Browne Jacobson - The pandemic and its university challenges: A Covid-19 health & safety special - Monday 1st March 2021 - 2pm-3pm

Browne Jacobson - The pandemic and its university challenges: A Covid-19 health & safety special

Date -  Monday 1st March 2021

Time - 2pm-3pm

Covid-19 has and continues to present significant health and safety challenges on the university estate. In this one-hour webinar join legal experts Dale Collins, Nigel Lyons and Dominic Swift from our newest business partner - Browne Jacobson LLP, as they discuss important estate-related health and safety issues – including the risks that have been amplified during the last 12 months.

Prior to an open Q&A session, the team will consider;

• institutional and personal liability/responsibility for health and safety;
• concerns for universities as contractors of services;
• risk assessment and managing Covid-19 risks in a tide of ever changing guidance; and
• the cost of getting it wrong

In addition to considering the essential elements of a good health and safety culture the team will touch upon the following Covid-19 issues:

• Covid-19 testing now and in the future;
• regulatory ‘risk’ preparation for substantial on-campus activity resuming ahead of the new academic year;
• checking pandemic insurance cover;
• the maintenance of good ventilation;
• health and safety issues in relation to virtual learning; and
• mental wellbeing support for students as well as staff.

Drawing upon their experience of working with both HE and commercial clients. The team will share practical tips and advice to guide your decision-making during this difficult period, help you keep track of your legal obligations and be ready to take advantage of new opportunities that may arise.

Dominic Swift

Partner within our real estate team. He has significant project management experience gained by leading major projects and has brought this to bear as a key member of the education team. Most recently Dominic has been developing our due diligence offer and in particular developing methodologies to help our clients identify key project risks early so that they can be managed actively to reduce their impact on the delivery of the project.

Dominic also advises on governance within education and regularly delivers training and seminars as part of induction programmes for new university or school governors.

Dominic has advised many of our largest education clients on their most complex development and regeneration projects applying the skills and experience he gained working for major public sector landowners such as Homes England, Natural England and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Dominic has been involved in large scale projects relating to student accommodation, leisure and recreational facilities and teaching spaces.

He has particular expertise in advising on procurement in the context of land transactions. His clients welcome his “hands on and can-do attitude”.

Nigel Lyons

Nigel specialises in all types of contentious regulatory advocacy. He has particular expertise in criminal regulatory matters involving health and safety, environmental breaches and issues arising from alleged dishonesty. This can extend to defending large organisations, trusts, companies and partnerships as well as individuals, for example, those facing gross negligence manslaughter/health and safety investigations arising from commercial accidents.

In the higher education sector Nigel has dealt with a broad range of regulatory issues including:

• all types of health and safety accidents (including those that lead to tragic circumstances) ranging from asbestos issues and working at height to explosions in education laboratories;
• alleged breaches of trust within finance teams, fraud and intellectual property matters leading to criminal sanctions;
• tragic deaths of staff and students requiring assistance with witness support. Liaising with the police and coroner up to and including inquest representation;

sensitive reputational issues, plagiarism and internal disciplinary standards investigations arising from alleged inappropriate and unlawful conduct. Working to assist organisations to reduce and minimise reputational damage.

Dale Collins

Dale specialises in regulatory crime, particularly health and safety, environmental and fire safety breaches. He is a Solicitor Advocate, holding his Higher Rights qualification, and has been a criminal advocate for over 30 years, appearing before Magistrates' and Crown Courts and other tribunals including Coroner’s Courts.

Dale, as a recognised leader in health and safety, was for over 10 years a prosecuting advocate for the Health and Safety Executive, representing it in many of its largest cases, but now devotes all of his time to assisting and representing multi-national businesses and SMEs (including those in the education sector) in relation to regulatory investigations and prosecutions, and has throughout this pandemic been advising educational establishments on Covid-19 related health and safety issues.

His recent and current education sector work includes,

• representing an academy during the police investigation and inquest following the death of a pupil by hanging whilst they were at school
• representing a national business which provides fire risk assessments across a wide portfolio of premises for its clients, including within the education sector, which is being prosecuted by a Fire and Rescue Service for an alleged failure to undertake a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment
• representing an education trust in a high-profile police investigation relating to allegations of cruelty towards children with special needs by members of staff.
• representing an education trust in relation to an investigation by OFSTED regarding alleged inadequate safeguarding systems and protocols

Please note - the MS Teams link to join this meeting can be found in the iCalendar of your booking confirmation, however, the link will also be sent in a seperate invite closer to the time of the meeting.