Legal advice for the education sector

Our team of lawyers understand that every academy and free school will have unique needs and ambitions. We tailor our services to meet your individual aims and aspirations and have acted for multiple academy transfers and conversions. If you are an academy transferring to a different trust or multiple academy trust (MAT), our team have extensive and detailed experience in re-brokered projects.

Our Education team comprises specialist property, corporate and employment solicitors, who are each experts in their areas of law and work together to provide high quality advice across all aspects of your project academy conversion or transfer. We can also call upon the expertise of other specialists such as construction or planning solicitors, if and when the need arises.

Obtaining academy or free school status is an exciting opportunity for schools to gain more independence and make positive changes. Having helped over 30 schools achieve an efficient transition in the last five years, our Education team has the understanding and expertise to support you at every step of the conversion process and beyond.

We work in partnership with schools to ensure you understand the responsibilities of being an academy or free school and how to effectively manage the associated ongoing compliance obligations. We have extensive experience of delivering academy and free school projects on time and on budget.

Our academy conversion and academy transfer services include:

• Advice on contracts and legal documentation
• Advice on governance and related structures
• All commercial property work including disposition of land and buildings, transfer of freeholds and leases
• Support with TUPE consultations and processes
• Liaison with DfE and your local authority
• A comprehensive post-conversion or post-transfer support package

The chance to build new schools and colleges or to refurbish old ones is a huge opportunity. But it can also be very complicated.

Our specialist property, construction and planning lawyers can help with every step of the process to get the right outcome for your establishment.

Having recently advised on the creation of a free school from scratch, we are delighted to offer the expertise of our specialist construction, planning and environmental lawyers to assist with any major capital projects including:

• negotiating the legal and funding documents with the Department for Education and local authorities
• assisting you through the planning application and appeals process
• drafting and negotiating the construction agreements with developers and subcontractors, and advising on any disputes under the construction agreement

Our regular series of Education Matter webinars, delivered primarily by our Employment Law team, explore key developments including legislation updates and challenges within the education sector. The webinars enable us to fully explore topics in detail and provide attendees with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities posed.

To keep up to date with topical issues that the sector is facing and to receive webinar invites, subscribe to our Education Matters newsletter.

Previous topics include:

• Employment law update
• Date subject access requests in schools

Our education and data protection specialists frequently advise schools and colleges on data subject access and Freedom of Information requests.

We understand how to comply with legislation, while balancing safeguarding issues and the protection of others’ personal data.

All educational establishments are obliged to comply with data protection legislation. Since GDPR coming into force in May 2018, there is a growing awareness among the public of the responsibilities of education institutions in relation to the regulations. This has led to more frequent use of subject data access requests from learners and their parents, which need to be carefully weighed up against safeguarding issues and the protection of others’ personal data.

We are frequently called upon to advise on subject access requests and assist schools with their responses to such requests. With tighter time limits set under new data protection laws, it is all the more important to respond to such requests both quickly and correctly and to have correct processes and procedures in place for the management of personal data generally.

Freedom of Information Act requests are also becoming increasingly common and many educational establishments are subject to these rules in respect of information held by them for the purposes of operating their establishment. We can provide assistance in responding to such requests including providing advice on what the disclosure requirements are and where exceptions can be relied upon.

Our legal experts have extensive experience in advising schools on governance structures and supporting with appeals.

If complaints are raised, we can help you manage the issue and ensure you are following your complaints policy and any general safeguarding and legal principles. If the complaint is taken further, we can provide trusted, confidential legal advice.

Governance

We have extensive expertise in advising schools on governance structures and, as a number of our lawyers are members of Governing Boards we have experience in operating within these structures. We are often called upon to advise on:

• Modifying governance structures
• Governors’ (trustees’) duties and responsibilities
• Compliance with Companies Act and Charities Act legislation

We can provide company secretarial services including keeping statutory registers up to date, filing documents at Companies House and submitting annual returns and drafting resolutions.

Complaints

Many complaints received by educational establishments can be serious in nature and touch on safeguarding and other substantial issues. If a complaint has been raised, we can support you by ensuring your complaints policy is being followed and that general safeguarding and legal principles continue to be adhered to.

Should matters go further, we can also support you when further avenues of redress may be sought such as failure to deal with bullying, safeguarding issues and concerns regarding meeting the needs of children with special educational needs.

Purchasing goods and services for schools can require legal input. We encourage schools to use our knowledge and experience from advising NHS Trusts, SMEs and multi-national companies on purchasing goods and services, including:

• identifying the contracts subject to the procurement regime and those that are exempt
• advising on procurement procedures, time limits, selection criteria, award criteria and disclosure requirements
• negotiating and drafting commercial agreements 
• advising on procurement and contractual disputes
• advising on TUPE

Our commercial law experts can advise on agreements, procurement procedures and any disputes that arise.

Whether you need support with leases, shared use agreements, tenancy disputes, construction contracts or capital projects, our team can support you.

Our Education team includes specialists in commercial property and construction law who have extensive experience in advising schools on the management and refurbishment of their premises and the construction of new buildings or extensions.

Our lawyers can provide continuing support on:

• landlord and tenant disputes
• issues concerning leases, licences, development agreements and shared use/community use agreements
• new arrangements relating to the land, such as Football Foundation grants
• capital projects involving the expansion, disposal or redevelopment of land and the refurbishment of existing or the construction of new buildings

Our employment law specialists have in-depth expertise on all employment law matters affecting schools and academies, including but not limited to:

• Contracts and handbooks
• Moving away from national terms to academy and free school status
• Teachers’ terms and conditions (including pay awards and appeals)
• Managing under-performance / capability issues
• Sickness absence
• Handling disciplinary, grievance and dismissal processes
• Handling discrimination claims
• Union activity and agreements
• Redundancies and restructures

We frequently advise on TUPE transfers, including service provision changes often experienced in the education sector, for example in relation to catering and/or I.T services and have significant experience in acting for educational establishments in employment tribunal proceedings.

We are able to offer an integrated employment law and HR support service to meet your needs; this may be for one off matters, particular projects or on an on-going basis. Our associated partner, Kent HR can provide HR consultants on-site or via telephone support and undertakes outsourced project work including consultation processes, discipline and grievance issues and investigations. Kent HR work closely with our solicitors to provide continuity of advice.

We can provide a range of pricing options to enable you to access advice quickly and easily and be aware of the costs that you are incurring from the outset.