Commercial contracts for schools and academy trusts

Reviewing a catering contract from the favoured tenderer of a school. We advised the contract contained extremely onerous and unclear terms which the contractor was unwilling to change. As a result, our client worked with a different catering company, whose terms we reviewed and were much more favourable to the school.

Drafting and negotiating a bulge provision agreement for a school that had been put under extreme pressure from their local authority to take additional numbers at very late notice. We worked with the head teacher under severe time pressure to ensure the agreement secured contractual comfort from the local authority, that the provision was adequately funded and that key safeguards were put in place.

Negotiating the terms of a joint use agreement between an academy, a county council and a district council where the terms of use of a leisure centre, hockey pitch, car parking and a bus lane were agreed. The project involved extensive discussions involving issues such as contributions to utilities, shared access, sharing of employees and safeguarding.