We discuss some points of particular relevance to Higher Education Intuitions (HEIs) in the recent Charities Bill.
“The purpose of the Bill is to address a range of issues in charity law which hamper charities’ day to day activities, by implementing the majority of the recommendations in the Law Commissions 2017 report ‘Technical Issues in Charity Law’.”
The briefing paper to accompany the Queen’s Speech details the main benefits of the Bill. The changes will remove ‘inappropriate burdens and unnecessary administrative and financial burdens whilst safeguarding the public interest in ensuring that charities continue to be properly run’. There was an overarching stress on ensuring that the law governing the entire charitable sector works better for all.
There are five main elements that will affect charities, including Higher Education Institutions:
For those charities governed by Royal Charter, charity trustees will be able to amend provisions more easily than under the current regime. This will remain subject to the Charity Commission and Privy Council’s approval, but it will make it less onerous to amend governing documents.
This is a welcome change which will enable HEIs to update their governing documents when required and to effect those changes more easily than is currently the case.
Charities will have access to a much wider pool of professional advisors when it comes to land disposal. This should make the process more straightforward and streamlined, saving institutions both time and money when selling land.
This change should allow and enable trustees to access the professional advice which is appropriate for the circumstance of each individual land disposal. For certain universities and colleges, the law around the disposal of land will be simplified to align with broader charity and trust law.
Charities will have greater flexibility over how they can make use of their permanent endowment. The definition of permanent endowment will be reformulated to provide greater clarity.
This will include the trustees being able to borrow up to 25% of the value of their permanent endowment funds without the need for the Charity Commission’s approval. This will be subject to the charity being about to recoup that expenditure within 20 years’ time. There will also be more latitude for charities to use their permanent endowment, including allowing trustees to borrow up to £25,000 of the permanent endowment funds without the approval of the Charity Commission.
Charities will have greater flexibility in accessing goods from trustees when it is in the best interests of the charity, without requiring the permission of the Charity Commission and even if it is not expressly stated in the governing documents of the charity.
Equally, trustees will be able to delegate decision making regarding ex gratia payments to staff. However, for all charities, it would be worth ensuring that regulations are in place to ensure that this power is not misused.
Where there has been a failed appeal for a charity, charities will be able to take advantage of new proportionate rules. This includes the ability to spend donations below £120 on similar charitable purposes without the need to ask individual donors for their permission.
The overall changes have the backing of the Charity Commission, as it believes that these rules will make life simpler for trustees and will ensure that charities can maximise the benefits they work to deliver. The changes will ease some of the regulatory pressures placed on the trustees and align with the Charity Commission’s 2018-2023 strategy, to give trustees the tools they need to succeed.
However, it will take a while for these changes to come into effect so a little more patience will be needed.
There’s been little evidence of interventions or financial management reviews this year and it appears the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has re-focussed on financial delivery. It’s also telling that there were no discernible changes to the reporting of financial irregularities in the Academies Trust Handbook 2022.
The Children’s Commissioner, Rachel De Souza, has recently published a report “Beyond the labels: a SEND system which works for every child, every time”, which she intends to sit alongside the DfE’s SEND Review (2019) and SEND Green Paper (2022) and which she hopes will put children’s voices at the heart of the government’s review of SEND system.
There’s greater opportunity than ever for parents, carers and guardians to voice any concerns they have relating to their child’s education and for their concerns to be heard and to be taken seriously. While most staff in schools and academies are conscious of their legal duties relating to complaints management, many are struggling to cope with such a significant increase in the volume of complaints they must manage.
We’re pleased to collaborate with Lloyds Bank, who recently asked us and audit and risk specialists Crowe UK to offer guidance that academy trusts would find helpful when considering setting up a trading subsidiary.
The DfE has published new guidance and opened the application process for window two of the Trust Capacity Fund (TCaF) for 2022/2023, with a fund of £86m in trust capacity funding focused particularly on education investment areas.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was established in March 2015. We now have its report. As you would expect with such a broad scope, the report is long and makes a number of far-reaching recommendations. In this article, Dai Durbridge highlights seven of the 20 recommendations, sets out how they could impact on schools and suggests what steps to take now.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has been named as winner of the ‘Legal Advisors to Education Institutions’ category at the Education Investor Awards 2022 for a record sixth time.
Since the new Suspensions and Exclusions Statutory Guidance was published, we have received a lot of questions about the use of managed moves. For the first time, the Statutory Guidance does explain what a managed move is, but in relatively broad terms and does not cover the mechanics of how a managed move should operate.
Over 3000 young people from across the UK and Ireland took part in a virtual legal careers insight event, aimed at making the legal profession more diverse.
Holly Quirk, an associate barrister in Browne Jacobson’s Manchester office, was awarded the Legal Professional of the Year Award at this year’s Manchester Young Talent Awards.
The risk of assault against staff is, sadly, something that all schools need to consider carefully. Here one legal expert explains what they can do to protect staff and ensure they fulfil their duty of care.
Browne Jacobson’s education team has again been confirmed as a national powerhouse after securing five Tier 1 rankings relating to Education in the latest edition of Legal 500 and maintaining a Band 1 UK-wide ranking for Education in Chambers & Partners UK 2023.
Created at the end of the Brexit transition period, Retained EU Law is a category of domestic law that consists of EU-derived legislation retained in our domestic legal framework by the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This was never intended to be a permanent arrangement as parliament promised to deal with retained EU law through the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill (the “Bill”).
In this article we set out the criteria, expectations and support schools should consider if notified they fall within this new category.
The words “Grammar schools” are once again being whispered in government and the question of whether the creation of new grammar schools will finally be implemented as a central focus to DFE policy has re-surfaced.
As a result of a recent Charity Commission legal action, the former trustee of a Welsh charity was ordered to pay over £117,000 to Wrexham charities which support cancer patients.
Academy trusts no longer need to seek consent for contractual indemnities within the ‘normal course of business’. What do trusts need to consider?
