Our people are our most important resource. Developing the policies and practices to ensure we recruit, retain and develop the best people matter.
Our HR service, develop the policies and provide training to take the burden from school leaders and offices. We work with unions to both build positive relationships and in the direct management of complex case work when things are not going well.
One of the more complex areas for trusts, is the different expectations and processes linked to financial management that the DfE and our auditors require. Internal and external audits are important but time consuming. We have central finance and accounting expertise to work with our schools to manage this ‘centrally’.
Every school has differing administrative structures and utilise LA support in different ways. We have the capacity and agility to work to ‘fit’ school structures as they join.
As one single legal and financial entity we are able to procure goods and services in a much more efficient and effective way. Scale helps purchasing power in this regard.
Sometimes things happen that take huge time and energy away from leaders’ core business.
GDPR issues, freedom of information requests, subject access requests, health and safety, and sadly, increasing levels of complaints across the sector. We have the capacity to support with process, the experience to navigate the complex and the compassion to listen when all you need to do is share a frustration.
Local governance is simplified in a trust. There is greater consistency in how leaders report, how agendas are built and how trust level updates are shared. As a result, our governance lead is able to support our clerks to support you in a very efficient way.
We are actively developing our IT provision and support to better serve our schools. With our expertise, we ensure a seamless transition to our systems and processes. Our robust network-level support is already in place, and throughout 2025, we will focus on further strengthening and enhancing technical support at the school level.
We use some of our expertise and that of a trusted third party to support our estates work. trust growth will enable us to enhance this further. A trust of our size is funded to support all medium to large estates pieces of work through the allocation of an annual grant. We will undertake full conditions surveys as part of our due diligence, to ensure your school is included in our rolling capital investment planning.