Legal Service
The Service Offer
Subscription Services
Buy as You Need Services
Subscription services
Our Standard Legal Service subscription provides you with up to 10 hours of legal advice over the year.
This provides you with a single point of contact to the service through a telephone hotline open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm.
The hotline can deal with straightforward legal matters without delay and will refer more complex or specialised matters on to colleagues with the relevant expertise.
We offer practical and responsive legal advice and assistance across all traditional school and education matters as well as school specific work including:
- Pupil-related matters, for example special educational needs, admissions and exclusions;
- Child protection and safeguarding;
- Commercial contracts, licence agreements and procurement;
- Property related matters including landlord and tenant and conveyancing matters;
- Anti-social behavior;
- Pensions and related matters;
- Employment law; and
- Data protection and freedom of information.
Once you have reached your allocation of hours, further support is available on a buy as you need basis. We will help you manage your inclusive hours by advising you when you are nearing your allocation in a termly statement. If legal work exceeds your allocated hours we will always provide you with a bespoke quotation.
Our Enhanced Legal Service subscription provides you with up to 15 hours of legal advice over the year.
This provides you with a single point of contact to the service through a telephone hotline open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm.
The hotline can deal with straightforward legal matters without delay and will refer more complex or specialised matters on to colleagues with the relevant expertise.
We offer practical and responsive legal advice and assistance across all traditional school and education matters as well as school specific work including:
- Pupil-related matters, for example special educational needs, admissions and exclusions;
- Child protection and safeguarding;
- Commercial contracts, licence agreements and procurement;
- Property related matters including landlord and tenant and conveyancing matters;
- Anti-social behavior;
- Pensions and related matters;
- Employment law; and
- Data protection and freedom of information.
Once you have reached your allocation of hours, further support is available on a buy as you need basis. We will help you manage your inclusive hours by advising you when you are nearing your allocation in a termly statement. If legal work exceeds your allocated hours we will always provide you with a bespoke quotation.
This comprehensive service supports you to meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Working in partnership with your senior leadership team and all staff who manage your data, our service will deliver all the tasks of the Data Protection Officer (DPO) including:
- Providing a named officer, together with support from our specialist DPO service team and legal advisors from across the Legal team;
- Monitoring compliance with the GDPR and other data protection law, including support for managing internal data protection activities, advising on data protection impact assessments; training staff and conducting internal audits; and
- Being the first point of contact for supervisory authorities and for individuals whose data is processed.
For more details about our DPO service, click here.
This service is tailored to meet your individual needs, particularly those academies that are part of MATs.
Schools Legal Hotline 01926 412361 schoolenquiries@warwickshire.gov.uk
When you need legal advice, you want pragmatic support from a team that understands you and can provide advice, on demand, whatever your requirement may be. Warwickshire’s in house legal team of over 90 enthusiastic professional staff provides comprehensive legal advice to the Council, external clients as well as schools and academies covering a wide variety of legal disciplines. We are well regarded by our clients for our “can do” approach, consistently achieving over 95% in customer satisfaction surveys.
Benefits
- Immediate legal advice and guidance via our Legal Hotline.
- Support to navigate the specialist law that relates to schools, removing the stress and anxiety of complex legal cases from you.
- A specialist team which is large enough to provide advice across all areas of law.
- Flexible and cost-controlled services without compromise on quality.
Why Buy our Service
Legal issues can take up a great deal of time for school leaders and can be a significant cause of stress and anxiety when they arise. We know that as an academy/MAT you have an enhanced need for robust and responsive legal advice with a commercial edge. As well as routine legal advice, you may come across more complex matters that take time and specialist support to resolve. Ensuring you have access to the right legal advice at any time is important.
The Effectiveness of our Service
- Our service provides excellent value for money – the cost of engaging external legal support can be over three times as expensive as our subscription hourly rate.
- We hold the Law Society’s LEXCEL accreditation
- 95% customer satisfaction.
Our Specialisms
- School and education
- Employment law
- Property, planning and construction
- Commercial, procurement and contracts
- Family law
- Safeguarding
- Data protection and FOI
Tailored Services
Our services are flexible and can be tailored to meet your individual needs – please contact us if you would like to discuss arranging a tailored package for your academy.