School Business Management

Human Resources

Working with hundreds of schools and multi-academy trusts, our service provides a trusted and reliable HR service, enabling you to deliver the best possible education for children and young people. 

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Products & Services

With a breadth of knowledge and expertise, we can help you respond to any school management issue, working closely with your leadership team to determine the best course of action to take. 

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Standard Service Agreement

Our HR team will support you in all aspects of people management, including day-to-day and strategic challenges, giving you more time to focus on teaching and learning. 

 

We offer 1, 2 and 3 year contract lengths. You can also access the support as a pay as you go service.  Our service level agreement includes: 

 

  • Casework management of staff conduct, attendance and capability issues 
  • Supporting schools by carrying out investigations, presenting at hearings, and preparing tribunals 
  • Support for schools and academies around exit strategies 
  • Helping to manage parental issues and complaints from all sources 
  • Emergency management including critical incident support 
  • Strategic workforce planning including staff restructures and redundancies and TUPE 
  • Support for Head Teacher recruitment and succession planning 
  • Leadership pay and pay performance management 

 

Other types of service agreements we offer include our HR Helpline and In-House HR Support.  

teacher using smartscreen in class

In-House HR Support

 

Our In-House HR Support is available as and when you need it, supporting your school with additional capacity and expertise. As an extension of your team, we will help you with all the responsibilities and functions that Human Resources entails.  

 

Our team can provide you with the resources for multiple cases; strategies to implement large scale change and workforce planning; and give you the reassurance that your next step is the right one.  

 

Draw from a wider pool of knowledge and experience, provided on a retainer basis with no upfront annual fee.  

 

We can offer bespoke HR training for schools and academies to complement internal CPD provided by your HR resource.  

 

We can also provide professional development to upskill internal HR practitioners so that training can be delivered directly by your staff, or co-delivered on site with support from One Education HR

school back office staff on phone

HR Helpline

With wide-ranging expertise, our HR professionals can help you with any question or concern. We can be reached by phone or email, available all year round and have an excellent reputation for our personable approach to dealing with your school management issues.

Providing sound and practical advice, our team of HR education experts respond to over 3000 calls each and every year, with a team of 18, you benefit from access to a pool of qualified specialists covering all management concerns including employment law, safeguarding, equality and diversity, wellbeing, HR policies. 

Over the last 12 months we have provided immediate solutions during the first phone call to the helpline for over half of these queries. With continued hands-on support for ongoing cases, combining where needed individual expertise within the team.

The helpline can be purchased, if you do not have a SLA with us, to support your current HR provision and can be started at any time of the year.

Health and Safety

Under Health and Safety legislation, all educational establishments must ensure they have access to competent health and safety advice. With this in mind, we are pleased to offer a special One Education Health and Safety service level agreement, designed to cover all the needs of any school. 

 

Working in partnership with Vita Safety, a quality-assured firm certified to ISO 9001:2015 by Alcumus ISOQAR, we can deliver tailored risk management support and consultancy to your school.  

 

  • School-specific health and safety policies and procedures 
  • Specialist advice on statutory legal obligations 
  • Audit to ensure legal obligations are met, along with report and action plan 
  • Undertaking a range of risk assessments to meet regulations including COSHH, manual handling, and display screen equipment 
  • Fire safety management 
  • Assistance to investigate major incidents and accident 

 

Taking the necessary steps to protect your staff, pupils and visitors, we can minimise risks and costly claims, creating the conditions for your school to thrive.  

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Staff Wellbeing

Staff wellbeing is fundamental to the fabric of your community, making a huge difference to school performance and the outcomes of your pupils. As a metric under the Ofsted framework for Outstanding Leadership, it is also a crucial step in your school improvement journey. 

 

Put wellbeing at the heart of your school priorities with our specialist support. 

 

Our Action for Wellbeing Support Package includes: 

 

  • Onsite visits to identify your school vision in respect of wellbeing. 
  • A review of current wellbeing practices and initiatives. 
  • Support with building on your current practices and developing an “equality” friendly wellbeing action plan. 
  • Developing a wellbeing brand/charter to reflect your school values and ethos.  
  • Guidance on how to launch the wellbeing strategy 
  • Expert advice and guidance to promote a good understanding of wellbeing amongst staff and leaders.  
  • 2 x visits to meet and support school leaders and team members responsible for wellbeing over a 12 month period.  

Excellence for Wellbeing Award

Demonstrate your school’s dedication to wellbeing by participating in our Excellence for Wellbeing Award. We will support your school as you work towards the gold, silver or bronze award. In addition you will receive: 

 

  • An official One Education Award plaque to showcase your achievement. 
  • An official One Education Wellbeing Award Logo to use on letter heads, recruitment material and websites. 
  • Official One Education wellbeing posters.  

 

 

 

To assess your school’s commitment to well-being we will audit using criteria within the headline areas listed here.

pupil and teacher read book

Single Central Record

In line with Keeping Children Safe in Education, your Single Central Record is a legal requirement, scrutinised by Ofsted and critical to the safeguarding of pupils.  

Ensure your systems and processes are compliant and in line with statutory requirements with our Single Central Record review. Led by our team of highly experienced professionals, our comprehensive service includes: 

 

  • On-site meeting with those responsible for managing the SCR 
  • Intensive review of current systems and practices 
  • In-depth discussions, practical advice and guidance 

 

A full report will be provided to the Headteacher, measuring the quality of stored data and current practices in place. The report will also outline any actions already taken, alongside recommendations to ensure compliance with legislation and Ofsted requirements.  

 
A close up of two hands touch each other

School Equality Assessment

The Ofsted Inspection Framework makes it clear that tackling inequalities should be reflected in every aspect of school life. However, we recognise that schools can face different challenges due to the complexity of their setting.  

 

With extensive knowledge and experience, our team will help your school fulfil it’s duties under the Equality Act 2010. Our team has extensive experience in relation to equality matters schools’ obligations and duties under the Equality Act 2010 and supporting Regulations. Our assessment and action plan will enable governors and senior leaders to face Ofsted inspections with confidence. 

 

We will support you with: 

 

  • General equality considerations 
  • School equality objectives 
  • Disability issues 
  • Pupil and staff information 
  • Monitoring/reviewing arrangements 
  • Evaluation of current provision and identifying action points to comply with your public sector equality duty. 
  • List of agreed equality tasks and action points to help you achieve your school vision.  
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Equality Training

Schools have a duty to tackle inequality and challenge discrimination. Our School Equality Training will equip staff with the tools and understanding to champion equality and the principles of inclusion, embedding best practice across the whole school.  

 

School Equality Training can be tailored to suit your school’s needs, helping you to fulfil your statutory responsibilities and take the necessary steps to ensure compliance with various equality duties.  

 

General training can be provided to all school staff, with more detailed options for school leadership teams, governors, and trust boards.  

fact sheet at conference

ISR/Pay Review

As the Department for Education leaves more and more pay decisions down to each school, it becomes increasingly important for schools to ensure consistency, transparency and equality of pay.   

 

With in-depth knowledge of teachers and leadership pay, we can provide strategic advice and guidance to review your Individual School Range (ISR). Working alongside your governors and headteacher, we analyse your current leadership structure, consider individual circumstances and additional influences that may have an impact on the pay of your leadership team.  

 

Our annual Model Teachers’ Pay Policy Review provides a thorough evaluation of your pay policy and practices to uphold compliance with the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), ensuring your school is accountable and ready for your next inspection. 

pupil and teacher holding book

Mediation

With pressures of inspections, pupil outcomes and results, there may be occasions where differences will surface between staff. Resolving these differences through mediation will bring a wide range of benefits to your school:

  • Independent and neutral mediator provides unbiased facilitating
  • Time and cost saving
  • Reduced absence, stress, grievances, poor performance and employment tribunal claims
  • Staff benefit from expressing their opinions and concerns in a structured format
  • Colleagues reach their own lasting solution
  • Increased empowerment and positive thought
  • Staff better aligned with the school’s visions, aims and goals.

 

Our accredited school mediators are highly experienced in dealing with the range of issues that cause disputes. Your mediator who will act as a point of contact should there be queries prior to, during or after the mediation.

  • Initial scoping discussion with your assigned mediator
  • Individual meetings with parties to establish issues, explain the mediation process and ensure issues are appropriate for mediation
  • Joint mediation session to tackle conflict and create where appropriate a mediation agreement
  • Sharing of mediation agreement where applicable
  • Post mediation support and evaluation
A close up of a man filling out a form for gdpr

GDPR School Compliance Audit

GDPR can be a mind field for school staff, with an abundance of records, databases and information held for both students and employees.  

 

Our GDPR service will ensure you are compliant with the new legislation that replaces the Data Protection Act, identifying and advising on how you manage, process and delete data.  

 

Following completion of a questionnaire and on-site meeting with our specialist, we will produce a report covering 4 key areas, supporting you with safe and practical steps towards compliance:  

 

  • Accountability & Governance 
  • Documentation, Processes & Procedures 
  • Data Protection Officer Responsibilities 
  • Recommendations to Support Compliance  
governors meeting in school setting

HR Bespoke Training

HR Bespoke Training 

Recognising the financial pressures often faced by schools, our in-house training has been designed as a cost-effective solution, allowing schools and trusts to keep investing in their greatest asset: their employees.  

Training sessions can be delivered at your school, or you can spread the costs further by partnering with neighbouring schools. Sessions can be run as full-day, half-day, or twilight sessions, and as part of INSET training days. 

We can deliver training across a wide range of topics, tailoring sessions around the needs of your school. Some examples include: 

  • Appraisal & capability 
  • Attendance management 
  • Critical incident management 
  • Managing parental issues 
  • Managing allegations against staff 
  • Accredited safer recruitment 
  • Succeeding as a new line manager

 

Whatever the topic, we share practical strategies and creative solutions, ensuring your staff leave each session confident in their newfound knowledge.  

Policy Audit

Effective policies and procedures should enable school leaders to fulfil their aims for the school, rather than act as a restraint. Up to date policies and procedures are fundamental within educational establishments to ensure that the school or academy is compliant with various education and employment legislation, our team will help to ensure that your school remains both operationally effective and legally compliant. 

 

Statutory Policy Review  

 

  • Confirm what statutory policies the school should have in place, in accordance with education specific legislation 
  • Identify if any statutory policies are missing 
  • Critique any HR policies within the statutory list and provide recommendations for changes, or adoption of One Education policies 

 

Our Whole School Policy Review includes all of the above, as well as additional support: 

 

  • Carry out an in-depth review of all other HR and Employment related policies to ensure they are fully compliant with current legislation and appropriate for the school environment 
  • Recommend streamlining of policies where appropriate, helping you to identify areas where non-statutory staff policies or working practices could be adopted by the school in order to improve governance, staff wellbeing and school culture 
  • Support you in consulting with staff and trade unions in regards to adoption of new policies and/or changes to current policies 
  • Support you with understanding who should be involved in the creation and ratification of policies and what review periods are appropriate and should be adhered to 
  • Assist you with implementing an effective review schedule. 

Job Evaluation

Schools, Academies and Multi Academy Trusts (MAT’s) are required to ensure that all support staff posts (new and significantly changed) are evaluated to ensure equal pay is maintained within their setting, and also across schools within the Local Authority if they are a Community School. That’s why it is essential to review your pay and grading structure for support roles, ensuring you are able to attract and retain high calibre staff, whilst meeting all Equal Pay requirements. 

 

Our bespoke Job Evaluation and Salary Review package covers all support staff roles up to Finance Director and CEO level. We will provide a thorough review of individual roles or whole teams to determine appropriate salaries within your pay and grading structure.

 

In cases where the Local Authority is responsible for carrying out Job Evaluation, we can help you with preparing the necessary documentation to ensure that the process is thorough, fair and reflective of your needs.   

 

 

As part of the review, our specialist will: 

 

  • Analyse your current structure, which includes the pay and grading structure and specific roles/grades.  
  • Conduct benchmarking of comparable roles not only within your school but across other schools, academies and MATs locally and nationally.  
  • Review the level of responsibilities and accountabilities required of the role in accordance with the principles of the NJC scheme.  
  • Request additional information as necessary to ensure a robust evaluation is undertaken.  
  • Ensure the job description is up to date, reflective of the responsibilities and fit for purpose.  
  • Produce a report with a clear rationale for the recommendations on the grade/pay outcome.  

 

 

Restructure & Leadership Reviews

Overcapacity within a school staffing structure is one key area where you can make efficiencies and cost savings. However, any organisational change will cause a degree of anxiety amongst your staff, so transparency is vital to boost wellbeing and morale in the workplace.  

 

Whether you are planning to restructure your school, or carry out a leadership review, our team will help you navigate the process with careful and strategic planning.  

 

We will work with you to develop a robust business plan that makes the case for change, providing clarity and direction to everyone involved. With our help, you can respond swiftly and effectively to questions from staff and trade unions, reducing the risk of potential legal challenge.  

If redundancies are required, we will help you to demonstrate a genuine redundancy situation has occurred, terminating employment fairly within the provisions of the law.  

 

Following our advice and practical steps, you can lead your employees through change and restructure, ensuring they are ready and reassured to embrace new beginnings.  

 

  • Project manage the restructure with a Senior Leader from start to finish 
  • Provide a Restructure Policy for adoption 
  • Support the drafting of a strategic business plan 
  • Review ISR, Leadership pay structures, and undertake support staff job evaluation if required 
  • Consult with staff and trade unions 
  • Support you in managing questions and challenge 
  • Provide letters to staff affected by proposals 
  • Provide redundancy calculations  
  • Develop wellbeing initiatives to reduce staff anxieties 
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Why choose One Education for Human Resources

We have a large team of HR professionals who are all CIPD qualified, including employment solicitors and members accredited in safe recruitment, mediation, and mental health first aid. Consider us as an extra member of your management team, working together to build a strong, sustainable infrastructure that allows you to achieve your school priorities. 

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