Compulsory redundancies avoided at schools trust

The news comes after Horncastle Education Trust previously announced that it had launched a consultation process with staff which could have met compulsory redundancies if they could not find savings of six per cent across the whole trust and its five schools – Banovallum School and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Horncastle, Frithville Primary School, Huttoft Primary & Nursery School and New York Primary School.

The Trust had explained last month that, following significant rises in national insurance, pensions costs and national pay increases, it had launched a consultation for a staffing restructure involving potential

redundancies.

Now the consultation period, it has been confirmed that a number of staff have accepted “voluntary solutions” (which is likely to mean voluntary redundancy or reduced contracted hours), meaning compulsory redundancies are no longer needed and “significantly fewer individuals are impacted”.

It means that specialists will continue delivering within core subjects at secondary schools to maintain high standards of teaching and learning, said the Trust.

Chief Executive Officer, Sandra James, said: “The potential impact of a restructure of this nature cannot be underestimated and we thank our dedicated staff for their engagement, and for helping us to reach an outcome through voluntary means that secures the quality of teaching, support and student safety in addition to achieving financial savings.

“We recognise that other Trusts across the country are facing similar financial challenges and are not as fortunate regarding outcomes, this is once again a demonstration of the commitment from staff within our family of schools to put our young people first and provide them with the best educational offer, sustained from within their local community.”

Horncastle Education Trust was established in December 2018, employs approximately 300 staff and teaches around 1,600 pupils.