Academy conversions continue to occupy centre stage in education policy, whether it is a voluntary decision taken by the governing body of a school or follows intervention by the local authority or the DfE. On publication of the Opportunity for All white paper in March 2022, the government has set out its plan for achieving its vision to see all children “benefit from being taught in a family of schools, with their school in a strong multi academy trust or with plans to join or form one” by 2030.
The decision to convert and either establish or join a multi academy trust will be one of the biggest decisions a governing body can make, and it is crucial to secure clear legal advice from a recognised law firm with expert sector knowledge who can work in partnership with you throughout the process. Our dedicated team of education lawyers have significant experience within the sector supporting schools on their conversion to academy status.
Our experience comes from our long-established position within the education sector, our down-to-earth and pragmatic approach, transparent pricing and cutting-edge knowledge of the issues and challenges facing schools converting to academy status. We’re independently recognised as market leaders in this field having supported one of every five schools that have converted to academy status since introduction of the Academies Act 2010. Our academy conversion service is built on our many years representing schools in all aspects of their needs.
Thanks to our significant experience, we’ve been able to put together a fixed fee package that will deliver your conversion whilst also offering a comprehensive and high-quality service delivered by our expert team.
Supporting the growth of a large and expanding mixed-community/faith MAT in the South West, including a number of academy conversion and transfer instructions.
Instructed by a Multi Academy Trust on the conversion of a Community School to academy status. This involved negotiation of various documents as part of the conversion process well as putting in place appropriate agreements. The conversion was complicated by restructuring arrangements and therefore additional employment support was required.
“Future Generation Trust has shared a strong working partnership with Browne Jacobson for several years. Most recently the company have provided the legal services for the conversion of our latest addition to the Trust (during the summer of 2022).
Engaging Browne Jacobson offers our trustees great reassurance. Their considerable experience and expertise ensure that the conversion process is completed professionally, diligently and within the agreed time frame. The team they assemble are skillfully led and extremely meticulous in their approach. They are all totally committed and importantly, all team members are easily accessible with lines of communication constantly open.
These factors contribute to making the experience of conversion as smooth and problem free as possible for us as a Trust. Browne Jacobson are clearly a company that are passionate about providing an excellent service to Multi Academy Trusts and I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending them.”
“Once again, you have done a terrific job – possibly our smoothest conversion to date!”
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).
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 Department for Education (DfE) have announced that the conversion of Donisthorpe Primary School in Leicestershire on 1st September marked the 10,000th academy conversion.
A question we often get asked by schools is “can I be forced to become an academy?” The answer to that question to date has centred around whether a school is eligible for intervention and, primarily, its Ofsted’s grade.
Following its publication of the White Paper at the end of March, the Department for Education (DfE) has shared an implementation framework focusing on its plans for “a stronger and fairer school system”.
Part 1 of the Schools Bill introduces statutory rights designed to ensure that the Secretary of State has efficient oversight and is equipped to address “instances of failure” in academy trusts.
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.
In the intervening years we have seen the actual number of schools converting to academy status over the past few years has gone up and down in a succession of waves.
A joint guidance paper written in collaboration between Browne Jacobson and the National Governance Association (NGA) on academy mergers within the education sector has been released today.
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.
Our client, Yew Tree Primary School, challenged the Secretary of State for Education’s (SSE) decision not to revoke a directive Academy Order.
As we approach the end of a particularly turbulent academic year, finding the time, energy and buy-in to review school policies may seem less likely than finding a holiday cottage in Cornwall for mid-August.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
It depends on whether you are local authority maintained or single academy trust, underperforming, Church of England or Catholic or an MAT.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
Guidance for managing academy conversions and transfers.
In this edition we provide you with the latest in legal updates, news and insight from the sector.
In the first of what we hope will become a regular feature in Be Connected, Nick MacKenzie reviews what’s on the horizon for the education sector and briefly shares with you a number of themes.
As the new year comes into view, many schools will be considering plans to build or to extend their facilities next year.
As part of the advisory service we offer schools, recent enquiries have arisen from academies being contacted by the Department for Education (DfE) about their complaints policies.
The Government has accepted calls from sixth form colleges to reopen the option to become academies.
Browne Jacobson has once again been delighted to work in partnership with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Governors’ Association (NGA) on the revision of a trio of popular guidance papers focusing on ‘Taking the next steps’ when ‘Considering Forming or Joining a Group of Schools’, ‘Joining a Multi-Academy Trust’ or ‘Forming a Multi-Academy Trust’.
After several years of negotiation the Department for Education (DfE) has released new precedent Articles of Association for Catholic multi-academy trusts (MATs).
In this article, we review what duties they undertake and consider how these are different from what they set out to be.
