News

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being implemented in phases across 2026 and 2027 and represents one of the most substantial reforms to UK employment law in recent years. 1. Statutory Sick PayFrom April 2026, Statutory Sick Pay is payable from the first day of sickness absence and the lower earnings threshold has been removed. … Read more

Cook Lawyers invite you to attend one of our FREE upcoming breakfast seminars which is aimed exclusively at schools and colleges for Headteachers, Senior Leaders and School Business Managers.  We are a team of experienced Employment Lawyers and HR Professionals that specialise in advising schools and colleges. We currently work with over 150 schools and colleges. Our seminars will … Read more

The Department for Education has now published Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) 2026, which comes into force on 1 September 2026. Whilst many of the changes are clarifications rather than major reforms, there are several important updates that schools should review and incorporate into their safeguarding and safer recruitment arrangements before the start of … Read more

The Department for Education has confirmed that the Education Secretary has accepted in full the recommendations of the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) regarding teacher pay for the next two years. The confirmed pay awards are: The DfE have confirmed schools will be expected to fund the first 1% of each annual pay award from … Read more

In line with ACAS guidance on industrial action, employees who take part in lawful strike action are protected in law, although they are not entitled to pay for the period, they are on strike. Schools should therefore ensure accurate records are kept of any staff who do not attend work on the strike day, with … Read more

On 19 June 2026, following the UK Health Security Agency and Met Office issuing heat-health alerts, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) called on employers to protect workers during periods of extreme hot weather. The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require employers to ensure that temperatures in all workplaces inside buildings are reasonable. … Read more

It’s the start of the 2026 World Cup today and ACAS has recently issued some timely guidance for employers, highlighting that major sporting events like the World Cup can bring a few “on-pitch challenges” in the workplace if not managed well. With kick-off times ranging from early evening through to the early hours of the morning … Read more

Yes, is the simple answer. There is a common misconception that a Local Authority Maintained School must use the local authority as their HR provider.  Schools are told they must do this because the local authority are ultimately the employer and have a final say in any decision to dismiss. This is not the case. … Read more

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 came into force in April 2026 and amends section 133 of the Education Act 2002 to extend the QTS requirement to academies. So, from 1st September 2026 new teachers in scope must either: •    Hold QTS, or•    Be actively working towards QTS Sixth Form Colleges that are not … Read more

This is a question we are often asked:- Are we required to pay part time teachers who have TLR’s, the full time TLR value despite them say only doing three days per week? The answer depends on the proportion of the responsibility carried out by the employee, rather than their contracted hours. So, if a part timer … Read more