3rd March 2021

Engage Education partners with Ark Schools to deliver exceptional staffing solutions

Ark is a network of 38 schools in the UK, in Birmingham, Hastings, London and Portsmouth. While each Ark school has its own ethos, they all draw upon the same six pillars – in support of the shared mission to transform lives through education. Ark’s six pillars focus on; high expectations, excellent teaching, knowing every child, depth for breadth, exemplary behaviour and always learning. 

Ark Schools operate to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged students – they run mostly in areas of economic disadvantage and therefore have a higher proportion of disadvantaged students – 42% compared to the national average of 25%. Raising attainment is of significant importance to Engage Education and we’ve always instilled this in our approach to recruitment. 

At Engage Education, we believe in building strong relationships with schools and trusts alike. A core part of our business is to partner with and provide staffing solutions for local and national frameworks, like the DfE’s CCS Framework.

We were recently delighted to join the Ark Schools Trust as a preferred partner for recruitment services, via the CCS Framework.

How did we join the framework?

The trust wanted to partner with recruitment agencies who were accepted onto the CCS Framework. The DfE and CCS’ commercial agreement for supply teachers provides greater transparency of costs to help control supply teacher spend, and introduces standardised terms and conditions across the sector and establishes a consistent approach to safeguarding and compliance. 

Joining frameworks always involves a comprehensive tendering process – for MATs, it’s important that agencies can prove they’ll be able to deal with the capacities needed for staffing the schools within the framework, as well as meeting a number of compliance requirements. 

Our Compliance at a glance 

At Engage, we work hard to make sure we exceed all compliance requirements for education recruitment agencies. We’re REC audited, compliant with all government legislation and guidelines, and a named supplier on the CCS framework. Hire with confidence knowing all candidates put forward to you have undertaken the following checks:

• Face-to-face (or virtual) interviews for all applicants 
• Five-year employment history must be provided upon application, with no gaps
• Two references from the last two years
• Verified School and university qualifications
• Proof of identity 
• Right to work documents 
• UK proof of address is given
• National Insurance number
• Medical declarations
• Overseas police check where necessary
• Enhanced DBS check
• Gains rehabilitation of offenders declaration
• A prohibition from teaching and EEA Teacher Sanctions check
• Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance

How can we support your Ark Academy?

Our commitment to schools includes the highest levels of safeguarding and compliance, first-rate customer service and transparency at all levels.

We are committed to developing a deep understanding of each school we work with in terms of their ethos, and the wider context of each school’s needs and journey to better guide our candidate matching.

Our dedicated Ark Schools focus team will support your school depending on where it’s based – book a call with us below.