Aug 27, 2019
On this episode Tim Warneford is in Bath where he is talking to Joanne Burton and Ciaira Campfield from solicitors, Stone King, a law firm that has supported over 400 schools nationally who have converted to academy status.
On this episode we cover:
Partner in Commercial Property Team
Partner in Education Team
Stone King being one of the leading firms in a niche sector
Working on academy brokerage, academy conversions and more
Joanna starting in July 2010 when the academies act coming into being
Joanna travelling aboard building schools for charity
Previously working
Ciara starting in a large international law firm
Wanting to work at a law firm that had its heart and soul in education
Stone King living and breathing education and charity
Not entering in the politics of academisation as lawyers
Seeing some schools go from strength to strength under the MAT system
Seeing success in the way some MATs are sharing best practice
Increased emphasis on good estate management for schools
Surveyors and funding experts seeing so many schools transfer without due diligence and appreciation of what things will be like under a market environment
All schools needing to make best of existing resources
How the 14000 schools yet to academise can benefit from others experience
Concerns about the funding the sector gets
Very difficult for academies to set a budget
Undertaking rebrokerage for clients – working out where they can add value
MATs not having the funds to pay huge professional service fees
Collaboration being the key to success of the sector
MATs been historically more insular, now collaborating more
Head teachers making emotional decisions about the school
The importance of getting specialists together early for efficiency and to highlight risks
Public procurement and advising clients over commercial contracts
Working with retainer clients on a day to day basis
Often being the first port of call
Collaborating with Beth Cullen, Commercial Director of the Institute of School Business Leadership
Potentially serious liabilities of clients – such as asbestos
Focusing on estates management support at a very early stage
Not all estates having an ‘estates team’
Schools often working on reactive maintenance
Stone King treating themselves as an in-house lawyer for their clients
Brand new ideas and innovative thought coming into the sector
The importance of mitigating risk with planning
A move towards selling off land for landing and more facilities
Using Section 106 money to help schools
The ESFA being more open to discussion than previously
CIF being cut by £81m in 2019-08-10
The frustration of regulations slowing the speed of planning and selling off land
The risk not being as high for an academy conversion than a rebrokerage
Government policy being difficult to predict
Current government wanting more schools to academise
A recognition that more funding is needed in the sector
Increase in FE and Academy Sector sharing best practice
Negative stories about academies in the press causing fear in the sector
Many academy success stories
The importance of feeding into the ESFA process
Stone King’s forum for MAT clients
The sector being constantly evolving