Effective governance is an essential part of any organisation. School, academy and college governors have a difficult task – as unpaid volunteers they are responsible for providing effective leadership, direction and control of their schools and colleges. Good governance requires an active governing board working with a strong leadership team to create effective corporate governance throughout the organisation.
Our experienced team gives you access to experts (including National Leaders in Governance) in the full range of corporate and governance issues. Those relevant to the education sector include academy projects, governance structures, multi-academy trust structures, joint ventures and commercial arrangements, collaboration, alliance arrangements and trading companies. Our team has an excellent reputation for providing practical, commercial and innovative advice.
Supporting a well-established and traditional multi-academy trust in reviewing its governance arrangements. We provided a succinct report including a range of options that could be adopted to enhance their governance arrangements together with links and sign-posting of relevant research. The MAT were then able to use the meeting with us and the advice note to make the enhancements they wished to adopt.
Working with a high-performing primary multi-academy trust that had been successfully operating for a number of years to review its approach to governance including local governance. We worked with the MAT to design a suitable approach to governance that supported their vision and values whilst also meeting the DfE’s requirements.
Supporting a multi-academy trust comprising secondary, primary and special schools with a number of twilight training sessions for their main board and their local governing bodies. The sessions were interactive and supported the continued development of links between the local and main boards. Following the training we then provided a short report on recommended actions that could be adopted to enhance governance arrangements at the MAT.
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“They were excellent. They listened to our requirements, worked with me and our Chief Executive Officer to develop the structure for the event and activity associated with any input. They designed a session to provoke discussion on effective governance in preparation for continual improvement in the governance arrangements for our Trust.”
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 Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) recently issued new, non-statutory guidance regarding the wearing of natural or protective hairstyles, specifically in reference to their representation in uniform, behaviour or standalone appearance policies.
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.
This guidance has been prepared to support academy trusts (Trusts) who want to hold a fully virtual Annual General Meeting (AGM) or a hybrid AGM, as we know that Trusts may want to be prepared for future disruption as well as having a general interest in holding more meetings virtually. The guidance also applies to other meetings of the Members (known as General Meetings).
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.
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.
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.
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.
In this article we set out some of the support that's available to schools in a bid to reduce the overhead that complaints management generates.
On 21 September 2022, we had the pleasure of hosting a Whitehall & Industry Group (WIG) lunchtime briefing, delivered by the Director General for the DfE’s Strategy Group, Julia Kinniburgh.
The new set of Legal 500 directory rankings have been published and we are proud to once again be recognised as one of the country’s leading firms advising the Education sector.
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.
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.
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.
On 1 October 2022 the School Admissions Appeals Code 2022 (“the Code”) comes into force, replacing the 2012 version and the amendments brought in during the pandemic. The Code will apply to all appeals lodged on or after 1 October 2022.
Browne Jacobson has been delighted to again work in partnership with our colleagues and friends at the National Governance Association (NGA) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).
At the end of March, the Department for Education finally published the long-awaited White and Green Papers.
National law firm Browne Jacobson has grown its team behind its dedicated Space + Time executive coaching programme with the addition of two more qualified coaches who will work with clients in the education sector.
We consider each of the ‘action areas’ of the draft strategy & what it might mean for schools & academies.
What schools need to know about the DfE guidance which requires school uniforms to be affordable for all.
There are several considerations for senior leaders and governors/trustees of schools to keep in mind as we go forward.
Schools will need to comply with the requirements of the PAPDC or potentially face financial consequences. This article provides an overview of the PAPDC and explains how it applies to schools.
The Coronavirus Pandemic made many changes in Education. Some changes will remain after the pandemic including the way we go about our work.
Tomorrow, (Wednesday 27th October), national law firm Browne Jacobson will host its second FAIRE: virtual work experience and legal careers insight event, in partnership with Young Professionals.
The Confederation of School Trusts (CST), as the sector body for School Trusts, today releases a salary benchmarking service for executive roles in School Trusts, in conjunction with partners XpertHR, Cendex and Browne Jacobson.
On 17 September 2021, the High Court handed down judgment in the case that covers some important points in relation to directing pupils off-site and is one of the few cases that covers the powers of schools to do so.
A former teacher and MP on the current Commons Education Select Committee, Jonathan Gullis, has introduced a bill to give Ofsted the power to inspect Multi Academy Trusts (MATs).
With the Prime Ministers announcement that he intends for Step 4 to begin on 19 July, this will also bring an end to the restrictions currently in place on education settings.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
Why academy trusts must seriously consider how the new Model Articles may impact their operations.
Our top tips for supporting transgender and non-binary pupils.
Today marks the start of an independent survey that will gather data to create a new national benchmark for school trust executive team remuneration.
On 4 June, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.
It depends on whether you are local authority maintained or single academy trust, underperforming, Church of England or Catholic or an MAT.
