A Great Place to Work
Our Dedicated Team
We remain committed to attracting, developing and retaining a diverse and talented workforce to enable the best possible outcomes for our children and young people. Our 2,698 diverse, talented, and dedicated employees celebrate the small successes that make a big difference for our children, young people and their families.
Staff training days
Net Promoter Score
Employees
As part of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, we have strengthened our partnership with Inclusive Employer, reaffirming our dedication to fostering a fair and welcoming workplace. We were delighted to receive Bronze accreditation from Inclusive Employers and the insights gained from this process have shaped our EDI strategy, ensuring that we continue to build on our inclusive environment where employees feel valued.
Our annual staff engagement survey, conducted with The Happiness Index, helps us measure our progress and we were thrilled to see a 90% participation rate, with an employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) of +42. A key survey question, ‘to what extent do you think people of all backgrounds can join and thrive in your establishment?’ received a score of 8.6, demonstrating the strength of our inclusive culture.
By investing in our people, we ensure that every child leaves us with ambition, aspiration and fulfils their true potential. Our innovative approach to training delivery includes use of new technologies and enables us to share our learning resources with employees right across the country. Staff completed 15,345 training days and 18,561 e-learning modules. We have strengthened our induction process with new welcome sessions and pre-induction content to ensure new employees feel supported from day one.
We were also delighted to receive the Personnel Today Award for Smaller Employers for some of this work through our Care Academy, recognizing the programmes significant impact across the organisation. The Care Academy is now evolving into the Witherslack Academy, expanding access to learning resources for more employees.
I wake up every morning and I am excited to go to school.
Ashbrooke School Pupil
We have had two further strong and successful cohorts on our Elevate and Aspire talent programmes. 50% of Elevate and Aspire delegates across all cohorts have been successful in progressing or changing career paths and 8% of our workforce are part of an early talent programme.
Our commitment to EDI remains a key focus for the year ahead as we continue our partnership with Inclusive Employer. We aim to lead the way in neuroinclusion, ensuring that our recruitment and onboarding practices support all colleagues in building fulfilling careers with us.
As part of this we also look forward to welcoming our first apprenticeship cohort of our alumni, where former pupils will join us as apprentices across a range of roles in our schools as part of our commitment to create outstanding outcomes for our young people.
Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent remains a priority and we will place a renewed emphasis on identifying and nurturing early talent, creating strong pipelines for Business Critical Roles. We are excited to launch our Forensic Psychology early talent program and partner with Movement to Work to help underrepresented groups find rewarding careers in specialist education.
Witherslack Academy will be further developed in 2025, including a refresh of our Talent Programmes Elevate and Aspire, and delivery of differentiated induction and development pathways across the business.
Meet Our People
Emma Hirani Head Teacher at Hilden Park School joined the Group in September 2022 as Deputy Headteacher at Luxborough Court School.
“The Elevate programme has provided me with a valuable opportunity to collaborate with colleagues on a similar career trajectory and to develop a supportive network of peers.
The guidance and support I received through the Elevate Programme were instrumental in my ability to lead the school’s first Ofsted inspection, resulting in a rating of Good with Outstanding features. Due to the relationships fostered through Elevate and the ongoing support I received, I felt confident in applying for a Headteacher position and was appointed as Headteacher at Hilden Park School in 2024.”
Alisha Hughes Shift Leader at Lakeland House has been completing her Level 4 Children, Young People and Families Practitioner Apprenticeship and her assessors highlighted to us her commitment and high standards of work
“The Apprenticeship has been fantastic – it is really well structured and the support you get is excellent. You aren’t overwhelmed with too much information and the assessors are always there to help. They offered extra support as standard, which would be great for those who need it. I have found it has been amazing for my confidence – I applied for a Shift Leader position and was successful.”
Claire Dinsdale, Deputy Head Teacher at Hartwell School joined the Elevate programme in 2024 and was Deputy Headteacher of Elmbank and Wrenfield Learning Centres. After being Acting Head of the Learning Centres, she then moved to be Deputy Head Teacher at Hartwell School to gain experience of the role in larger and more diverse setting.
‘I was lucky to be part of a fabulous team of leaders during my time on the course. We developed professional relationships, but also learnt about each other’s leadership styles and vulnerabilities. It is good to have people to call and bounce ideas off who are in similar roles to myself, which I wouldn’t have known without the networking opportunities the course provided.
I learned how my career could develop in ways I didn’t think possible prior to joining Witherslack Group. The company are supportive in developing leaders from within and this has further boosted my motivation to reach for these future possibilities.’
