School Business Management
Human Resources
A unique approach to HR services and people management, with answers to your transactional and complex people issues.
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Why choose One Education for Human Resources
Think of us as an extra member of your management team providing all of your back-office transactional services and specialist HR requirements. Our priority is to free your time to concentrate on teaching and learning, putting you first and delivering on your agenda.
One Education
Human Resources
Effective Human Resource management in education is essential to raising standards of teaching and pupil outcomes through the increased involvement, development and motivation of teachers.
Human Resources
Products
We offer a wide range of services including different levels of service agreements along with stand alone HR products that can add value to your existing HR provision and an extensive training programme.
Standard Service Agreement
Our core services can be purchased as an annual agreement, 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 HROne Helpline and the In-House HR Support.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
In-House HR Support
Our In-House HR Support is available as and when you need it, providing resource to support with multiple cases, strategic expertise to help implement large scale change and workforce planning; and just to ensure that your next step is the right one!
‘Human Resources’ covers such a vast area of functions and responsibilities, many that take some serious expertise to execute. We have the HR expertise and education knowledge to boost your internal resource.
Our In-House HR Support adds a wider level of resource and a deeper pool of knowledge to your in-house provision on a retainer basis, with no upfront annual fee.
Read our news article for further information about what is included in our in-house HR support.
We also provide bespoke HR training development for schools and academies to compliment internal CPD provided by your HR resource.
We can offer training to upskill internal HR practitioners so that training can be delivered directly by your staff, or co-delivered on your site with support from One Education HR.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
HR Helpline
We are here when you need help; all year round, by phone or email. We respond to your school’s management issues by providing telephone advice and also respond to your HR queries via email.
Our qualified HR experts resolve more than 80% of all queries during your initial contact with us and there is no limit to the number of calls you can make!
The HROne helpline can also 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.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Health and Safety
Health and Safety legislation, in particular Regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, requires all organisations, including educational establishments to ensure that they have access to competent health and safety advice.
Therefore, we are very pleased to offer a special One Education negotiated Health and Safety service level agreement, which we think will cover all the needs of Primary and High schools.
One Education have partnered with Vita Safety to assist schools to meet its legal obligations under health and safety legislation in practical, sensible and cost-effective ways. Vita Safety is a quality assured firm certified to ISO 9001:2015 by Alcumus ISOQAR and have been providing high quality, bespoke, health and safety support and guidance to organisations for over 14 years.
Each consultants has a diverse skill set, a recognised qualification in occupational safety and health, teamed with practical experience working within the education/early years sector. Combined, our consultants have over 60 years of hands-on problem-solving expertise behind them.
Together we put the right steps in place to protect your staff, pupils and visitors and ensure your school have the right policies and procedures established. And with the help of Vita Safety, we can deliver tailored risk management support and consultancy to your school.
Your school can feel confident through these services:
- School specific health and safety policies and procedures
- Specialist advice on statutory legal obligations
- Audits to ensure legal obligations are met alone 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
The benefits for your school include:
- Teachers can teach without worrying about potential risks in the classroom due to safer learning environments.
- Investing in health and safety means saving money long term; accidents are reduced, costly claims are minimised and the school is overall much safer.
- Students and staff get the support they need to improve their wellbeing, teaching and learning.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Staff Wellbeing
Being committed to the well-being of your staff is crucial in helping them lead happy and healthy lives and to maximise their performance at work.
Judgements in the new framework for ‘Outstanding’ Leadership & Management will include an assessment on ‘the extent to which leaders take into account the workload and well-being of their staff in order to deliver a high-quality education, while also developing and strengthening the quality of the workforce’.
We can help you achieve a strategic and integrated focus on your staff well-being.
Our Action for Well-being Support Package includes:
- A face to face consultation to evaluate and identify your schools vision in respect of well-being.
- A review of current well-being practices and initiatives in your school.
- Help with extending your well-being practices and developing an ‘equality’ friendly well-being action plan.
- Assistance in developing a ‘well-being’ brand/charter which reflects your school’s values and ethos.
- General advice and guidance on how to ensure staff and leaders understand what well-being is and isn’t.
- Guidance on how to launch the well-being strategy to give well-being a real presence in your school (including well-being themed posters).
- 2 x visits to meet and support the Well-being Team/Headteacher or Governor responsible for well-being over a 12 month period.
Excellence for Well-being Award
Your school will receive a bronze, silver or gold award dependent on what criteria has been met. In addition your school will receive:
- An official One Education Award plaque to showcase your achievement in public areas.
- An official One Education Well-being Award Logo to use on letter heads, recruitment material and websites.
- Official One Education well-being posters.
To assess your school’s commitment to well-being we will audit using criteria within the headline areas listed here.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Single Central Record
In line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, your Single Central Record is a legal requirement, it is scrutinised by Ofsted and is crucial in safeguarding your pupils.
You can ensure your systems and processes are compliant and in line with statutory requirements with our Single Central Record audit.
Watch our video to understand the latest changes in KCSIE 2020 and learn our practical steps.
Our Single Central Record audit includes an on-site meeting with those responsible for managing the SCR. Alongside an intensive review of your current systems and practices and in-depth discussions with an expert will give you the opportunity to receive practical advice and guidance.
An audit report is provided for the principal/ Head Teacher regarding the quality of stored data and current practices in place. The report will also outline any actions already taken with recommendations to ensure compliance with current legislation and Ofsted requirements.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Lockdown Procedures
We understand the requirement to ‘lockdown’ in response to a potential threat can be a daunting experience for school leaders. Incidents are often unforeseen leaving little time to plan your response. Being prepared for a potential situation will allow you to respond effectively, ensuring the safety of your pupils and staff.
Our lockdown procedure includes:
- A lockdown audit, in consultation with security consultants Stealth Ops UK, including a site visit to survey your perimeter security and access points
- Guidance on security arrangements and how to deal with particular emergency situations
- Help and support with training and development for staff
- Oversee a lockdown drill in operation
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
School Equality Assessment
Promoting equality and celebrating diversity is particularly important within a school community. This can be challenging due to the complexity of a school setting but we are here to support you and share your commitment to your equality and diversity agenda. 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 as far as equality matters are concerned.
School Equality Assessment includes:
- General equality considerations
- School equality objectives
- Disability issues
- Pupil and staff information
- Monitoring/reviewing arrangements
- Evaluation of your current provision and identify action points
The assessment is designed to help you evaluate how effectively your school is complying with its public sector equality duty, specific duties and other statutory equality obligations. It will also help to identify any areas where action is needed. Following completion of the assessment, a summary of the school’s compliance will be produced, and a list of agreed equality tasks and action points will be provided.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Equality Training
We can provide School Equality Training to suit your school’s needs. General equality training can be provided to all school staff, and more detailed training can be delivered to your school leadership team, governors, or trust board. This will also cover your statutory responsibilities and the steps that you need to take to ensure compliance with the general and specific equality duties.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
ISR / Pay Review
Teachers’ pay has featured heavily in the media over the last several years, not least because of the introduction of performance related pay and the fact the Department of Education is leaving more and more pay decisions down to each school.
Schools (and academies that have adopted national terms and conditions) who do not comply with the requirements of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) may face challenges, including possible tribunal or legal action. In addition, Ofsted pay close attention to the management of teachers’ appraisal performance and the link that this has with pay progression.
It is therefore vital that schools are not only aware of the statutory requirements, but are able to utilise the relevant flexibilities and demonstrate how they are tailored to suit their individual school.
With in-depth knowledge of teachers’ and leadership pay, we can provide strategic advice and guidance to review your Individual School Range (ISR). An advisor will work alongside your governors, Head Teacher/principal, to analyse your current leadership structure, individual circumstances, and additional influences that may have an impact on the pay of your leadership team. Our annual Model Teachers’ Pay Policy Audit provides a thorough review of your pay policy and practices to ensure compliance with the STPCD.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
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
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
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 a pre-audit questionnaire and on-site meeting with our specialist we will produce a report covering 4 key areas:
- Accountability & Governance
- Documentation, Processes & Procedures
- Data Protection Officer Responsibilities
- Recommendations to Support Compliance
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
HR Bespoke Training
More and more schools and academies are turning to in-house courses as a cost effective way of developing their staff.
We have a range of training sessions that can be delivered in your school focusing on questions and issues specific to your establishment and the group’s training needs. Alternatively you can spread the cost further still by joining up with neighbouring schools.
All of our training opportunities can be adapted to meet specific school needs and these sessions can be run as a full-day, half-day, after school twilight session or as part of whole staff INSET training days.
Some examples of the training we offer are listed below, however we can design bespoke training on any leadership or staffing requirements within your school:
- Appraisal & capability
- Attendance management
- Challenging conversations
- Critical incident management
- Equality training
- Managing parental issues
- Reducing and managing allegations against staff
- Safer recruitment
- Succeeding as a new line manager
- Social media for all school stakeholders
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Policy Audit
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. However, more than just ensuring compliance, policies and procedures can be a positive tool to facilitate the effective day to day and longer term operations of your school or academy.
Effective policies and procedures should enable school leaders to fulfil their aims for the school, rather than act as a restraint. It is therefore vital that policies are regularly reviewed to ensure that your school or academy remains both operationally effective and legally compliant.
Ineffective, out of date or simply a failure to have the necessary policies in place can have negative consequences for a school, including lack of compliance, increased organisational risk, financial implications, ineffective management and working practices.
Policies and procedures provide a sound baseline for staff, increase the quality of teaching and learning and help set expectations and accountability frameworks.
How can One Education HR help? One Education HR have a team of Policy Specialists who can offer the following:
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.
Whole school policy review
- ALL OF THE ABOVE, AND:
- Carry out an in-depth review/critique of all other HR/Employment related policies to ensure they are fully compliant with current legislation and appropriate for the school environment;
- Recommend streamlining of policies if there is a significant overlap of information within policies and help you 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.
For a general no-obligation quote or opportunity for further discussion please complete the contact form here.
Contact us or call 0844 967 1111
Benefits
We pride ourselves in putting children first and delivering exceptional services at affordable prices to schools. Here are some additional benefits of working with One Education.

Professional and highly qualified advisors

Expert Education Helpline

Critical Incident response

Your fifth emergency service
Meet The Team

HR Director
Rachel Foster
Rachel is an employment solicitor and CIPD HR professional. She has represented schools, academies, local authorities and governing bodies in risk management, employment tribunals and other litigation, exit strategies and succession planning. She has vast experience in assisting school leaders.

Senior HR Manager
Laura Clark
Laura is a Senior HR Manager in the HR and People team and is a qualified solicitor. As an employment law specialist for over 30 years, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to team. Laura has worked exclusively with schools and academies in all aspects of HR since 2009. She has particular expertise in equality law issues and leads the HR equality group.

Senior HR Manager
Pam Mason
Pam has been advising schools for over 10 years and is a primary school governor with safeguarding responsibilities. Pam worked as HR Manager at a secondary school and has experience of developing school improvement plans and supporting the school through a full Section 5 Ofsted Inspection.

HR Manager
Evette Hudson
Evette has nearly 30 years’ experience within the education sector. Evette's specialisms are with the teachers' terms of conditions and safeguarding, being an accredited Safer Recruitment trainer, which includes Disclosure Barring Service checks and the Single Central Record.

Business Manager
Keren Callaghan
Keren works for the HR, Payroll and Governance teams as the business manager, organising and promoting the HR & People training programme on a termly basis. Keren has a background in finance and is a qualified AAT Accounting Technician.

HR Advisor
Carly Forrest
Carly is an experienced Employment Law Solicitor and currently serves as a school governor at a primary school, a role which brings relevance to her HR role at One Education. Carly enjoys working to identify and implement practical and effective solutions to HR problems and delivering training and has expertise in GDPR.

HR Advisor
Jade Walwyn
Jade, a qualified Associate member of the CIPD, is experienced in dealing with complex disciplinary and grievance matters and provides specialist in-house training to school leadership and management teams on handling difficult staffing situations.

HR Advisor
Chloe Lyon
Chloe, a qualified Associate member of the CIPD, has delivered briefings to schools in relation to Social Media and the Single Central Record. She previously worked for national organisations where she gained extensive HR knowledge and provided training to all levels of staff and management.

HR Advisor
Karen McCabe
Karen is educated to post graduate level in Human Resource Management and has over ten years’ experience working in HR, with the vast majority of her experience focused on providing advice on a wide variety of HR issues and delivering training to schools.

HR Advisor
Kirsty Howe
Kirsty has extensive HR experience across the public sector, which includes the NHS, Local Authority, Education and Higher Education. Kirsty has vast experience in generalised HR, organisational development and change, and is also a trained specialist in Job Evaluation.

HR Advisor
Katie Dillon
Katie is an experienced HR Advisor who has held various roles; Job Evaluation Specialist for Green Book Support Staff, Recruitment Officer and HR Officer in Adults Social Care. Katie is an accredited Safer Recruitment Trainer and has experience of being a clerk to governing bodies.

HR Advisor
Paula Shacklady
Paula has a vast amount of HR experience, including over 5 years for the Education Service. During this time Paula worked as a HR Business Partner acquiring extensive knowledge and understanding of supporting organisational change including TUPE.

HR Advisor
Rachel Depledge
Rachel is a fully qualified Human Resources professional with a broad range of experience working across a variety of sectors to include Education. Rachel is passionate about providing effective and solution focused outcomes to any HR and People related matters and has a keen interest in Equality & Diversity.

HR Advisor
Dominique Stead
Dominique has extensive generalist HR knowledge with a specialism in Employee Relations. She has been responsible for a number of key accounts and provided HR advice to a variety of sectors as well as delivering training, including Investigations, Disciplinary & Grievance and Equal Opportunities

HR Advisor
Meg Lancaster
Meg completed Employment Law training to CIPD Level and has been working alongside schools, nurseries, academies and further education institutions supporting them with their HR and internal change since.

HR Advisor
Angela Bryning
Angela has over 24 years’ professional generalist HR experience in both the public and private sectors in HR Business Partner and Consultant roles. Angela has much experience in dealing with ER issues, organisational design and development, job evaluation, restructuring, contractual changes and employee engagement.

HR Advisor
Lauren Turnbull
Lauren has dealt with an extensive range of HR matters and has worked closely with Maintained and Independent schools along with Academies, particularly dealing with ER issues such as, contractual changes, disciplinary, capability, absences management, sickness and maternity

HR Advisor
Yusra Syed
Yusra is a qualified Human Resources professional with experience across a variety of sectors including Education. Yusra has held a number of roles in the independent sector followed by working as a HR professional in national multi academy trust. She has experience dealing with ER issues such as disciplinaries, grievances, absence management, and supporting organisational change including TUPE.

HR Advisor
Nicola Hilliker
Nicola is a Chartered Human Resources professional with a broad range of experience working across a variety of not for profit and private sector organisations including Education. Nicola is passionate about providing pragmatic solutions to support all levels of management. She also has additional qualifications and experience in Learning and Development and has trained and coached managers on a myriad of people management and personal development topics.
Our Partners

Vita Safety
Vita Safety's health and safety consultants work with you to protect your people, assets and reputation. Their business is built on the foundations of customer care and quality.
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The Key
The Key is the country’s most trusted provider of knowledge and know-how to education leaders determined to make a difference. They provide the tools, resources and services that give leaders the knowledge to act.
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Slater Heelis
Slater Heelis is a client-focused law firm offering in-depth legal expertise and experience. They offer legal advice and exceptional service to commercial and not-for-profit organisations and private clients.
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Property Tectonics
Property Tectonics offers technical expertise and software based solutions spanning across many sectors including housing, health, educaiton, commerical and retail.
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Stealth Operations
Stealth Ops is a security consultancy based in the North West of England, founded by former senior officers of the Greater Manchester Police. They offer a planned, tested and often covert solution that protect both your staff and pupils should a lockdown have to be invoked.
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Manchester Stress Institute
The Manchester Stress Institute are experts in 'Wellbeing at Work' and present workshops, webinars and conferences on resilience, mental health and nutrition. Their flagship 'One in Ten Programme' helps to change lives and made a significant difference to the wellbeing of our HR team.
Watch our video
Enquiry form
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Address details
Universal Square,Devonshire St North,
Manchester
M12 6JH