Hempsons Education News Update

Now that schools are fully into the autumn term, we thought it would be helpful to recap on education news from the last few weeks as follows:

1.    The new Academies Financial Handbook took effect on 1st September 2019.  For more details about this please see our most recent Charities and Social Enterprise newsbrief.

2.    Proposals have been put forward that schools that have been deemed “Outstanding” by Ofsted are to lose their exemption from re-inspections. The exemption has been in place since 2011, meaning that some schools have not been inspected for nearly a decade.

3.    A consultation has opened on whether the Academies risk protection arrangement should extent to local authority schools.  This could present financial savings for those schools that are still maintained by their local authority, particularly for those schools where few are maintained in their area. The consultation closes on 4th November 2019. It will be interesting to see local authority views of whether or not the extent of the cover is sufficient, and how they consider the extent of the cover compares to commercial policies.

4.    The grant funding period for the application to the Multi Academy Trust Development and Fund is now over. However, applications can now be made to the Trust Capacity Fund, which will close on 31 December 2019. Awards are made in conjunction with growth plans from the Regional Schools Commissioners. Please click on the link for more details: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-your-eligibility-for-the-trust-capacity-fund

If you have any questions then please do contact me.