Questions and Answers

The Independent Schools Council brought a case recently against the Charity Commission arguing that its guidance was not clear and placed too much emphasis on the provision of bursaries and free places, rather than other forms of benefit such as the sharing of resources. Is the guidance still valid, in light of the outcome of the case?

I too read the article Sharpening Time Management Skills and the subsequent question raised by another reader made the timetable clearer. But what would be helpful to me as a new manager would be a simple crib sheet of ideas.

We sometimes have difficulties with agency drivers who refuse to leave their analogue tachograph charts with us, when they finish their assignment at the end of the week.

The agencies we use also insist that their drivers take the charts with them. We have offered to give them photocopies of the charts but many of them insist on keeping the original charts. We are not happy with this as we have had instances, in the past, when charts have never been returned to us. Are we in our rights to keep the charts, providing we give copies to the agencies?

I was drying down some beakers containing concentrated nitric acid on the hot plate in the fume cupboard. I then went to have a quick tea break. When I came back, I noticed brown fumes in the lab, and a horrible smell. Maybe the fume cupboard stopped working or perhaps a beaker broke. What should I do?

How can I better control the environment within the office space?

When the Dilnot report on social care funding was published last summer, the Government promised to react later in the year — any news?

I understand that an employee will be able to reclaim the Government’s proposed tribunal fees from his or her employer, if a claim is successful. What level of fee will be involved?

I am a network childminder and in the next few months I need to alter my planning documentation for the new EYFS with regard to the areas of learning. What do I need to change?

What post-GCSE qualifications are available to underpin non-specialist studies at 18+, to help students prepare for life after university?

Will the forthcoming change to the period of qualifying service affect all unfair dismissal claims?