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.
Can the design of student accommodation protect and enhance student health and wellbeing?
In this article we look at the role of the built estate in improving student health and wellbeing outcomes and invite Adam Hinds, Co-Founder of LifeProven, a wellbeing property consultancy organisation to share their experiences and research with us.
19 July 2021 marked the lifting of many restrictions within England including the cessation of the need for social distancing, the removal of the legal requirement for face masks, and the end of required homeworking.
However, as in many other business areas, the guidance does advise that HE providers should continue to conduct risk assessments in line with their particular circumstances and that providers should implement “sensible and proportionate control measures” in order to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
The economy of the last few years has proven beyond doubt that nothing is “too big to fail” and that no sector is immune to insolvency. Despite the prevalence and publicity of such failures, there still seems to be a rose-tinted view that universities and higher education providers are a safe investment and that the Government will always be there if things go wrong.
There have been mixed reports over the last couple of years about the state of the HE sector. While commentators’ views differ when trying to quantify the risk, most agree that financial distress and failure are real risks.
Following publication of the first iteration of Knowledge Exchange Framework results, last month the British Academy released its report ‘Knowledge Exchange in the SHAPE disciplines’ which presented a diverse range of case studies showing that knowledge exchange in SHAPE disciplines yields significant social, economic and cultural benefits.
Amongst other projects, the report showcases an innovative KE collaboration between Browne Jacobson and the University of Nottingham.
As HR teams in the Higher Education sector plan for the staffing implications of the mass return of students to university, they are also having to deal with the relatively new condition known as ‘long Covid’.
In this article, Employment Partners Helen Badger and Jacqui Atkinson look at some of the issues that may arise and share their top tips for managing these absences.
Student and staff records will be full of personal data, much of which may be particularly sensitive and protected under current data legislation.
In this article, Senior Associate Matthew Alderton outlines your data protection obligations and reminds you what to do should a data breach occur in your institution.
The new Charities Bill, as outlined in the Queen’s Speech on 11 May 2021, will affect all charities, including Higher Education Institutions.
In this article, charities expert, Catherine Rustomji highlights five particular points of relevance of the Bill to HEIs, which responds to the 2017 Law Commission report ‘Technical Issues in Charity Law’.
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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.
