Conversions & trust change
Academy conversion, joining or leaving a trust, mergers and re-brokerage — with staff transfer, continuity of service and consultation handled properly.
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Sector specialism
HR support for schoolsand academy trusts.
From single-form primaries to multi-academy trusts running twenty schools — advice and interim resource that already understands teaching terms, governance and the safeguarding interface.
What makes this sector different
Three things that catch people out.
The terms are not yours to set. Teaching staff on the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document, and support staff frequently on Burgundy Book or locally negotiated terms, means a great deal of standard employment advice simply does not apply. Directed time, pay progression, and the limits on what a school can require are all constrained in ways a generic adviser will not anticipate.
The decision-maker is a committee that meets termly. Governing bodies and trust boards approve things on a cycle. Where a dismissal, a restructure or an appeal requires their involvement, the meeting calendar becomes the binding constraint on your timetable. We plan around it from the start rather than discovering it in week three.
Safeguarding runs alongside, not instead. Where an employment matter touches safeguarding, two processes run in parallel with different rules, different thresholds and different reporting duties. Conflating them is the most consequential error we see in school HR, and it cuts both ways — employment processes that trample safeguarding referrals, and safeguarding concerns used to short-circuit employment fairness.
Who we work with
Multi-academy trusts, single academy trusts, maintained schools, federations, sixth form colleges, FE colleges, and specialist and SEND provision. Trust central teams are frequent clients — often a small central HR function supporting a growing estate, needing specialist depth and surge capacity rather than a permanent headcount increase.
How we help
Education HR,
both pillars.
Investigations & casework
Independent investigators for matters involving headteachers and senior leaders, where internal impartiality would inevitably be challenged.
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Capability & performance
Teacher and support staff capability processes run correctly, including the cases that have already drifted across more than one academic year.
Policies for schools
Policy suites and contracts written against STPCD, Burgundy Book and your trust's scheme of delegation.
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Training for school leaders
Sessions for heads, deputies and business managers on investigations, difficult conversations, absence and chairing hearings.
Interim school HR
HR advisors and business partners with genuine education experience, for trust central teams and larger schools.
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Case studies
How it looks in practice.
What we have been brought in to do for schools and trusts, and how it ended.
Schools & Academy Trusts
Restructuring a trust's central team without a single appeal
SituationA growing multi-academy trust with a central services team designed for six schools, now supporting eleven.
Our roleOptions appraisal, collective consultation design and hands-on delivery alongside the CEO and COO.
ResultNew structure in place for the autumn term, consultation completed on time, no appeals and no claims.
Read the case study
Anonymised composites — assembled from the kind of work we do, with identifying details changed and no client named. How we handle case studies.
FAQs
Sector
questions.
Both. Trust central teams are a natural fit because their needs are continuous, but we work with individual maintained schools and single academy trusts regularly — usually on a specific matter such as a capability case, a restructure or a senior investigation.
For a single school, engagement per matter is normally more economical than a retainer.
Talk to someone who already knows the framework.
A free 30-minute call. No introduction to your sector required.
Prefer email? [email protected] · Or call 020 0000 0000