Business Frameworks

Frameworks

Business Frameworks

Supportive networks & access to experts.

The deployment of business frameworks across our schools forms deep collaboration between individuals within our schools.

Our finance, operations, HR, IT, marketing, governance and estates ‘offerings’ are not, strictly speaking, ‘services’. We prefer to refer to our business framework. That is because, whilst we do have a (lean) central team who work, expertly, in all those fields, they’re not a ‘back-office’ or an attempt to strip-back particular functions from being done in schools. We work in and with schools, building capacity and expertise that we can all share and learn from. We work together to ensure sustainability and share unique skillsets. Our culture is collaborative but the resource stays in the school - our secondary schools have business managers who are essential parts of SLT and provide a crucial role in driving trust processes, procedures and policies at school level. Primary schools have office managers and are supported by executive business managers and through collaborative networks. Secondary schools act as hubs, with seconday ICT and HR teams supporting primary schools. We make all this work by communicating well and being really clear about what needs doing, when and how. And we meet, in person, through collaborative teams.

School improvement does not happen in a vacuum - great business and operational support are essential.

EDUCATION SUPPORT

From the roll out of cyber security to running monthly payroll. The operations don’t work without people, and we believe it is the people in our schools that bring skill and experience to our frameworks and our systems and make things work, on the ground, for our young people.

HR Network

The Director of HR brings all those involved in advisory and transactional HR together to ensure alignment and compliance. This supports everyone to make sure our people strategy and payroll operation is the best it can be.

ICT Network

Led by the Director of ICT, the secondary ICT Network Managers regularly meet and share good practice, knowledge and make sure that all of our systems are compliant, children are safe on line, and staff have everything they need.

Business Managers Network

The lead business people from all our schools meet, network, collaborate and share good practice. It is how we make sure we are “all on the same page” in terms of compliance and it is how we build community as one trust, one family.

Legal Services & Advice

The Trust engage education specialist lawyers giving heads and leaders access to the best advice when they need it: employment, admissions, compliance, complaints, SEND, Equalities, Data Protection, safeguarding, pupil behaviour and more.

Insurance

All our schools are covered by the risk protection (RPA) scheme which includes unlimited employers’, professional, and third-party liability. If there is something that is needed that is not covered by RPA, then we procure it. As a trust we access risk management advice, training and best practice.

Resources & Subscriptions

We are all signed up to The Key, National Governors Association and the Confederation of School Trusts. Through SharePoint, we share resources, research and ideas.

Cranmer Institute

Professional learning is not a ‘top-down’ approach. We focus on building self-efficacy within all our staff. They use their knowledge and experience to tackle any challenge. We’re a community of professional learners collaborating and supporting each other with collegiality at the core.

Policy Framework

Trust policies for HR, safeguarding, equality, data protection, SEND and a framework for review and development of local policies, sharing intelligence, pooling resources, being organised for compliance.

Our ethos drives more than just our visual identity.

It fundamentally affects how we think and act. We believe what makes us different and stand out is our commitment to connection through people and systems to make it all work so that we can live and breathe the front-line. Through our business professional systems, scale and influence and the professional qualifications between us, we are set up robustly and efficiently.

No service runs without people. And we believe it is the people in your schools that make everything work day in day out. We welcome your business people into our framework.

Data, IT, shared systems, top class MIS for HR and payroll, Microsoft SharePoint platform and learning environments - we have that. In fact, we have some of the best systems there are. But you have to meet people in the real world for true collaborative convergence to happen and get the benefits of being part of something bigger – with people on speed-dial whether it is the updating of a website content management system or reminders about how you do the VAT journal – knowing colleagues in sister schools are on the same system with the same procedures and employer. And having that collaboration underpinned by network meetings and sharing of ideas.

ICT

Finance

Marketing

Operations

Governance

Diverse stories, united purpose.

Together we achieve more than we could individually.

We are a diverse community of staff and students, each with our own unique stories, and different jobs, but we are united by a common goal - to advance the best possible education for our children and young people.

By working together, we create well-organised systems so that every child can thrive in vibrant, high-performing schools. Our frameworks are designed to simplify and strengthen school operations, with central staff at its heart, coaching and supporting every layer of the trust.

It is all about impact. Our central team’s expertise ensures every school runs smoothly with aligned processes, systems and connections which reduce administration burdens, letting school leaders prioritise teaching and learning.