Events terms and conditions

Updated January 2025

CST Conferences, Summits, Short Courses and Training Programmes are provided by CST Professional Development Ltd (CST PD), a wholly owned subsidiary of CST. These terms and conditions apply to all events provided by CST PD including the CST Annual Conference, Professional Community Conferences and Summits, Masterclasses and other professional development programmes.

1. General Principles

CST events are designed to support those working within the school trust sector. The audience for each event will be detailed on the CST website. Any queries about who should attend, or arrangements for group bookings, should go to either events@cstuk.org.uk for courses and programmes or conferences@cstuk.org.uk for conferences and summits.
CST PD events are open to both CST members and attendees from school trusts that are not in CST membership. Delegate rates for CST conferences and summits are available for people working in third party organisations, such as charities and commercial organisations. However, CST Masterclasses, short courses and professional development programmes are only open to those directly working in trusts, and CST partners on request.
All CST members are eligible for preferential rates on events. To benefit from member rates your trust needs to be up to date with its subscription payments on the date of the event, not simply at the date of booking. To receive your preferential rate please confirm that your trust is in membership on the booking form. Further information about CST membership can be found on our website.
CST events must be booked via the completion of a form on the CST website. We are sorry we cannot accept bookings via telephone or email.
By submitting a booking form for one or more attendees, your trust is committing to the cost of these places. Event costs are clearly stated on the CST website. Bookings can be paid for by credit card or on receipt of an invoice. If your trust uses purchase order numbers, your PO should be added to your booking form before it is submitted to ensure that it appears on your invoice.

Confirmation of your place(s) will be provided via email once the booking form has been processed. If an event is fully booked, you may have the opportunity to join a waiting list so that we can contact you if a space becomes available.
An invoice will be provided for your booking as a separate This will be sent to the finance contact in your trust directly where CST has their details on record.
CST PD reserves the right to amend conference, summit and training programmes from time-to-time where circumstances dictate.

2. Cancellation and transfer policy

If an attendee is no longer able to attend a CST event, their place can be transferred to another colleague from within the same organisation, unless the event is role specific, such as the CEO Leadership Summit. CST PD must be notified by email to events@cstuk.org.uk for courses and programmes or conference@cstuk.org.uk no later than five working days before the event takes place. CST will not charge a fee for making transfer arrangements and will additionally make every effort to complete transfers within three working days of the request.
CST PD commits to costs in the development and delivery of its events and therefore must implement the following cancellation policy:
- For cancellations at 6 weeks’ notice or less no refund is due
- For cancellations between 6 to 12 weeks’ notice 50% refund is due
- For cancellations at more than 12 weeks’ notice a full refund is due
CST PD will deduct a Cancellation Fee of £25+VAT from all refunds to cover its administration costs and bank charges.
CST PD reserves the right to waive the cancellation policy at its discretion in exceptional circumstances.
Where events are part of a series, such as a Masterclass or professional development programme, the attendee commits to attendance at all Refunds are not available for partial attendance.
Where individual sessions from a professional development course series are missed, CST PD will provide supporting materials for that session, including recordings where relevant, but cannot commit to providing additional resources to ‘catch-up’ on missed content.
Delegates who are invited to take part in the speaking programme at a conference or summit are not automatically entitled to a refund or to transfer of their ticket in exchange for a free place. In some events, such as CST’s Annual Conference, speaker places may be funded by one of CSTs partners by agreement. In others, such as Professional Community Conferences or short courses CST will seek to provide an additional benefit for the participating trust in recognition of their contribution.
CST PD reserves the right to convert a conference or summit to an online event or provide access to the event content via a live stream, should the need arise due to external factors such as industrial action or extreme weather conditions which may affect attendance. In the circumstances where CST PD provides digital access, we will endeavour to give delegates a minimum of 7-days' When digital access is provided, refunds are not available and access to the event may be widened to a larger audience within each participating trust.
CST PD reserves the right to cancel a conference, summit, course or programme in exceptional circumstances. Where this is necessary, we will seek to provide a viable alternative and transfer delegate If this is not possible, a full refund or credit note will be provided. CST will not, however, be able to refund any travel or accommodation costs incurred.

3. Intellectual property

Unless otherwise stated, all intellectual property rights for articles, blogs, images and all other written material on the CST website, emails and materials belong to CST and/or CST PD.
Material in the members’ area of the CST website, and the virtual platform for CST professional communities, is provided for the exclusive use of CST members and should not be shared more widely.
Material on the publicly accessible section of the CST website or emailed to members can be shared with non-members subject to CST being credited as the source but may not be publicly reproduced.

4. Acceptance of terms and conditions

These terms and conditions may be revised from time to time and updated versions will be posted on CST’s website. Participants are responsible for keeping up to date with all changes. Continued participation in the event shall be deemed acceptance of all changes to these terms and conditions.

5. Privacy Policy

Please read CST’s Privacy Policy for information about how we use your data.