drawn up to enable academies that opened prior to September 2012 to incorporate the careers duty into their existing funding agreements.