Legal Services - Primary Schools

The service is provided by Enfield Council’s in-house legal service which is responsible for providing legal advice to the Council in respect of the whole range of its functions. The service forms part of the Chief Executive’s Group (CEX), and the Director of Law and Governance reports directly to the Chief Executive. Legal Services adheres to the procedures as laid out in the Council’s Constitution.

The service provides advice in the following areas and will provide you with ready access to specialist knowledge on these areas:

Safeguarding

• Advice on general childcare matters

• Advice on safeguarding children and adults. Advice to schools on general matters, including aspects of parental responsibility and communications with parents

• Advice on school transport and Special Educational Needs

• Advice on individuals and families with no recourse to public funds

Corporate

• Employment matters

• Complex civil litigation, including contract disputes, property disputes, civil fraud and complex debt recovery.

• Community safety matters including injunctions and general advice.

• Judicial review proceedings.

• Housing matters including possession

• Criminal

• Freedom of Information, Data Protection and RIPA advice

Environment and Regeneration which includes advising and drafting on:

• All types of leases, licenses and hall hire arrangements

• Sales and acquisition agreements for land or buildings

• Telecommunication code matters

• Restrictive covenants and wayleave agreements

• Planning obligations and planning related queries

• All issues arising in respect of the environment including parks, waste and street scene matters

• Issues arising from assets of community value

• All highway matters including the drafting of agreements and stopping up orders

• The application of Property Procedure Rules, regeneration advice and projects, environment, and real estate work.

Major Contract & Commercial

• Drafting and advising on all contracts, for supply/services/works.

• Major contracts – e.g. IT, leisure, regeneration.

• Procurement advice (working closely with procurement teams).

• Review tender documents.

• Framework agreements.

• State Aid issues.

• Contract procedure rules

VFM and Benchmarking

• Legal Services collect benchmarking data to evidence efficient use of resources and demonstrate VFM where this is available.

Pricing

Each school will be charged an initial cost. During the year, any legal work will be offset against this initial cost. If the amount recharged exceeds the initial cost, the school will be recharged monthly based upon based on the hourly rates set out in the pricing schedule below.

The following costs are not covered by the Annual Fee:

• Barristers’ and other professional fees, including the cost of reports

• Legal costs awarded against the School in any case or tribunal