Legal Services

Legal Services - For Maintained Schools Only

Nottingham City Council’s Legal Services Team is pleased to be able to offer a package of legal advice and assistance to head teachers. This package is only available to maintained schools and is intended to provide a basic level of support from qualified lawyers in relation to a broad range of school-related matters including:

• Anti-social behaviour on school premises 
• Disputes between schools and parents 
• Other general legal issues such as simple contract queries, or early-stage referrals where we may be able to help stop matters from escalating to court proceedings

In appropriate cases we may be able to provide you with template letters, emails or policies which you can tailor to your specific needs or assist in the interpretation of court or other legal documents that you may be presented with.

Legal Services will continue to support schools as best as we can, however, please be aware that the services listed below are excluded from this package. Where the Legal Services team has capacity, some of these services may be offered at an additional charge, at the discretion of the Head of Legal and with fees to be agreed on a case-by-case basis.

This package excludes the following:

All litigation and pre-action protocol work such as civil, contractual and debt disputes. We may provide an initial view and where appropriate provide advice on the areas where we believe you may need to seek further, alternative legal representation

Representation at courts or tribunals

Advice/representation in relation to 

• any hearing or meeting of the school governors, exclusion appeal panels or advice where the matter relates to actual or potential exclusion of a pupil or the appointment suspension or removal of a governor.
• personal injury claims or any other matter, which is or should be covered by the school's insurance cover. Legal assistance on these matters should be covered by your insurance arrangements.
• licensing or planning applications.
• criminal defence work, eg. Health and Safety prosecutions.
  property disputes.
• access to school files/ data protection/GDPR/Information Governance issues.
• Special Educational Needs or any matters related to Education Health and Care Plans
• Employment

In addition, Legal Services will not be able to advise or assist where there is, or may be, a conflict of interest between a school (or its staff) and Nottingham City Council.

Contact

Initial contact may be made by emailing directly to:

 Education.Legal@nottinghamcity.gov.uk

For the attention of the Education Solicitor.