People Business Partner

The Learning Partnership is a diverse multi-academy trust delivering excellent educational provision for pupils in primary and secondary schools across the North West. The Trust primarily serves the communities of Crewe, Congleton, and Knutsford, and is now the largest multi-academy trust in Cheshire.

At The Learning Partnership, we believe that there are three core facets of our mission –people, passion, and performance. We are striving to build a community of the strongest people, inspiring a passion for education that galvanises these people to maximise their abilities, which supports all pupils to perform at their best. We believe that these core principles will create a culture that helps all our schools to improve and ensures pupil outcomes are the very best they can be.

The trust subscribes to the Education Staff Wellbeing Charter and places staff wellbeing at the forefront of its strategic people priorities. Our ongoing commitment in this area is reflected in our employee offer that includes:

• Discounts in retail stores, entertainment and supermarkets
• Benefits schemes in affordable tech, cycle2work, gym memberships and a car scheme
• Employee assistance programme providing specialist advice and guidance in a range of areas including menopause, financial management, and up to 8 counselling sessions per referral
• Flexible working offered as a day 1 right of employment
• Free parking
• Access to high quality CPD and secondment opportunities

About the role:

We are seeking to appoint an ambitious and experienced People Business Partner to deliver an efficient, high quality HR service to all schools, following the trust's recent expansion to an organisation of 15 schools. The role is suitable for a strong employee relations professional looking to take the next step towards becoming a strategic business partner and involves:

• Meeting key stakeholders to discuss people challenges
• Providing guidance on people practices such as restructures and succession planning
• Bringing people expertise and developing solutions, helping schools to improve
• Influencing and building relationships with people across the trust
• Acting as a local point of people expertise for leaders at all levels that are implementing new people approaches
• Questioning and challenging others to get to the root of people and educational issues
• Coaching and providing feedback to key stakeholders to help improve efficiency across the trust

The People Business Partner will be based in the trust's Shared Services hub in Crewe, at Crewe Engineering and Design UTC. This role includes the line management of a small team of HR Advisors and HR Administrators.

The post-holder will work closely with our current People Business Partner alongside our Deputy CEO (Operations) to support in delivering the People Strategy, as well as striving for operational excellence within the department. The successful candidate should be an accomplished HR generalist with management experience. Previous experience within the public sector would be advantageous.

For a discussion about the role or to set up an informal Teams meeting/visit the school site, please contact People Business Partner Hannah Fitzgerald hfitzgerald@tlptrust.com

The deadline for applications is 9am Monday 23rd September, however we would encourage interested applicants to apply promptly, as we retain the right to close applications early if we secure a strong field of candidates. Interviews are provisionally scheduled for Wednesday 25th September.

The Learning Partnership is a disability committed employer: applicants requiring adjustments to the application or interview process should contact Hannah Fitzgerald hfitzgerald@tlptrust.com.

Interviews will be arranged at a mutually convenient time with candidates.

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The Learning Partnership is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. All staff appointments are subject to satisfactory references and enhanced checks with the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS), and appropriate online searches in line with the requirements in Keeping Children Safe in Education (2024).

The Learning Partnership is committed to the promotion of equality of opportunity and the elimination of discrimination; all applicants should note that they will be considered on the basis of suitability regardless of disability, gender, race, religion, age, sexual orientation and marital status or any other discrimination which is unfair or unreasonable. We particularly welcome applications from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, LGBTQ+ candidates and candidates with disabilities because we would like to increase the representation of these groups at The Learning Partnership. We want to do this because we know greater diversity will lead to even greater outcomes for children. We are proud to be an employer that holds Disability Committed and Menopause Friendly status. 

The Trust is ‘happy to talk flexible working’. Flexible working increases workplace diversity by making roles accessible to those with caring responsibilities (primarily women), disabled staff, and both older and younger workers.