On 20 July 2022, the Supreme Court issued its long-awaited judgment in the case of Harpur Trust v Brazel, upholding the decision of the Court of Appeal. For those of you familiar with this case, you will know that it concerns the statutory leave requirements for part-time and part-year workers. For schools and academies whose workforce consists of a variety of types of part-time and part-year workers, this case is one that must be understood before any changes are applied. Come and join Emma Hughes, Head of HR Services as she puts questions to Ian Deakin, Employment Partner, and Sarah Linden, Senior Associate.
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The Department for Education (DfE) have announced that the conversion of Donisthorpe Primary School in Leicestershire on 1st September marked the 10,000th academy conversion.
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There is (understandably) some confusion about the steps schools and trusts need to take to discharge the new online check duty set out in paragraph 220 of KCSIE. I can’t completely clarify all of it for you, but I can help you find a sensible route through. These FAQs are a good place to start.
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One of three significant changes to Keeping Children Safe in Education 2022 is a new expectation that Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) should be aware of the requirement for children to have an Appropriate Adult. The guidance says nothing more than that, but the DfE has updated the Searching, Screening and Confiscation Advice to include a new section on strip searches. In this briefing I explain how to meet this new requirement and help you understand what steps you need to take when involving the police in pupil searches.
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The two biggest changes in the new safeguarding guidance revolve around sourcing high quality governor and trustee training and the new requirement to carry out online searches for shortlisted candidates.
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Whilst it may be late compared to previous years, the Educations and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has now published their latest edition of the Academy Trust Handbook (the Handbook), ready for implementation in less than a week, on 1 September 2022. The ESFA in their update to the academies sector, did apologise for the delay on issuing the Handbook.
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This month the Department for Education (“DfE”) released new guidance on behaviour in schools which has substantial changes from the previous guidance from 2016.
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In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
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New statutory guidance on school exclusions has now been published, along with new Behaviour in Schools Guidance. The new guidance incorporates changes recommended in Edward Timpson’s May 2019 report on school exclusions. The new guidance will apply to any exclusion or suspension decisions taken from 1 September 2022.
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We provide an update on the Schools Bill proposed legislation & it's impact on academy trusts.
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