News & Events

Listed below are the national news items and national events.

COVID-19 Weekly Brief: Challenges and Complaints with the LGSCO
Event date: 10/06/2020
12.00 - 13.00
COVID-19 Weekly Brief: Reopening Schools - Understanding Liabilities, Responsibilities, and Practicalities
Event date: 03/06/2020
12.00 - 13.00
PODCAST - The LLG Grapevine - Week Three
Publish date: 26/05/2020
Talking Law in Local Government
Independent SAGE report on Schools Re-opening
Publish date: 26/05/2020
Independent SAGE committee of leading scientists says conditions have not been met to re-open schools safely on June 1. Draft report reveals new modelling that shows delaying school re-opening by two weeks halves risk to children. Local authorities must establish low levels of infection in community and ability to track, trace, and isolate new infections before re-opening schools. Alternative arrangements for educating children must be considered including summer camps and outdoor schools. Proposals include requisitioning playing fields and facilities of independent schools and football stadiums. Public consultation vital part of process with decision to re-open schools made at local level based on local data. Lack of publicly available local data is ‘critical gap’ in current management of pandemic
Free Webinar - The Impact of Coronavirus on Planning
Event date: 28/05/2020
09.30 - 10.30
Questions and Answers from the COVID-19 Weekly Brief - Week 5 - Financial Management in Uncertain Times
Publish date: 20/05/2020
Your questions are answered on everything from mortgages, the local government pension scheme, redundancy, furloughing and savings and investments.
LLG Brief on The Special Educational Needs and Disability (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020
Publish date: 17/05/2020
An explanatory brief on the The Special Educational Needs and Disability (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020
LLG Covid-19 Weekly Brief: Virtual Meeting Software- Zoom, Skype, Teams or GoToMeeting? Questions and Answers
Publish date: 16/05/2020
Questions and Answers from week 6 of the LLG COvid-19 Weekly Brief on Virtual Meeting Software.
Weekly LLG Grapevine Podcast Launched
Publish date: 14/05/2020
A chatty light discussion featuring Deborah Evans (CEO), Dennis Hall (Bulletin Editor) and Helen McGrath (Head of Public Affairs) from LLG, which looks back over the last edition of the bulletin and highlights points of interest, pulling in government policy and national news to give you a quick round-up of topical developments. This week they discuss education, the planning inspectorate, scrutiny, welfare, ethics, the civil justice system and a butterfly house!
Questions & Answers from the Behaviour & Etiquette to Remote Meetings
Publish date: 04/05/2020
Your questions answered from the LLG weekly Covid-19 brief on behaviour and etiquette, and scrutiny and governance whilst working remotely.

Blog

22 May 2020

Publish date: 22/05/2020

With my 'other hat' on I attended a school governor's meeting yesterday evening to discuss the plans for reopening alongside the risk assessments, staff feedback and parental surveys which have been carried out over the last week. Many schools in my area have seen a marked increase in the number of key worker parents who now wish to send their children back to school, which is having a knock on effect on the availability of class rooms for the other returning years. At the time of writing this, more than 35 councils in England have stated not all of their primary schools will be ready to reopen on 1^st June.

The Culture Secretary, Oliver Dowden, made it clear at the last No 10 briefing that the 'governments intention is for England to move forward together' despite calls from the LGA to give local authorities powers to close or open schools in their area based on local information. That said, there is some indication that the government might consider different measures for 'micro-hotspots', so perhaps the LGA is having some effect on this. Certainly it is positive to note that government has switched from not wishing to comment on what action if might take against schools who refuse to open, to (as reported by the BBC) "listening to the concerns of parents and teachers about the plans to reopen schools". It is a small but nevertheless encouraging shift.

For local authorities, many questions are being asked about liabilities in respect of reopening. Whose decision ultimately is it in respect of maintained schools? Where does liability fall and what insurance arrangements need to be considered. LLG understand the LGA are instructing counsel on these matters and will be formulating guidance based on this before the return to school date. We will keep you updated on that but in the meanwhile, we are holding live webinar training together with VWV on education which you can register for at LLG Legal Training. We also have a planning webinar and social media webinar next week, both free to access and of course, our weekly and very chatty LLG Grapevine Podcast will be available for you to catch up on when you get back to work Tuesday morning. To access all on demand training on a vast array of subjects go to https://www.lawyersinlocalgovernment.org.uk/webinars

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend

Best wishes

Helen McGrath

Head of Public Affairs

Helen@llg.org.uk