Our education solicitors are committed to supporting the sector in these challenging times. Following the Government’s introduction of VAT on school fees, we understand the pressures facing the sector and the drive to seek collaboration in school groups.
We have experts who can support your school with a wide range of issues including employment, charity, property, commercial, governance, parental complains and safeguarding. We regularly advise independent schools on parental contracts and fees in advance schemes.
If you are part of a school group seeking to acquire or merge with a new school our team is able to support you through the process. From the initial stages, we can advise you on the options available to determine future strategy. We will assist with conducting all due diligence to ensure that you are taking the right steps and cognisant of all the facts and risks. This will include, as appropriate, reviewing any commercial contracts, employment terms, property title, and conducting risk assessments on a range of matters such as parental complaints, health and safety incidents and safeguarding.
In circumstances where your school may be considering merging with another school, we understand the sensitivities involved and can carefully guide you through the process. If there is regrettably no option other than for a school to close, then our insolvency team will be able to support your school to ensure that trustees act appropriately and protect any charitable assets.
Our expert team can guide your school staff to put in place and maintain updated pastoral policies, for example, managing behaviour and exclusions. We can support you with any parental complaints and managing any unreasonable parent conduct in accordance with your parent contract. In circumstances where parents are threatening to go to the press and/or are using social media to damage the reputation of your school we are also able to support with ensuring that posts are taken down.
In recent years, our team has considerable experience supporting independent schools on SEND issues and in particular, successfully defending disability discrimination claims.
Our team advises independent schools on day-to-day commercial contracts, including entering into agreements and terminating agreements. We regularly advise on collaboration agreements and hire facilities agreements to ensure best use of school facilities whilst complying with safeguarding obligations. We can also support your school with debt recovery. If you are seeking a sponsor licence, our specialists can assist you with immigration enquiries, including how to obtain a sponsor licence and sponsor overseas staff and/or pupils.