Fostering partnerships, empowering leaders: unveiling Edwin People

By Sarah Monk, Chief Strategy Officer at The Edwin Group

The Edwin Group is delighted to unveil Edwin People - a trailblazing, people-led, tech-enabled service, designed in close collaboration with education sector senior leaders. Exclusively tailored to address your most pressing priorities, Edwin People is positioned to redefine the educational services landscape, offering transformative and refreshing solutions to your strategic leadership and HR challenges. Your children and young people are at the heart of everything we do, and as we expand our portfolio of services, we place their needs at the forefront of our thinking.

Tackling workload challenges

In September 2023, the Government acknowledged the increased workload issues faced by teachers and senior leaders by establishing a new taskforce. The Edwin Group team took proactive steps to support this ambition too, drawing upon our experience as pioneers in the education sector, we sought to further understand the challenges posed by escalating workload demands. Committed to lightening this load, The Edwin Group engaged in extensive dialogue with CEOs, Head Teachers, COOs, CFOs, Directors of HR, and other senior leaders to co-design a transformative, people-focused approach to a new professional service for the sector.

Partnership for progress - unveiling Edwin People

Edwin People isn’t just a service; it’s a professional, collaborative partnership built upon the foundation of establishing trusted, long-term relationships. Actively seeking and listening to the needs of education leaders, we identified opportunities to increase capacity and provide specialist expertise. While we very much applaud the growing impact of central teams within MATs, your invaluable feedback identified the need for a service that offers an external perspective, with a team that knows the sector, is responsive, trusted, professional and high quality.

That’s why, this year, we are thrilled to expand The Edwin Group’s portfolio with Edwin People, led by highly experienced and knowledgeable members of our senior team, who are steeped in supporting schools and trusts with your leadership and people issues.

Transformative initiatives

Focused on delivering strategic leadership and HR advice, our team is already deeply engaged with schools and trusts on a spectrum of transformative initiatives. From guiding MAT mergers to conducting due diligence, implementing whole-school staff engagement projects, facilitating MAT pay harmonisation across multiple local authorities, and providing project support for academy conversions, Edwin People is committed to being at the forefront of transformative and positive change.

Reducing workload, building trust, supporting your people

Edwin People goes beyond reducing the workload on senior leaders; it serves as a trusted, impartial, and expert sounding board whenever leaders need it most. Our deep commitment to the people working in your schools and trusts drives our ambition to work shoulder to shoulder with you to tackle ongoing challenges, particularly in recruitment, retention, and workload reduction.

Extending The Edwin Group’s legacy

Edwin People is the natural extension of the solutions cultivated at The Edwin Group, focusing our energies wholly on addressing long-standing challenges within the education sector. As schools and multi-academy trusts evolve, we understand the range of challenges you continue to face, from pressures on school funding to Covid-19 recovery, increasing levels of SEND, tackling persistent absence, and the demands of a high-stakes accountability system. Our work with senior leaders has been instrumental in designing support that provides the sector with vital capacity and expertise across various strategic leadership and people-led developments.

Comprehensive services for all schools

For maintained schools, Edwin People offers impartial advice on the academisation process alongside a range of other services, including ongoing strategic HR advice, support with complex investigations, or assistance in reviewing your staffing structure. We also specialise in advising SEND and AP schools, having developed a deep understanding of some of the distinct people and leadership issues you face as leaders of specialist provisions.

Expert leadership, creative solutions

Our growing team of education specialist leaders and HR professionals not only understand the issues but is committed to providing creative solutions that empower you as leaders. We are dedicated to investing in tech solutions that support efficient delivery while co-designing an approach tailored to your unique needs.

Edwin People aims to be a revolutionary and positive force in education leadership and HR support. Trust us to add value and capacity, whilst building a responsive and impactful long-term relationship with your school or Trust. We are here to support you every step of the way.

For more information about Edwin People, contact [email protected] or visit www.edwin.group/edwinpeople

Sarah has over 30 years’ experience in the education sector. Her roles have included Head of Education Finance in a Local Authority, and Vice Principal across a group of schools (primary, secondary and SEND). Throughout her career, Sarah has advised hundreds of school and MAT CEOs, Head Teachers and senior leaders in a range of ways including MAT growth, strategic leadership, finance, HR and governance. As well as her role as Chief Strategy Officer at The Edwin Group, Sarah is Chair of Finance for a 35-school MAT, and a member at an all-through MAT.