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 5 November 2021 had the theme of “Youth and Public Empowerment” at CoP26. It was therefore fitting that the Secretary of State for Education released the draft Sustainability and Climate Change strategy for education and children’s services systems.
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What does digital transformation (DT) mean to you? Because as it turns out, it means different things depending on who you ask. For higher education institutions, it could mean increasing your reliance on cloud services, accessing HE specific apps and tools tailored for your environment, or finding ways of integrating a number of different standalone technology services so that they work effectively together to deliver a coherent strategy. But getting going on a DT programme may also mean that you come into contact with specialists you do not routinely deal with on your business-as-usual activities.
Following its defeat in respect of the prorogation case in 2019, the Government commissioned an Independent Review of Administrative Law in 2020. The Review was Chaired by Lord Faulks QC and reported earlier in 2021. In this article, Laura Hughes (Partner) outlines the proposals to the Act, and highlights what this means for the HE sector.
There is a big difference between consortium and sub-contracting arrangements. In this article, procurement specialist Anja Beriro looks at the three pinch points that procurement and service managers should be aware of and consider when running a tender, where it is likely that consortium bids will be made.
Over the past 12 months we have noticed an increasing number of enquiries from clients relating to disability support for disabled students on higher or degree apprenticeships. Largely, these have related to uncertainties over the respective roles and legal responsibilities of HEIs and employers, and confusion about the funding available to students for adjustments.
Women may have broken down many professional and personal barriers, but significant gender disparity remains in the research and development community.
In this article, first published by PraxisAuril in their 2021 Conference Proceedings, commercial specialists Sam Sharp and Jess Johnson look at the role of women in knowledge exchange and spinouts.
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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.
