Grammar School Legal and Human Resources Advice Services

For fast, expert advice,we’re here for you.

In association with The Grammar Schools Heads Association

Why Stone King? Stone King’s education practice is built on providing dedicated and expert advice and assistance

to schools. Each of our school clients benefits from our in-depth knowledge and experience in

the sector. Many of our existing clients are grammar schools and members of GSHA and we believe

that we have a particularly good understanding of their specific issues such as admissions.

SK and GSHA are working together to provide a range

of services to GSHA members. These services include

a free advice service called QuickView. Members are

also able to discuss further and more detailed services

with SK should they so wish.

1. QuickView

Under this service, GSHA members may contact SK by

telephone for initial advice in relation to any education

issue. This facility is designed to provide initial advice

on a discrete issue and it is anticipated that the time

engaged on an issue will be no more than 30 minutes.

The advice will be given on the information provided

to SK and it will be up to the School to provide

sufficient context to enable the advice to be given.

There will be no charge to GSHA or the School for this

service.

2. Employment Investigation Service Sometimes a school needs to run a disciplinary or grievance

investigation or similar process. This can often take

up significant management time and sometimes

potentially suitable investigators are tainted, or

perceived to be tainted, by previous involvement. SK

employs HR advisers with experience of investigations

in the education sector. SK can provide schools with

one of these advisers to do the investigation. Charge

rates are agreed between the school and SK and will

be by the hour and/or the day. A discount of 10% will

be available to GSHA members.

3. Training The SK teams provide training to schools in many different

areas relevant to education. Common training topics

include: grievance and disciplinary, discrimination, changing

terms and conditions of employment, admissions, exclusions

and appeals, academy directors’ obligations and

governor training.

Training can be offered to individual people, for example

a head teacher; a group of people, for example, governors

at a school, or a group of schools with common needs.

Training can be done by our HR team or one of our legal

teams according to your preference. A fee will be

agreed directly between the school(s) and SK.

4. Retainers SK offers a number of retainer products which are all

available to GSHA members. GSHA members are

entitled to a 10% discount on standard fixed fees (if

not received already).

We can tailor a retainer to your precise requirements

but the standard retainers are:

Company Secretary Support Retainer forAcademies and Other Trusts This includes all necessary legal support for your

company secretary for a small termly fixed fee,

including:

� Preparation of company books (registers) for new

trusts or initial check of those books for existing trusts

if not previously prepared by Stone King.

� Ongoing direct, remote advice and support regarding

Company House administration.

� A prompt email update on legal issues generally affecting

company secretaries as they emerge.

� A 50% discount on Stone King training/induction

seminars (including our regular seminar for company

secretaries).

“An essential service that I would never wish to be without” Client feedback in Chambers

Legal Support Retainer This service is designed to give assistance for queries

that are likely to be outside the remit of QuickView

but are unlikely to be ongoing or substantial. It is anticipated

that queries/issues under this service will be resolved

in up to 1, or perhaps 2 hours work and may involve

a written response.

Possible queries will include support for your academy

governance, including your company secretarial

function, and all necessary help with company and charity

law, employment, admissions, education provision (including

SEN, equality issues and pupil behaviour) and all

other pupil, pastoral and parent issues, health and safety

and school property, relationships with commercial

providers, contracts and procurement, relations with

local and national government.

Human Resources Retainer Unusually for a firm of solicitors we have a dedicated

team of HR Consultants within our Employment

Team. The Human Resources Retainer includes:

� An initial review of contracts of employment and

employment policies.

� Telephone and email HR advice for the Senior

Leadership Team and Governors.

� Advice regarding STPCD, Burgundy Book, Green

Book and other collective agreements.

� Advice on individual contractual terms.

� Advice on policies and procedures.

� Assistance with consultation on introduction of and

change of policies.

� Advice in managing the routine aspects of individual

cases (e.g. redundancy, disciplinary, capability, ill health

and grievance).

� Advice with advertising new roles, interview process,

references.

� Absence management.

� Exit interviews.

If an issue turns from HR to legal so that it is no longer

appropriate to deal with it under the HR service, we

will discuss that with you. It might then move to our

Legal Support Retainer (if also taken), or to a separate

matter.

Global Legal Advice Retainer This service is designed for a school that wants more

financial certainty in relation to the cost of legal

advice. For a fixed fee the school has unlimited access

to legal and HR support. Some exclusions do apply, for

example normally this will not include litigation or on-

site attendance.

Some GSHA members already use our retainers. For

these members, a discount of 20% from the standard

retainer rates will be applied in that member’s next

retainer year (i.e. the standard 10% member discount

plus a further 10% because they will have paid the standard

rate for the current year) assuming they remain a member

of GSHA. It is the responsibility of the member to notify

SK of their membership.

Global Human Resources Retainer This service is designed for those who have been used

to the local authority type service and includes on and

off-site assistance for all HR matters. It includes:

telephone helpline, advice on terms and conditions

of service and policies, individual case support,

assistance with recruitment, agreed number of site

visits, and general supervision of HR managers by employment

lawyers.

Stone King LLP 13 Queen Square Bath BA1 2HJ Tel. 01225 337599 Fax. 01225 335437

16 St John’s Lane London EC1M 4BS Tel. 020 7796 1007 Fax. 020 7796 1017

Thirty Station Road, Cambridge CB1 2RE Tel: 01223 451340 Fax: 01223 314027

www.stoneking.co.uk © Stone King LLP 11/2012 Stone King LLP - registered limited liability partnership no OC315280, registered office 13 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HJ

Your ContactsPeter Woodhouse Partner 01225 326753 pmw@stoneking.co.uk

Roger Inman Head of Education Team 01233 451344 ri@stoneking.co.uk

Peter is qualified as a solicitor and barrister and for about 10 years was the only solicitor listed in thegovernment’s panel of Treasury Counsel. Peter has acted for numerous clients over the years includingbeing directly instructed by the Treasury Solicitors for public bodies including the Courts Service, Customsand Excise and the MOD. He has appeared numerous times in the Employment Tribunal where he is notedas a quality advocate. He was listed in the Lawyers’ Magazine Hot 100 in 2008. Over the years, he hasacted for numerous education clients in the maintained and independent sectors, including academychains, both as advocate in the employment tribunal and as adviser in non-contentious matters. He is afrequent presenter and trainer, and has trained and written courses for the National Institute of TrialAdvocacy and the CIPD

Roger Inman heads our Education Team and specialises in academy governance and re-organisation,admissions, and pupil/parent issues (notably special educational needs and disputes over educationalprovision). Roger was previously a partner at two leading Cambridge firms (Taylor Vinters and what isnow Ashton KCJ). He is and has been a academy governor in numerous academies in both theindependent and maintained sectors. Roger is a member of his local admissions forum and a frequentspeaker (notably at the termly FASNA conference) and writer on education law issues (including regulararticles for Education Law Update and Academy Magazine). He is a member of the Executive of theEducation Law Association.

Victoria Blake HR Consultant 01223 326759 avb@stoneking.co.ukVictoria is an HR Consultant in the Employment Team. She joined the firm in December 2010, bringingwith her experience from both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining, Victoria worked as an HRConsultant in the Schools Team for Swindon Borough Council and before that she worked for many yearsas an HR Advisor in the private sector. She has extensive experience advising on and preparing cases fordisciplinary, capability, grievance, redundancy and sickness matters.