Your challenges
Academy status can bring exciting opportunities for schools. If you are considering converting your school into an academy, or are thinking about setting up an academy, a studio school or a university technical college (UTC), you need lawyers with a track record of success. Our dedicated team of lawyers will guide you through the legal red tape before, during and after the process, enabling a smooth transition on time and on budget.
Achieving your ambitions
The conversion process has been made as simple as possible and the key steps the school must take are all explained on the Department for Education’s (DfE) website.
The academy conversion requires a number of legal agreements to be drawn up. Model legal documents have been drafted by the DfE for this purpose, but it is imperative that schools obtain legal advice and guidance on the implications of the terms of these agreements.
Our specialist team of academies lawyers can help you to understand the new accelerated academy framework and documents required by the DfE. Our team will not only guide you through all the necessary legal formalities for conversion, but will also provide practical support to enable a smooth transition to academy status.
Our team has advised accelerated “outstanding” rated schools becoming academies to more traditional models involving third party sponsors, foundations, PFI, trusts, primary and community schools and federations. In addition, our team has recently supported the establishment of a number of technical academies such as UTCs, including the first UTC set up in the country, as well as studio schools. Through this, our team has gained extensive experience of dealing with the educational establishments involved, as well as the industry partners, local businesses and other stakeholders.
The strength you need
Having advised on over 60 academy conversions, our dedicated academies team of over 20 lawyers is ideally placed and ready to help you through the process.
We have solid working relationships with the DfE, Companies House, project managers and local authorities, and our team will work seamlessly to ensure your academy is open on time and budget.
If you are interested in converting your school into an academy or in sponsoring an academy or becoming involved with a UTC or studio school, we offer a free initial consultation to talk you through the process involved and issues that can arise. Please contact Stuart Pemble, Christian Bull or Jonathan Greenwood.
To receive free updates, including briefings and workshops about academy conversions, please .
Lawyers you can trust
We have a proven strong track record of delivering academy projects on time and on budget, and our clients agree:
- “Thank you for your hard work, quick thinking and commitment last week ... to allow the … academies to open as planned today ... you have played a significant role in getting us to this position.”
- “It has been comforting to know that the team at Mills & Reeve were on top of the brief and giving us clear advice.”
- “I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work getting drafts of these documents to us so efficiently.”
- “Your colleagues have been excellent in their support for the project.”
- “Well done and sincere thanks for all your [team's] excellent work to secure the conversion on time.”