The importance of GIAS (Get Information About Schools) has been emphasised to the project team by users and stakeholders alike. It has been expressed to us that any big changes to GIAS would require changes to policy and legislation. This sounded quite daunting to the project team at first.
But before we started to think about any possible changes to policy and legislation, we needed to understand just what is the policy and legislation underpinning GIAS?
The Education Act 1996
The overarching legislation that led to the creation of GIAS in the first place, comes from the Education Act 1996. Specifically, section 538 which states:
“The governing body or temporary governing body of a community, foundation or voluntary school or a community or foundation special school shall make such reports and returns, and give such information, to the Secretary of State as he may require for the purpose of the exercise of his functions in relation to education.”
The requirement to “give information” and for the Secretary of State to have it to “exercise his functions” led to the development of a register of schools containing lots of information about them – GIAS.
Other legislation and regulations that influence GIAS
While Section 538 provides the broad legal basis for collecting information, a number of other pieces of legislation and statutory guidance determine what specific information schools must publish or provide, and therefore what GIAS must record.
School Information (England) Regulations 2008 and amendments
These regulations set out the detailed information schools must publish or make available, including contact details, governance, curriculum information, admissions, performance data, and other transparency requirements.
They have been updated several times (2012, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2022), often adding new categories of mandatory information or tightening expectations on how schools must share it.
Because these requirements are statutory, many GIAS fields directly reflect them. They explain why certain data is mandatory, why it must be kept up to date, and why the system has limited flexibility in those areas.
Education Act 1996 – Section 459
Another important section referenced in our research is Section 459, which sets out duties relating to public information about maintained schools. Although it doesn’t directly mention GIAS, it influences what information must be made available about schools and therefore what data DfE needs to collect and publish.
GOV.UK publishing requirements for schools
Guidance such as “What maintained schools must or should publish online” and “What academies and further education colleges must or should publish online” also shapes the data landscape. These expectations overlap significantly with what is held in GIAS and provide another driver for why GIAS contains the fields it does.
Together, these regulations and guidance form the practical framework for why GIAS looks the way it does and why certain elements can’t simply be removed or redesigned without considering compliance.
What this means for us
Any changes to legislation can be a complicated process, usually involving lots of people and taking lots of time to change even the smallest thing. However, the legislation above is broad enough that it gives the project team enough latitude to hopefully not need to pursue any changes.
Section 538 states that schools must “give information” to the Secretary of State, but it doesn’t specify how, when and where. This suggests that we can pursue making improvements to many aspects of GIAS whilst remaining compliant with legislation.
At the same time, the more detailed statutory requirements - such as the School Information Regulations and publishing obligations - explain why certain data points are essential, why they cannot be removed, and why some workflows may feel rigid. Understanding these constraints helps us ensure that any design changes remain compliant and that we don’t unintentionally disrupt legally required processes.
James Cheetham, Product Manager