Hire Facilities: is your hire facilities agreement protecting your school?

Increasingly, schools are exploring alternative streams of income during this period of financial uncertainty. Hiring out facilities, such as sports halls, playing fields and theaters has traditionally been an attractive option for schools, which can make use of facilities already at their disposal but which go unused for large periods of time.

However, all too often we see hire facilities agreements which do not offer protection for the school from a commercial perspective. It is essential that your hire facilities agreement is well drafted to ensure that appropriate terms are included, particularly in relation to payment, liability, force majeure and termination.

In addition, following the recent updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education and the new non-statutory guidance on after-school activities, schools must ensure that their hire facilities agreements meet the necessary safeguarding requirements. Our education team can help to prepare a robust agreement to protect your school not only from a commercial perspective, but in respect of safeguarding.

We will be discussing hire facilities agreements, as well as other commercial and financial updates for schools, at our free, online Commercial Forum on Wednesday 29 November 2023, 9.00am – 10.00am This is aimed at Business Managers, Headteachers, COO’s, CFO’s and CEO’s. Get in touch with Coral Peutrill at cpeutrill@hcrlaw.com if you would like to join us or receive the recording.