21st October 2020

Academies Enterprise Trust – staffing solutions

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.

In August 2019, we were delighted to join the Academies Enterprise Trust (AET). Academies Enterprise Trust (AET) was created in 2008 by the Greensward Charitable Trust in Essex, and today it boasts a national presence of 58 schools across the Primary, Secondary and Special phases.

How did we join the framework?

We joined AET as a CCS approved preferred supplier – which meant the trust only looked to partner with recruitment agencies who were accepted onto the CCS Framework back in 2018. The DfE and CCS’ commercial agreement for supply teachers provides greater transparency of costs to help control supply teacher spend. It also introduces standardised terms and conditions across the sector and establishes a consistent approach to safeguarding and compliance. You can rest assured, booking supply with a CCS approved supplier means you can be confident in the staff you’re presented with.

Joining frameworks always involves a comprehensive tendering process – for local MATs, it’s vital 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 AET 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 AET focus team will support your school depending on where it’s based.