Education

Keys with conditions: What you need to know about service occupancies

Service occupancies are a common but often misunderstood arrangement, especially for organisations like charities, schools, care providers and religious institutions that offer housing to employees as part of their job. While convenient in many ways, service occupancies carry significant legal complexity, particularly if the employment relationship ends or changes over time. What is a service …
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Briefing for Charities & Social Enterprises | 11 June

Our weekly round up of news and updates from across the sector. To help you navigate this week’s content, the links below will take you straight to content by topic. Charity Commission We reported a few weeks ago that the Charity Commission’s guidance CC30, Finding and appointing new trustees, has been updated. We’ve reviewed the …
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Bates Wells discusses Charitable Funds with Independent Schools Management Magazine

Laura Soley and Alice Faure Walker have published an article in the Independent Schools Management Magazine, April 2025 edition. Their article, “Unlock your funds” gives top tips for independent schools on unlocking charitable restricted and endowment funds for broader use, including changing purposes of funds and accessing capital of endowments.This article should be timely, as we’ve …
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A new approach to enforcement? Ofqual consults on its Taking Regulatory Action policy

On 20 February 2025, Ofqual opened a consultation on updates to its enforcement policy, “Taking Regulatory Action”, which it proposes to rename “Supporting Compliance and Taking Regulatory Action”. The consultation will close on 15 May 2025. This refresh of Ofqual’s enforcement policy has been long awaited by awarding organisations (“AOs”). Since the existing policy was …
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Positives and pitfalls: Ofqual consults on introducing a Principles Condition to the General Conditions of Recognition

Awarding Organisations (AOs) and others involved in the awarding and qualifications industry have a few weeks left to respond to Ofqual’s consultation on the introduction of a ‘Principles Condition’ to its General Conditions of Recognition (‘GCOR’), the rules Ofqual imposes upon AOs it regulates. In this blog we consider the implications and what some positives …
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Freedom of speech duties to be reintroduced in amended form, following advocacy from Bates Wells client NUS Charity and sector leaders

The Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has announced that it is proposed to recommence the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 in a significantly amended form. The key provisions were postponed by the incoming government in July 2024, days before they were due to come into force. Bates Wells, together with NUS Charity and other …
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Richard Jones discusses Effective Land Disposal in Independent Schools Management

Richard Jones, a member of our Bates Wells Education team, has been published in the December 2024 issue of Independent Schools Management. Richard’s article, “Effective Land Disposal,” delves into the crucial considerations for independent schools navigating property transactions during mergers, with a particular focus on compliance with the Charities Act. You can find his article …
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Independent schools – top tips when considering a merger

The government has recently announced its plans to introduce VAT on independent school fees from January 2025, as well as removing their eligibility for business charitable rates relief from April 2025. As a result, we’ve seen an increase in independent schools re-considering their long-term vision. Independent schools may decide to merge for many reasons, including …
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Legal Update: The Office for Students requires higher education providers to improve protection from harassment and sexual misconduct

On 31 July 2024, the Office for Students (the “OfS”) published a new ongoing condition of registration (the “New Condition”) for higher education providers (“HEPs”), aimed at protecting students from harassment and sexual misconduct. The New Condition will apply from 1 August 2025, except for a ban on non-disclosure agreements covering allegations of harassment and …
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Labour’s private school tax plan: what comes next?

On 29 July 2024, the government published its long-promised plans to apply 20% VAT on private school fees and to remove the business rates relief for charitable private schools. Here is what you need to know about the plans: 1. 20% VAT on private school fees – who does it apply to? All education services …
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Government announces plans to pause implementation of freedom of speech duties for students’ unions and HEPs

The government has announced today (26 July) that the new duties on Higher Education providers and students’ unions in the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 will not come into effect next Thursday (1 August) as envisaged. The new duties were subject to exhaustive Office for Students consultation over the spring and summer. In …
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