BSA/BAISIS Conference – Visa and immigration summer term update

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• Date: May 22, 2023
• Time: 09:00 – 16:15
• Cost: Full Member – £195, Additional Full Member – £100, Affiliate Member – £295, Additional Affiliate Member – £130, Non-member – £390, Full Member Whole School Rate – £450
• Audience: Admissions, Marketing, Deputy Head, Head of Boarding, Head, Bursar, Education Guardians, Agents.
• Platform: Zoom (online)

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Course outline

This conference will enable delegates to hear directly from the experts on the latest in visas and immigration relevant to the education sector. The update will address key issues from members at a crucial time of year for international student recruitment.

BSA will facilitate questions directly from members to our experts throughout the day, including Home Office representatives. Delegates are welcome to send their questions in advance to bsa@boarding.org.uk to ensure these are answered during the session.

Training topics will include:

• Key sector issues relating to visas and immigration
• Maintaining sponsor licence compliance
• International student recruitment risk assessments and due diligence considerations
• Sponsor duties, including Monitoring, Reporting and Record-keeping Managing the SMS, CAS allocations and your BCA
• UKVI inspections and educational oversight
• Guardianship standards
• Electronic visa roll-out
• Updates to the Child Student and Student visa routes.

Learning outcomes:

• Increased awareness of the visa process for schools as sponsor licence holders
• Increased understanding of the CAS application process
• Increased understanding of the wider visa and immigration process, timelines and services.

BOOK NOW

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Programme:

09:30 – 09:45

Immigration state of the nation

A review of where we are now as a sector and what’s to come.

• Kate Hollyer, Director of Legal and Public Affairs, BSA Group

09:45 – 10:15

ISC census and international student trends

What the data is telling us about current market trends and the focus of future recruitment.

Chair: Kate Hollyer, Director of Legal and Public Affairs, BSA Group

• Simon Nathan, Deputy Chief Executive & Head of Policy, ISC

10:15 – 10:30

Break 

10:30 – 11:15

NMS compliance and new standards on guardianship

Exploring the key part educational guardians have to play in the international student journey, as well as National Minimum Standards for boarding schools.

Chair: Caroline Nixon, International Director, BSA Group

• Dale Wilkins, Senior Director, BSA and BSA Group

11:30 -12:30

Exploitation Risks and Due Diligence

This session will be focused on helping schools to be aware of and safeguard their international students whilst best protecting themselves and their international students against exploitation.

Chair: Caroline Nixon, International Director, BSA Group

• Louise Daynes, Border Force Higher Officer, National Safeguarding and Modern Slavery Team
• Mark Taylor, Consultant, Verisio

12:30 – 13;30

Lunch 

13:30 – 14:30

Home Office: Policy and Operations update

Hear from representatives of the Home Office Study Operations and Student Policy departments about the Child Student / Student visa routes and future developments, plus pose your questions to the team – an unmissable session!

Chair: Kate Hollyer, Director of Legal and Public Affairs, BSA Group

• Jack Rose, Study Service Manager, Home Office
• Paul Cooper, Operations Manager, Student Sponsor Assessment Unit, UKVI

14:30 – 14;45

Break 

14:45 – 15:45

Legal update: UKVI compliance and Educational Oversight

An overview of compliance trends and areas of focus from leading immigration expert and Chair of Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)

Chair: Beth Waddington, Director, BAISIS

• Hazar El-Chamaa, Immigration Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP and Chair, ILPA

15:45 – 16:15

In conversation with immigration experts

Put your questions to the legal panel and hear a round-up of the day.

Chair: Beth Waddington, Director, BAISIS

• Kate Hollyer, Director of Legal and Public Affairs, BSA Group
• Hazar El-Chamaa, Immigration Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP and Chair, ILPA

16:15

Close of conference

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Speakers:

Kate Hollyer, Legal and Public Affairs Director, BSA Group

Kate is Legal Director of BSA Group and Director of BSA Legal Services Ltd. As a qualified solicitor with more than 10 years’ experience advising clients on UK immigration law, Kate assists members with all immigration and safeguarding legal matters. Prior to joining BSA in 2022 Kate was Partner and Head of Department at a leading full-service UK law firm. Having resided in state, preparatory and senior school boarding houses since 2014 with her Housemaster husband, Kate has a unique perspective of boarding life.

 

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Simon Nathan, Head of Policy, ISC

Simon leads the policy and public affairs team, managing ISC’s relationships with Ministers, civil servants and MPs on behalf of member schools. Since taking post in January 2019, Simon has led ISC’s work on promoting the value of independent schools within political debate, the response to Labour proposals for abolishing the sector at the last election, and co-ordinating work on Covid.  Prior to joining ISC Simon worked for trade bodies in construction and the education policy team at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). He has a degree in economics and politics from Cambridge University.

 

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Caroline Nixon M.A. (Oxon.), M. Ed., FTIOB, BSA International & Membership Director, Director BAISIS

Caroline has worked in international education for over 30 years.  She is International & Membership Director at Boarding Schools’ Association, Director of British Association of Independent Schools with International Students and Director of Caroline Nixon Education Ltd., as well as a member of the advisory group to the British Government’s All Party Parliamentary Group for international students.

Caroline set up and runs the BSA educational agent certification scheme and is involved with the BSA’s accreditation of international schools.  Her background is in international education marketing and she also set up and ran a leading international school in the UK.  She has helped several UK schools to establish new overseas branches, advised an international school opening in the UK, set up a guardianship agency for an educational group, and advises schools on international marketing and academic and pastoral provision for their international students.

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Speaker: Dale Wilkins, Senior Director, BSA and BSA Group

Dale joined the BSA during Summer 2017 with responsibility for safeguarding and standards. In July 2019 he also assumed responsibility for the BSA’s accredited training programme. Dale leads on all safeguarding and inspection matters for the BSA, including managing the Commitment to Care Charter, the Annual Safeguarding conference, and the Safeguarding Forum. He has also developed a process of BSA Accreditation for our overseas members.

For 31 years Dale was a boarding practitioner. After boarding positions at Norwich School and Tettenhall College, Dale became a Housemaster at Old Swinford Hospital in 1992, and was promoted to Deputy Head in 2007, and subsequently also DSL. He has also been a multi-agency trainer for the Dudley Safeguarding Children’s Board and has been closely involved in inspection in state and independent boarding since 2002. Dale had previously been a BSA course tutor since 1998 and developed the BSA Self-Assessment Toolkit.

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Bethan Waddington, Programme Director BSA Group, incoming Director BAISIS

Bethan Waddington joined the BSA team as Training Manager in September 2017. Bethan has worked in two independent boarding schools in the UK and Switzerland, the latter as Housemistress to 36 pupils. Following her time in Switzerland, she was a Pastoral Manager for an inner-city state academy before working in the charity sector for Debrett’s running the ‘Debrett’s Foundation’ training programme.

In her role, Bethan plans and manages all Day Seminars, Conferences, INSET and Consultancy. She believes boarding can be a positive force for young people and in order to fully support their needs staff can never learn too much. As such she is passionate about the CPD BSA delivers to our pastoral communities in the UK and worldwide.

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Hazar El-Chamaa, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper and Chair, ILPA

Hazar has over eight years’ immigration experience and has been advising education providers on all aspects of compliance, restructuring and business strategies since the inception of Tier 4. Her experience also includes advising on appeals, judicial review applications and challenges to Home Office decisions which affect sponsors. Hazar is a frequent speaker on immigration law and gives training on sponsor compliance and prevention of illegal working. She is an elected executive committee member of ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association) and has been recommended by the Chambers Guide to the UK Legal Profession. Penningtons is recognised as a key link between the Home Office and educational institutions in the process of implementing and working through PBS reform.

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Louise Daynes, Border Force Higher Officer, National Safeguarding and Modern Slavery Team

I have previously been a Safeguarding Higher Officer at Gatwick airport for over 20 years.  I have been involved in dealing with many Safeguarding cases involving adults and children at the front line of Immigration control. I have been part of Safeguarding Operations in the UK and France including Operation Limelight, Karetu and Aident. I am now part of the National Safeguarding and Modern Slavery Team. I hold the training lead. I have delivered Safeguarding training to Border Force colleagues of all grades and experiences throughout the UK. I have also delivered training to Stakeholders in Europe and the UK.

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Mark Taylor, Consultant, Verisio Ltd

In a previous reincarnation Mark founded The Taylor Partnership – supporting U.K. independent schools in meeting the compliance demands of their UKVI sponsor licences and training many school staff. More recently, after travelling the world, Mark has identified the increased risk to independent schools as a result of the need for greater probity and due diligence in financial awareness of school suppliers, parents and agents. Mark’s interest in this field was first sparked in 2016-17 when he supported a number of schools following the disappearance of students from Vietnam.

Mark is working in partnership with Verisio, a specialist organisation concentrating on integrity and due diligence checks on corporations and individuals.