Central Services Offer​

  • We help schools make sure our children get the best education we can possibly afford.

    Finance is a centralised function that offers efficient and effective service covering all financial processing and statutory returns. We deal with nearly all elements of finance centrally, freeing up time for school-based staff to focus on other things.

    Schools still retain accountability and responsibility for their budgets but have access to the central team for any queries or advice they need.

  • We ensure our schools have access to relevant, academy-focused legal advice when they need it.

    Legal services are outsourced to a specialist educational provider for Multi-Academy Trusts, Stone King. With offices based in Leeds, Stone King are on a retainer contract which allows us to seek legal advice across any aspect of school life.

  • We ensure that staff have access to reliable, fit for purpose IT equipment and software. This helps deliver amazing interactive lessons and learning experiences and allows staff to be as efficient and effective as possible in their roles.

    We have our own in-house team of IT professionals who operate across the Trust. We have established expertise in identifying, specifying, implementing and supporting education-specific IT solutions.

    We understand the requirements of schools and design and implement hardware and software solutions to ensure schools get the systems and equipment they need. We work with teachers and school leaders to ensure that their classroom and school requirements are met.

    We consistently improve and review our operating practices and infrastructure to ensure they remain up to date and relevant.

  • We aspire for schools to have an inspiring and fit for purpose learning environment.

    We help schools make sure our buildings and premised are safe, warm and dry.

    As a sizeable Trust we will benefit from over £1.5m Schools Condition Allowance. This is in addition to schools devolved formula capital funding. Our Head of Estates drives forward our 10-year Estates Plan and project work at every school including compliance and improvement work.

    Schools have seen considerable improvement ranging from flooring and decoration, through refurbishments, to TCU replacements, new windows and replacement boilers. Every school has a 10-year plan and a safety action plan.

    Our Estates team are there to support schools on a daily basis and get things fixed! Our Estates Team also have oversight of the whole of the Trust caretaking teams and a small team of mobile maintenance operators who ensure schools get a quick, efficient and cost-effective service.

    Our Estates team also ensure schools stay compliant with all legislative requirements. This is consistent across all schools.

  • We help schools, recruit, develop and retain the most talented colleagues to provide the best education for children in our schools.

    We provide responsive and comprehensive HR support for our schools, managers and staff in all areas of the HR lifecycle. As a single employer we use a Trust-wide approach to recruitment with centrally available support and processes, this is supported by a strategic SLA with North Yorkshire Council.

  • We ensure our schools are supported with effective and professional media relations, helping to communicate their values, achievements and stories clearly.

    Collaborating with external partners, we provide support across a range of media and communications services, including content creation, design for both digital and print materials and wider digital services. This includes the development of engaging social media content, as well as film and photography, ensuring our schools maintain a strong and consistent public presence.

  • We help schools stay compliant with regulations (GDPR, procurement) with dedicated internal resource and strategic SLAs.

    We have dedicated central support to help schools proactively and reactively deal with compliance and GDPR issues. We support all individual school contract procurement exercises where required. We work with and outsourced DPO who gives us expert advice in a timely manner.

  • We ensure we provide great value, tasty, nutritional meals that can help keep children energised throughout the day.

    Having our own provision in most of our schools means we can better involve parents in developing our menus; that we can choose where we source our food supplies; and we can better integrate food education and cooking into our curriculum.

    This ensures that our children are enjoying healthy and nutritious food whilst at school, we cater to a wide range of food allergens and dietary requirements to create an inclusive experience.

  • We ensure that our Trustees and School Governors are supported by a dedicated and professional governance team.

    We have our own in-house team of governance professionals who provide a comprehensive service to our Trust Board and Local Governing Committees.

  • We help schools focus on their core purpose by taking away as much of the policy development process as possible.

    Many of our policies have developed over time to become aligned as ‘Trust Policies’, progressed through a collaborative, consultative approach using the above services alongside a member of the Central Team who has a dedicated role in supporting schools with policy development.