Bulletins & Briefings
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LBMW Circular – April 2019
Related Parties Transactions Guidance
Lee Bolton Monier-Williams are at the centre of a network of Academy Trusts, including many Church of England Dioceses. Our team have been reviewing the issues around the new requirements of the 2018 Academies Financial Handbook around Related Parties and the reporting of transactions with them. We have issued briefings, run a Workshop, and put information into the public domain through Schoolsweek and Education Answers, our online portal for such information. Susan Newell comments on the latest developments as the ESFA at last publishes its guidance.
Reverter of a School Site – a Recent Judgment
On February 7th 2019 the Court of Appeal heard a case between claimant reversioners on the one hand and Oxfordshire County Council (the site trustee) on the other in respect of a school that was moving sites. The court found in favour of the reversioners, for whom LBMW was acting, and the judgement was published on 21st February. The decision overturns the previous High Court judgment in this case and confirms the received view that a school site reverts immediately on its ceasing to be occupied by the school.
March 2019 Circular – NEW CHURCH MODEL ARTICLES
February 2019 Circular
January 2019 Circular
November Circular 2018
Updates and links for November
Related Parties Transactions and 2018 AFH (log-in required)
The inside track is now available on Education Answers: http://www.lbmwanswers.co.uk/admin/documents/related-party-transactions-and-the-2018-academies-financial-handbook-afh
EA Circular May 2018 – New VA Schools, data protection, and more
EA Briefing 12 – Jane Grenfell comes to LBMW as Charities Manager
LBMW Briefing No 11 – Reverter, Advice for Clients (updated 09/04/18)
LBMW Briefing No 11 – Reverter, Advice for Clients
LBMW Briefing No 10 – Sibling Admissions
Jan 2018 EA Circular – Events; and Admissions in “All-Through” schools
Dates for Diary 2018
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New Papers on Education Answers
Sept 2017 EA Circular – Ofsted, data, and more
The monthly digest of information and news for all involved in education.
July 2017 EA Circular – key information
June 2017 EA Circular – post election snippets
May 2017 Briefing No 9 Analysis of Election Manifestos
This paper is a note of the main proposals as they affect schools and some comments on them, rather than a systematic analysis of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat manifestos in their entirety. In the light of the electoral situation, we have spent rather more time on the Conservative document than on the others.
April 2017 Briefing 8 – Government Reporting on School Funding and Faith Schools
The Public Accounts Select Committee and Education Select Committee have each produced reports to Parliament in the last month (March 2017). This paper offers an overview to assist recipients of these briefings to engage with these very significant issues in an informed and effective way.
March 2013 Academies and schools working together in clusters
This paper sets out the legal basics, lists the various options via which schools and academies may now seek to work together in groups and gives some guidance on the various mechanisms and their desirability or effectiveness for schools. It is not however a substitute for detailed consideration of individual circumstances. Schools and academies must take their own legal advice on specific situations.
April 2013 LBMW Guidance on VAT
The treatment of VAT in academies, academy trading companies, DBE/DBF/umbrella trust trading companies and mutual trading companies.
Free School Bids and the Diocesan Family of Schools
Free School bids are already fairly common and may well increase markedly in some dioceses as a consequence of demographic growth and of both DfE and Church of England Education Office national policies. It is also still the case that new voluntary schools are sometimes created. This paper addresses some of the broad legal issues that making such bids raise and is intended to provide overall guidance to prospective bidders and Diocesan Boards of Education. It does not consider the bidding process in detail and specific advice should always be taken when bodies are considering bids or when the DBE becomes aware of a bid that would if successful lead to the establishment either of a new Church of England Academy or of a new non-church academy established by a Church of England body or a body including Church of England persons.
The Technical and Further Education Bill 2016
"This Bill is a nationalisation of significant functions and also impinges appreciably on areas that at the moment are exclusively the prerogative of the courts, restricting the ability of private parties to act through the courts. It carries significant implications for the present directors/governors/members of the affected bodies in respect of their future conduct and exposure to censure." This briefing sets out LBMW’s initial views and reactions to this Bill . It is subject to clarification and review as the Bill passes through parliament . We advise clients to read the Explanatory Notes to the Bill though even these do not in (in our view) quite set out its full potential impact.
Grammar Schools – The Prime Minister’s Announcement and the Next Steps
Open briefing for details