Our Trust Services

 As a Trust, our priority is to establish a school environment where our academies flourish. We are stronger together and being part of larger group is essential to our success.

We set a strong precedent on recognising that our academies have distinctive differences that sets them apart, while providing the opportunity to share, develop and work collaboratively, to determine best practice.

With the goal of facilitating others’ work, the Pope Francis CMAT Team offers our academies experience in the following:

Chaplaincy and Catholic Life

Our Head of Catholic Life works with school leaders and Chaplains to support schools in the development and celebration of their Catholic life. We provide resources for daily prayer and Celebrations of the Word reflecting the themes of the liturgical year and opportunities for Chaplains and school leaders to work together in the development of their mission. The Trust provides training and preparation as schools prepare for upcoming Catholic School Inspections.

Marketing and PR

All schools have access to the Trust’s Marketing and PR partner who provides strategic marketing support. This includes providing social media campaign materials and bespoke marketing materials to meet the needs of individual schools. They also provide critical incident PR support and media responses.

Estates

The Trust has partnered with Compliance Education to provide health and safety audits for each of our schools, as well as supported action plans to achieve school and Trust compliance. 

We also work with external partners to support decarbonisation and sustainability projects across our estates portfolio.

Data management

We work with nationally recognised service providers to ensure we have a strategic overview of ICT that meets the needs of a 21st century school. Our vision is one of collaboration, sharing resources and best practice to ensure that technology enhances the learning experience.

Legal and data protection

The Trust has an SLA with Hill Dickinson to provide unlimited educational law advice for example on issues such as; admissions, SEND, exclusions, land matters, complaints etc.

The Trust has also partnered with Hill Dickinson to provide the DPO in each school with unlimited access to GDPR support.

HR

The Trust has a dedicated Head of People responsible for HR policy and procedures who works with schools in case work and HR matters.

For more complex matters, the Trust has partnered with Hill Dickinson to provide unlimited Headteacher legal advice and support. Hill Dickinson will provide legal representation at any hearing with the potential to result in dismissal, providing security to school leaders and Governors.

Safeguarding

As part of due diligence when joining PFCMAT, the Trust will undertake a review of safeguarding and support the school in undertaking any action that needs to be implemented. The Trust will support the school in the upkeep and maintenance of the single central record, ensuring full compliance.

Payroll

With education payroll being such a specialist area, the Trust have selected a market leading school-only payroll provider. Access provide employees with an easy to use portal, so staff have easy access to payslips and the ability to submit various requests and claims. Each school will have a dedicated portal and payroll manager to ensure that they achieve 100% payroll accuracy.

Finance

Each school has a dedicated Finance Business Partner who works closely with the Headteacher in all areas of budget planning and finance.

The Finance Business partner also attends each governing body to provide information and receive questions.

Governance and Compliance

The Trust has a Governance and Compliance professional on staff with responsibility for providing the highest quality advice for governing bodies in performing their duties, as well as ensuring all statutory regulations are met.

Staff Wellbeing and Benefits

The vast majority of any school’s budget is spent on staffing and it’s vital that we invest in them.

The academic, social, and emotional wellness of students is strongly impacted by staff wellbeing, which can be improved through a supportive school community.

“We understand that happy teachers and staff make for better learners and students that want to be at school” - Andrew Dawson, CEO.

We support our staff with a variety of services, but we also partner with companies to enhance our staff benefits:

Simply Health: The Trust is committed to supporting staff wellbeing and partners with Simply Health including 24/7 access to a GP, access to counselling and financial support for some physiotherapy, dental work and glasses.

Our Central Team liaises with our academy leadership teams to ensure that support is targeted to each of our academies’ needs.