In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
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In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the higher education sector.
The recent review of the public procurement threshold figures included changes to the VAT position.
Procurement specialist Anja Beriro sets out clearly what this means for organisations that need to comply with the regulations.
Fire safety regulation is undergoing a period of evolution and, as 2021 drew to a close, now is a good opportunity to take stock and take a forward look to what the year ahead may hold.
In this article, health and safety expert Steph McGarry reflects on the year gone by and looks at what we can expect in 2022.
For much of 2020 and 2021, employers across the country from all sectors have had to adjust quickly to restrictions, new safety procedures, and different working environments. As we move into 2022, we take a look below at what developments may be on the cards for the coming year.
The National Security and Investment Act 2021 came into force on 4 January 2022. It brings in a new regime allowing for Government intervention in transactions on national security grounds, as well as requiring mandatory notifications by acquirers in some instances.
It is probably fair to say that, as a sector, higher education has lagged behind in terms of digital evolution, largely because traditional teaching formats historically in place (such as in-person classroom and lecture-based learning) were not impacted by digitalisation in any fundamental way. However, when the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, HE institutions (HEIs) were suddenly faced with the urgent and critical problem of delivering continuity of teaching against a backdrop of remote learning in order to adhere to Government guidelines.
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) decision to prioritise occupational health has put certain key occupations in HSE’s crosshairs for inspection and potential enforcement actions. With a new 10-year strategy in the pipeline, will this focus continue, and what is this likely to mean for HSE inspection and enforcement activities for HEIs?
The Government Response to the public consultation on its Green Paper, Transforming Public Procurement was published in December 2021. One of the key considerations of the Green Paper was the grounds for excluding bidders from a procurement process.
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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.
