Professional services
We are proud of our forward-thinking professional services to and for our schools. All services are designed around our social mobility mission of increasing opportunities and improving outcomes for the students and communities we serve, especially those who are disadvantaged, have special educational needs or disabilities, or are more likely to face discrimination.
Put simply, all that we do as a Trust is focussed on running an organisation dedicated to the best possible outcomes for our students.
Finance services
Our schools benefit from:
- A dedicated Business Manager partner to support financial planning and health
- A central procurement, payment and finance processing team to ensure efficient practice and excellent value
- Bursary support to ensure disadvantaged students are able to access finances to remove barriers to learning
- Full audit and accounting services to ensure compliance with legislated requirements
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Human Resources services
Our schools benefit from:
- A single HR team to ensure parity across our workforce
- An end-to-end digital HR system to support recruitment, development, payroll and staff management
- Advice and guidance from our team of HR advisers backed up by partners including education HR professionals and employment law specialists to ensure that all staff are fully and fairly supported
- A comprehensive staff benefits programme made possible through our scale as a large trust
- In-house payroll management meaning our staff know where to turn if they have questions
Estates services
Our schools benefit from:
- Strategic condition and development advice to ensure that our school sites are working for us
- Access to funding streams and development opportunities including full project management of major works
- Oversight of school estates teams to ensure compliance, best practice and joined-up working
- Health & Safety advice and guidance and best practice shared across all schools
- A programme of fixed testing and compliance checks
Information Systems services
Our schools benefit from:
- A fully managed IT system built on the latest infrastructure and devices including a single Microsoft environment to ensure collaboration across all schools is seamless
- Data protection and GDPR advice and guidance to ensure full compliance with key legislation
- Trust-wide policies and approaches to managing data efficiently, effectively and safely
- Large scale trust-wide Digital Transformation including CPD opportunities, the championing of best practice, and access to a wide network of edtech pioneer partner organisations to drive us forward in the digital age
Governance services
Our schools benefit from:
- A Trust Governance Professional to support our members and board of trustees and its committees to support and challenge our trust leaders in line with the scheme of delegation
- A comprehensive policy management process to ensure policies are compliant, up to date, and effective
- A clerking service for all Local Governing Bodies to ensure each school is operating its local governance at an optimum level
- Advice and guidance to support decision making and ensure compliance with complex queries.
Student support services
Our schools benefit from:
- In-house expertise and strategic leadership in SEND, safeguarding, behaviour, attendance, and wellbeing
- A pioneering multi-disciplinary team of clinicians to support students directly with a range of therapies to overcome barriers to learning
- Our own alternative provision pathway for students who are at risk of exclusion to ensure that even those with complex needs and disadvantages are not left behind
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Quality of Education services
Our schools benefit from:
- A comprehensive school improvement service to improve outcomes, support with external review, and develop and share the very best practice
- A high-quality range of CPD opportunities for all
- A range of facilitated professional learning communities to support collaboration across all schools and the development and sharing of sector-leading practice