As part of our People and Talent Management team, our HR specialists are here to help you to create the best employment conditions to help your employees flourish.
We aim to empower senior leaders, governors and trustees to deal with employment issues and provide you with support to enable you to manage your employees well. Our advisers take the time to understand your school’s challenges to ensure our advice is tailored to the needs of your school. We will offer pragmatic options to ensure HR issues can be dealt with quickly and effectively so you can focus on the education of students.
We have a wealth of experience working with a wide variety of maintained schools, nurseries and multi-academy trusts so understand the needs and challenges facing the education sector. Our team is knowledgeable in national terms and conditions for both teaching and support staff, up to date with employment legislation and are experienced in supporting and guiding schools through complex employee relations casework.
Our standard service level agreement includes:
- Advice on complex absence, capability, grievance and disciplinary matters
- Support with restructures, redundancy and TUPE transfers
- Advice and support regarding pay, contracts, recruitment and terms and conditions
- Review of existing policies or creation of new policies that are practical, easy to follow, modern and fit for purpose
We also offer a range of HR additional services in addition to the service level agreement:
- Training for Headteachers and senior leaders on a range of HR issues
- Bespoke HR training on request
- Workplace mediation
- Independent investigation services
Mediation Services
Employee conflicts, miscommunications and misunderstandings can easily escalate if not addressed quickly and can lead to formal grievances and/or disciplinaries, which can be costly.
Workplace mediation can help provide an opportunity for employees to discuss and explore their issues in a constructive way and agree a way forward. Our trained mediators can provide an independent approach, which is particularly useful when trying to resolve sensitive and difficult issues.
Mediation is best used to resolve disagreements around workplace relationships, including communication problems, personality clashes, relationship breakdowns and bullying and harassment. It can also be useful to rebuild workplace relationships following a disciplinary or grievance process.
Our approach:
- The mediator will meet with each person involved individually to get an understanding of the issues from their perspective and try to establish the underlying cause of the conflict
- A joint session, between all parties, will then be arranged during which the mediator will facilitate a discussion to address the issues, rebuild the relationship and agree a mutually acceptable resolution to enable them to work together in the future.
Workplace issues are best resolved at the earliest opportunity – for more information, please contact us.
Workplace Investigation Services (Coming Soon!)
Workplace investigations are a vital part of resolving disciplinary and grievance issues. A good investigation can help to gain an understanding of the full facts and allow fair, objective and informed decision-making. However, failure to follow a fair, thorough and reasonable investigation in line with ACAS guidelines could result in significant legal risk to the organisation.
It is not always practical or possible to conduct an internal investigation, particularly where the issues are complex or sensitive. Undertaking the role of investigation officer can be demanding and time consuming and therefore, you may wish to consider using an external independent HR investigating officer.
Our accredited investigators are all experienced HR professionals with a wide range of experience who have been trained to deal with a range of misconduct issues, grievances, bullying and harassment.
Our approach:
- Initial scoping meeting to establish the scale of the investigation and agree terms of reference
- Gather evidence and interview witnesses, as required
- Produce a comprehensive investigation report, detailing the facts established during the investigation
- Briefing meeting to discuss findings and recommendations
- Attendance at a hearing, if required
We can help you comply with your legal obligation and carry out an impartial, independent investigation, ensuring employees feel they have been dealt with fairly.
For more information about our workplace investigation services, please contact us.