Join Precept for a Schools and Education Forum where we will look at an important update on protecting staff from harassment at work

We are really excited to announce our next Education Forum. Taking place twice a year, the sessions are a great way for those in the education sector to not only get the benefit of Precept’s expert employment law and HR knowledge but to get to build relationships with other like-minded professionals.

During our latest Forum, we’ll be giving a short update on the latest changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025, talking you through how they impact the education sector and what we should be doing to deal with these.

And we know that one big area of change is around harassment in the workplace, particularly with the reintroduction of claims for “third-party harassment”.

Harassment claims under the Equality Act 2010 are on the rise generally and really have a sting in the tail. More often than not, these claims come from what some people see as harmless “banter.” Whether that’s banter from a colleague, a pupil or another third-party. Everybody likes a laugh and a joke.

But what exactly is harassment, how do we define “banter” and how effective is it as a defence to these often complex and sensitive claims? In this session we’ll take a look at the law of harassment, looking at where and when the defence of banter might be used and how effective that defence might be (spoiler alert: it's not that effective!) We will also give you some really useful practical tips on how to protect your people from harassment from internal and external stakeholders and banter gone wrong!

We will pass on our wealth of experience to you, in our usual no-nonsense and relaxed style. As Precept always say, the aim is to give you those useful “nuggets” of information, and not baffle you with case law.

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