Consulting with staff and unions
Legal requirements
All schools must consult on health and safety matters. This means you must consult staff and unions when updating policies including:
This is set out in GOV.UK guidance on informing and consulting employees and Acas guidance on when consultation is legally required.
If your school/trust has 50 or more employees, your staff have the right to request a formal agreement about when you must inform and consult them about changes in your school, including policies.
This is called an ICE agreement, and it's part of the Information and Consultation of Employees regulations - see Acas' information on formal ICE agreements.
If you have fewer than 50 employees, you may have a