Safeguarding - Ofsted reports on best practice

On 2 September, Ofsted published a new report Safeguarding in schools: best practice (ref no. 100240). The report is based on inspection evidence from the 19% of maintained and residential special schools and pupil referral units...

All change - new standards and guidance

After another busy summer for the Department for Education (DfE), academies and schools should note the following changes to standards and guidance. Copies of the documents cited are available to download from the DfE web site. ...

School trips - a new era?

As part of the Government's ongoing initiative to reduce unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy, the DfE and HSE have both published new guidance on health and safety on school trips. The new guidance replaces Health...

Public procurement and academies - buyer beware?

Academies and free schools will generally be "contracting authorities" for the purposes of the EU public procurement regime for the contracts for supplies, services or works, which traditionally would have been centrally procured by...

Reasonable adjustments must aid employee's return to work

The recent case of Salford NHS Primary Care Trust v Smith has clarified the duty of reasonable adjustments in the context of disability discrimination. When considering reasonable adjustments, employers must be...

Equality Duty takes shape

The Equality Act 2010 imposes a new general equality duty on all public bodies including academies and maintained schools. Such bodies must have regard to the need to: eliminate discrimination,...

New ACAS guidance published on social media in the workplace

With the emergence of websites such as Facebook and Twitter, schools and academies have had to be particularly aware of social networking and the impact it can have on everyday life. The significance of the age of...