Senior HR Adviser

Job Description

Senior HR Adviser - Discovery Educational Trust

This *new* Senior HR Adviser post will support our two secondary schools in Brentwood and Southend on Sea, while sharing best practice with our three primary schools (Brentwood). You will be part of the central HR team, reporting to the HR Business Partner and working closely with the leadership teams and line managers in our schools.

You will support the HRBP across the full employee lifecycle, with a particular focus on working with line managers to strengthen absence and performance management, as well as embedding HR best practice and compliance locally.

This role might be for you, if you -

• Have relevant HR experience and are up to speed with forthcoming employment law changes.
• See change as an opportunity and want to help us build and shape a centralised HR function which supports our schools to deliver, through their people, the best education to our pupils.
• Work collaboratively and enjoy supporting colleagues and people managers to embed strong, consistent HR practices.
• Like to spot gaps, propose practical solutions and follow through to make sure improvements are actioned and sustained.
• Champion technology to streamline HR processes so that we can focus less on administration and more on adding value for our schools.

Location and Hours

This is a central Trust role with regular travel to both secondary schools. As we continue to centralise our HR services, it is likely that the role will develop to support wider Trust initiatives, including sharing effective practice across our five schools.

We offer flexibility around remote working, including during school closure periods. Reduced hours (for example, four days or five shorter days) can be considered, but this is a year-round post, not term time only.

If you would like to be part of our continuing journey, we would love to hear from you.

Closing date

We reserve the right to close applications early where application rates are high. This post is to start as soon as possible, accepting that many candidates will be on a one month notice period.

Information about the School

Discovery Educational Trust, formed in 2014, is a successful and established multi-academy trust based in South Essex, comprising just under 4000 pupils and 500 staff, across 5 schools.

Our schools are:

• Chase High School (Westcliff-on-Sea)
• St. Martin's School (Brentwood)
• Hogarth Primary School (Brentwood)
• Kelvedon Hatch Community Primary School (Brentwood)
• Larchwood Primary School (Brentwood)

We aim for each of our schools to become the school of choice within the community, offering a broad and exciting range of extracurricular activities to enhance the opportunities within their formal curriculum.

Our vision is that strong and effective leadership places our children and young people at the heart of everything we do. We value relationships, which are open and honest, underpinned by kindness, trustworthiness and compassion.

We offer ongoing training and professional development for all staff in a supportive and collaborative environment.

We offer the following benefits for employees:

• Pension scheme - also automatically includes Life Assurance
• Generous Referral Bonus for employees who refer quality candidates to join Discovery Educational Trust
• Two-week October half term (term time staff)
• Employee savings and discounts
• Employee Assistance Programme – free confidential wellbeing support for employees and dependants
• Mental Health First Aiders – we have qualified MHFA England trainers within the Trust and continue to add to our pool of trained MHFAs
• Bike2Work scheme
• Ongoing training and professional development in a supportive and collaborative environment
• Gifted Service Leave for long service
• Health Cash plan to support with every day healthcare costs – e.g. dental, optical, physiotherapy. Includes Virtual GP service

As an equal opportunities employer, Discovery Educational Trust is committed to the equal treatment of all current and prospective employees and does not condone discrimination on the basis of age; disability; gender re-assignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race (which includes ethnic origin, nationality and ethnic or national origins); religion or belief; sex; and sexual orientation. We aspire to have a diverse and inclusive workplace and strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join Discovery Educational Trust.

The Discovery Educational Trust is committed to safeguarding our pupils against radicalisation and extremism and promoting the welfare of children and young people, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

In compliance with safer recruitment procedures and guidelines, all applications must be made on an application form, CVs will not be accepted.  This appointment will be subject to pre-employment checks including an enhanced disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service and satisfactory references.