The Challenge
As a high performing school, academically we have struggled with the management of our site team. Varying skill sets, recruitment, changes in legislation and training were just some of the things that required an ever-increasing amount of SLT time. The provision of premises has been a very fast moving and changing environment in recent years and we felt that the option of recruiting permanently would be time consuming and costly. Recruiting back in-house would still involve high levels of my time in managing and as a school we wanted to avoid a drain on my resources where possible.
The Solution
Strictly Education offered a fully managed service with packages to suit our school. We were looking for a cost effective and professional way in which our premises staff could handle the day-to-day challenges as well as the long-term requirements of a large school. Having always recruited directly back into any vacancy within the premises team and never used an external provider we approached our situation with caution.
I liked the idea of the service also including regular visits from an area manager and the ability to contact them at any time to assist with any queries that I may have and to support both myself and the premises team in all aspects of the premises set-up. This was all inclusive of our package price.
The Result
Strictly Education now provide us with premises staff that we are very happy with. The staff remain at our school so we feel as though we have our own team but without the headaches of employing in-house.
Our needs have changed and the Facilities Staffing department have been there to help us through various challenges with improvement works as well as the day-to-day problems that all schools face.
We receive one monthly invoice which is inclusive of on-costs and full time hours. This makes budgeting easier for me.
I have a point of contact at any time if I need it and the knowledge of schools that Strictly Education has, gives me the peace of mind and the time that I need to devote to other things. A win-win for our school!
