
The Academies Financial Handbook is updated annually by the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency; it contains a number of governance requirements for academy trusts.
Mrs Scott is a peripatetic singing teacher who has pupils at the school. She successfully argued that she was in fact a worker, employed by Chigwell School from April 2014 to May 2018. With the status of “worker” comes certain entitlements such as paid holiday, national minimum wage etc., to which she is now eligible.
Employment status checklist
There are essentially three categories of employment status under UK law; employee, worker and self-employed contractor:
The Employment Judge weighed up the arrangements between Mrs Scott and the school to assess her status. He concluded that the school did exercise a level of control over Mrs Scott which reduced her independence; her teaching was offered as part of the school’s service to parents and she was integrated into the school, i.e. she was allowed access to the site and was included in a list of teachers etc. Importantly, while she could ask another teacher to teach her lessons, this was a limited right and subject to the approval of the school and could only be exercised when necessary. With these reasons taken into consideration, the Judge concluded that she was a worker employed by the school. Mrs Scott also helped run some music ensembles in the school and was available to help with school concerts and productions. The Judge ruled that when performing these roles, Mrs Scott was not a worker but instead a self-employed contractor.
Implications
This is an important case for most schools who offer music lessons provided by visiting music staff as part of their curriculum. The arrangements for Mrs Scott were standard and so this ruling has wide implications. It is, however, important to note that Mrs Scott provided her music services privately to the school and not through the local authority/music hubs. The former tends to be the case in the independent sector. This is not always the case in the state sector where the local authority or other music hubs often provide the music staff. For most of these providers, music teachers will have a contract of employment with the authority or hub and are considered workers and sometimes employees. The authorities/hubs will then ensure they receive paid holidays etc. for the work done through that service. That said, schools are not bound to use these music services providers and for academies especially, it might be more cost-effective to go outside these providers and source other musicians. It is at that point that this case might bite; the visiting music staff could become employed as workers by the school.
In this scenario, the following is advised:
If you’d like any further advice concerning this article, please contact Katherine Sinclair.
The Academies Financial Handbook is updated annually by the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency; it contains a number of governance requirements for academy trusts.
Supreme Court publishes key decision for those working in the UK’s gig economy.
The 'Chocolate Snowman Appeal' is an amazing initiative that Anthony Collins Solicitors' (ACS) employees take part in every year.
The Building Safety Bill (the Bill) is said to be the most significant and wide-ranging change to the regulatory environment for higher risk building (HRBs) for over 45 years.
On 4 November 2020, the Restriction of Public Exit Payments Regulations 2020 (the Regulations) came into force; exit payments for the public sector were capped at £95,000.
The case was brought by the Official Receiver who sought disqualification orders under section 6 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (CDDA 1986) against the seven trustees of Kids Company and its CEO. It illustrates well the tension between the role of a fulltime paid CEO of a large charity and the role of its board as voluntary trustees/directors.
At the end of 2020, The Charity Governance Code was updated or 'refreshed' as it is termed on its website.
Anthony Collins Solicitors is today (Thursday 11 February) revealing the scale of its social impact during 2020.
In their first podcast of this series, current and future trainees will discuss their journey and route to securing a training contract at Anthony Collins Solicitors.
A recent prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive ("HSE") demonstrates the importance of organisations regularly inspecting, maintaining, and if necessary, repairing or replacing street furnitur
To receive invitations to our events, as well as information and articles on legal issues and sector developments that are of interest to you, please sign up to Newsroom.