Central Support Services

The Centralised Support Services team provides effective and efficient support to all of our schools. 

All of our work relates to non-teaching and learning aspects of running a school including IT, Finance, HR, Governance, Communications and Estates, alleviating the burden of administrative responsibility from schools. This allows Headteachers to focus on teaching and learning. We are focused on supporting and improving educational standards in every school.

The Central Support Services Team supports all aspects of the Trust.

  • IT support services provide technical expertise and support, alongside advice for the next technological advances which could be embedded in our schools.
  • Our Finance team provides financial acumen, strategic advice, clear processes and technical financial knowledge so that complex financial scenarios can be fully understood and planned for.
  • Our HR function delivers specialist support to each school for recruitment, compliance and employee relations to ensure all our staff are well managed and looked after.
  • Our Estates team ensures our buildings are safe and secure environments for teaching and learning.
  • We oversee effective capital investment programmes with the management oversight of larger projects.

This approach ensures that multidisciplinary teams consistently work with and support schools ensuring services are sustainable for a growing Trust.

Value for Money

Centralising our non-teaching and learning services has the benefit of encouraging reduced costs through better use of resources, achieving better value for money than an individual school would be able to.

Central Support Services Team

Janet Garraway - Chief Operating Officer

Gavin Bailey - Head of Finance

Sirena Ashman - Head of HR

Alec Prenter - Head of IT

James Sanderson - Head of Estates

The Central team is based at Ashdown House, Johnson Road, Sittingbourne.