Specialist panels.
Complaints panels, exclusion reviews and employment hearings, clerked by someone with no prior involvement in the case. A paginated bundle to every party at once, procedural advice to the chair in the room, and the outcome and reasons within 3 working days. Miss that and the hearing is not charged.
- Outcome and reasons
- 3 working days
- The bundle
- All parties at once
- The clerk
- No prior involvement
- If we miss it
- Not charged
One accountable person. Not a rotating clerking pool.
Enhanced checks where required.
Supplier and SLA information on request.
Data controller ZC098329. Company 16740592.
What you get
- Panel constitution checked. Properly constituted, quorate, and free of disqualifying prior involvement.
- Case set-up. Timetable, notice, attendees, representatives and witnesses coordinated ahead of the hearing.
- The bundle. Papers collated, paginated and issued to all parties at the same time.
- Procedure in the room. Advice to the chair on order of proceedings, remit, adjournments and new evidence.
- Attendance and process record. Who attended, in what capacity, and how the hearing proceeded.
- Decision and reasons. The outcome and the reasoning recorded clearly enough to stand up months later.
- Rights of appeal or review. Communicated as the procedure requires, in the outcome letter.
- Filing and follow-up. Outcome issued within 3 working days, papers filed, next steps confirmed.
Hearings we clerk
Complaints panels at the panel stage. Suspension and permanent exclusion reviews before the governing board, and governors’ appeal panels. Staff disciplinary, grievance and capability hearings, and pay appeals. Where a board cannot field three members with no prior involvement, we can clerk a panel constituted from outside it.
If we miss a date
That hearing is not charged. We are a governance provider, not a law firm: where a matter carries legal risk we say so rather than improvise, and make sure the record is in order for whoever advises you.
Practical answers
Whose side is the clerk on?
Neither. The clerk serves the panel, not the school and not the complainant. That independence is what makes the record worth having: a panel advised by someone with a stake in the outcome produces a decision that is far harder to defend later.
Is the clerk giving legal advice?
No. The clerk advises on procedure: remit, order of proceedings, what the panel may and may not consider, adjournments, and how new evidence is handled. Legal advice comes from your solicitors, and the procedural record we produce is what they will need.
How far in advance should we book?
As early as you can, and tell us the statutory deadline when you enquire. Exclusion reviews in particular run to timescales fixed by regulation rather than by your policy, and a panel rebuilt at short notice because of a conflict is what breaks them.
Do you support employment hearings?
Yes. Disciplinary, grievance, capability and pay appeals, including appeal stages heard by governors or trustees. From 1 October 2026 the window for bringing a tribunal claim doubled to six months, so the papers and the reasoning need to survive twice as long.
What the Employment Rights Act changes for staffing panels. One letter, three procedures when a complaint arrives blended with a records request. Meeting cover for board and committee meetings. Service levels for the commitments in full.
Approve the draft minutes. Then we invoice.Start with one meeting. You see how the papers are prepared, how the chair is supported in the room, and the minutes that go on the record, and you approve them before anything is charged.