DUNRAVEN EDUCATIONAL TRUST
Professional Services Team Update
The Central Line
Forthcoming events and news Spring Term 2025
Welcome to The Central Line, our DET Professional Services Team update.
This is our third termly document providing updates, reminders, advance notice of activities where we will be requesting responses from schools and any other useful news. We have added key contact details under each section but if you would like to discuss any aspect of the items included or have feedback please get in touch at drane.s@det.org.uk
We were pleased to share our Professional Services Brochure and Staff Contacts list earlier this year and hope that you have found this information about team activities a useful reference document.
We are currently updating this information and will shortly be sharing the documents with you.
Admissions
The spring term begins with the Medical/Social Committee meetings for applications for Year 7 and Reception for September 2025 entry. The committees review all applications made under this criterion as well as any out-of-year group requests. The membership is composed of Trustees, Governors and Headteachers with Admissions present to administrate and advise.
A reminder to all staff who are parents of children due to start primary school in September 2025 that the deadline to apply for Reception is 15 January 2025 and the application (Common Application Form (CAF) is available from your home Local Authority. If you have any questions or would like advice about the process, please do not hesitate to contact Jason White or one of the Admissions Leads in our primary schools.
In February, the admissions policies for all schools for September 2026 entry (and In-Year for 202526) will be published on the school websites and sent to the relevant Local Authority as part of the determined admissions arrangements. There have been no changes to the schools’ admissions criteria for the next academic year.
National Offer Day for Year 7 applications is 3 March, when all Year 6 families will be notified of their secondary school offer for September by their home Local Authority. Where families cannot be offered one of their preferred schools, the LA will make allocations and will inform the families. Dunraven and Elmgreen will write to families who have been offered places at the schools, as well as some of those who haven’t (for example, those on the waiting list). Any questions or queries, please direct families to contact the schools’ admissions offices: admissions@dunraven.det.org.uk (Dunraven) admissions@the-elmgreen-school.org.uk (Elmgreen).
A reminder that all of our schools’ admissions policies include Children of staff at the school as one of the priority admissions criteria. For your application to be eligible for admission under this priority criteria you will need:
to be employed by Dunraven Educational Trust for a minimum of 0.6fte (21 hours support staff / 16.5 hours teaching staff); and to be employed at the school to which you are applying for your child for at least 3 years at the time of submitting your application; or have been recruited to fill a vacant post at the school for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage
Please read your school’s admissions policy for the full details.
If you have any questions regarding Admissions please contact Jason White at white.j@det.org.uk
Media
The Trust Autumn term newsletter was published during the last week of the Autumn term. Any contributions to the Spring newsletter are welcome early, otherwise the deadline for submission will be issued after the February half term. Please do check the recently updated DET website for Trust updates and future newsletters.
All school websites are currently being standardised across the trust where possible, with the current priority being Events and Calendar. We ask the schools to ensure they make full use of the Calendar function and that it is live on the Homepage of your websites. CMS Teams continue to meet regularly.
All TES recruitment sites have now been refreshed with new images for all schools that have an account. Please ensure to inform the Visual Communications Manager if ever any consent is retracted for any student or child. This applies to all marketing applications, online or printed, as these can easily be overlooked.
If you have any questions regarding Media contact: lovell.h@det.org.uk
Facilities
ICT
Health & Safety Audits have been carried out in December by Judicium auditors. Keep an eye out for your new H&S Audit Action Plans from Judicium if you have not already received them.
Fire Risk Assessments (FRAs) are due to be carried out around March 2025, so a gentle reminder to review your current FRA’s and action plans ahead of the new Audit.
Please remember to get the remaining dates of the academic year for your Health & Safety Committees planned in and your terms of references reviewed or agreed to (example H&S committee - terms of reference, available on your Judicium portal in documents, under general templates)
The 2024 ‘DET Estates Management Strategy’ and ‘DET Appendix A - Asset Management Plan’ on EVERY to familiarise yourselves with the funding that your School has to carry out essential and larger works during the 2024/25 academic year. This will also allow your site teams to progress on to obtain sufficient quotes and plan in works for the upcoming half terms and summer break.
Don’t forget to review with your Premises Managers/Leads, your Sites ‘Building Maintenance Schedule and update with any new larger, essential or desirable works/projects that are required, as this is one of the documents used to review the ‘Asset Management Plan’ funding annually. Don’t miss a chance to get essential work/project funded.
If you have any questions regarding Facilities including Health & Safety please contact: gray.g@det.org.uk
Infrastructure upgrades
We are continuing to work with RM to update the wireless infrastructure across the school sites. The expectation is that this upgrade will improve wireless capability. We will be liaising with Head Teachers regarding associated works and timescales in individual schools.
As part of our Electronic Communications approach, we will be rolling out laptops to staff as confirmed by Headteachers in September 2024. Those staff in receipt of a laptop will be required to complete a loan agreement confirming the return of the laptop when colleagues eventually leave their roles. The signed loan agreements will be held on the HR system.
Updates from RM
Data Cleanup - can all colleagues please review their home and shared drives to remove any data that is no longer required. This will help us to maintain the network and reduce the load on the backups
Email Tidy - Please could colleagues review emails and consider they are still required. Please delete all emails which are not required, in addition to managing storage requirements.
Please be aware that if new accounts for staff and students are required before their start dateearly provisioning will be required. Please contact RM for this to be actioned, otherwise users will be created 24 hours after their start date based upon the user provisioning system implemented at each school.
Rapid Response will shortly be deployed across the Trust. This is a proactive method of raising a case with RM and contacting an engineer directly to help resolve issues at the first contact point. More details will be shared on usage when the system is implemented.
If you have any questions about the ICT please speak to your on site RM technician or contact Shirley Drane drane.s@det.org.uk
Payroll and Finance
Payroll
Following the parliamentary approval to the 5.5% uplift in Teachers’ pay and allowances for 202425, the Trust Board approved the inflationary adjustment to be processed in the December payroll, backdated to 1 September 2024.
For colleagues who are on NJC terms and conditions (Green Book), the uplift adjustment was processed in November 2024, backdated to April 2024.
Payments in respect of pay progression will be made in January 2025 with payments back dated to September 2024 subject to receipt of line manager confirmation.
The DET Self-Service Portal is now live and accessible for all colleagues; please note that any changes to personal details, including bank account details, will now only be accepted via the portal.
Overtime claims
To ensure that the Finance reports produced for your Headteacher and Local Governing Board are as accurate and up to date as possible in terms of costs incurred, a reminder that all claims / timesheets should be submitted within a month of the additional work being completed. Timesheets should not be consolidated or claimed in a lump sum. If the claims are delayed excessively, payments are likely to be delayed and may not be processed.
Please see information in the HR section below regarding the planned move to claiming overtime via the Self Service portal.
Claiming of Expenses
All items should be purchased following the Trust Purchasing procedure so that budget holders can agree expenditure in advance of the cost being committed. There has been a significant increase in the number of expense claims being submitted by colleagues which have not followed the Trust processes. Please note that the reimbursement of the expense claims will now be subject to further checks by Finance colleagues to ascertain the circumstances leading to colleagues spending their own money.
Pensions
A reminder that all colleagues who contribute to a pension scheme can register for an online account to access the pension statement and other details relevant to your pension benefits. Please find below links to your respective pension providers, and If you require any assistance with this, please don’t hesitate to contact us on payrollandpensions@det.org.uk
Teachers Pensions https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/forms/ registration.aspx
Support Staff at Elmgreen & Rosendale https://pensions.lambeth.gov.uk/home/
Support Staff at Dunraven & Van Gogh https://pensionssharedservice.org.uk/
Support Staff at Goldfinch https://mss.pensionssharedservice.org.uk/home/ non-member/thinking-of-joining.html
Please address any payroll related queries to payrollandpensions@det.org.uk
This is different to the email address payslips are sent from - please do not reply to the payslip address which is not monitored.
Finance
In line with the Trust financial procedures, all orders for goods and services should be raised and processed through the PSF purchasing Portal. If you would like to raise an order, please liaise with your Head of Department and they will direct you to your department requisitioner or you can enquire with the finance team at finance@det.org.uk
With a latest upgrade to the PSF purchasing portal, the budget holders will soon be able to access their Budget reports detailing any spend to date. We will be sharing further information with you on this in the coming weeks.
Local Income Management & School Trips
Financial Planning
To assist the schools with the management of the local Income collection leading to us to be able to demonstrate robust internal controls, guidance notes are being prepared and will be available to the school from January 2025, It will also include a section on the financial planning of the school trips and events.
If you require any further information regarding the above or you have a finance related query, please contact us at finance@det.org.uk and we will be happy to assist you further.
Operations
General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
GDPR Annual Audits took place in November 2024 with Judicium. A big thank you to all the school GDPR Leads for their efforts and our overall compliance.
The GDPR audit reports are expected to be issued in January 2025 with recommendations for the schools and Trust. Any school based actions will be issued during the staff briefings.
A reminder to all colleagues to report any data breaches immediately to your GDPR Lead and also consider any new systems that hold personal data must have a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) completed and approved by Judicium.
DET Mobile Phones in connection with GDPR compliance: Please remember to only use school mobiles for ALL school related business (unless using the school landline) e.g. phoning parents, school trips, sports days, theatre productions, taking and sharing images by uploading the image to G -Drive. NB: For school trips abroad roaming is automatically set.
GDPR compliance - reminder to consider the use of personal data in internal phone messaging communications. Schools still have some spare mobiles that can be utilised for work purposes, please speak to your Head Teacher for access.
Personal devices either phones or laptops should not be used to access Trust systems including email. Please refer to the various Trust policies on Every relating to ICT and electronic communications.
Procurement news
VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephone systems will be implemented after the completion of the RM infrastructure upgrades starting with Elmgreen and then rolled out across other schools as on-going infrastructure works are completed. We are in the process of tendering across the Trust for Uniforms, Catering, Cleaning and Reprographics. Professional Services colleagues will be working with schools through the specification and evaluation phases.
Business Continuity Plans
All schools currently reviewing their BCP and ensuring all emergency procedures and contacts including third parties are all up to date in the event they are needed. Head Teachers will be communicating with colleagues at each school on this issue.
If you have any questions regarding Operations contact: fisher.a@det.org.uk
Every
A reminder to all staff that the Trust Board and Local Governing Boards are continuing to review and approve policies throughout the year. Please can you ensure that all policies which are shared via the Every portal are read.
From time to time policies are loaded to Every as a reference document, staff are not required to read these documents and confirm but can access them if required.
E-learning training modules are allocated to staff either because they have been mandated by the Trust Board or identified locally by your Head Teacher as being relevant for individual responsibilities.
If you have any questions regarding Every contact: greenwood.s@det.org.uk
Governance
Dates for the school’s local governing board (LGB) meetings for the Spring term should be available for information through your school’s calendar and/or notices.
Governor and Trustee details: we have had further changes to the membership of the Local Governing Boards for The Elmgreen School, Dunraven, Van Gogh and Rosendale since our Autumn term update. Updated details of the governors are available under the governance section of each school’s website. We are always on the lookout for potential governors and if you know anyone who may be interested please do ask them to make contact with Kylie Burgess via the Governance email. We welcome Annabel Scarfe and David Sherwood to the Trust Board, both of whom fill skills gaps (HR and Finance respectively) that arose during the last year. Details of the members of the Trust Board are available on the Trust’s website
If staff would like any information from the Trust or your school’s Local Governing Board (including requests for meeting minutes) these should come through the Clerk who can be reached via governance@det.org.uk.
Membership: the schools have taken out membership of different modules available on The Key which contains a number of resources staff may find useful. The subscriptions vary for each school, the modules they each have are: The Key for Governors/GovernorHub (all schools); The Key Leaders, The Key Safeguarding, The Key CPD (Dunraven, Goldfinch and Van Gogh). If you are not already on your school’s membership you can use this link to register HERE. If you have any questions, or cannot access the resources you are looking for, please contact Kylie Burgess.
If you have any questions regarding Governance contact: governance@det.org.uk
Phoenix Lettings
Phoenix has had another successful year in terms of the steady growth in lettings across all our schools. The Phoenix Lettings purpose is to make charitable donations to each of the schools by utilising school buildings when they are not used for teaching and learning. We can all help to continue this growth by spreading the Phoenix word as most of our business comes from ‘word of mouth’.
As we enter the 2024-25 academic year a reminder to staff to please share dates of all school events, including areas of use that might impact any existing hirers with Phoenix.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
If you have any questions regarding Phoenix contact: phoenix@det.org.uk
Website: www.phoenixfx.org.uk
Human Resources
Appraisal
Employees (teaching and non teaching) should have received an appraisal last term unless this has been otherwise communicated. This is with the exception of a few colleagues who are due to increment in April.
Progressions for those applicable are expected to be processed in the January 2025 payroll. Please speak to your Headteacher/line manager with any queries about your progression.
School Workforce Census (SWC)
The School Workforce Census is a statutory submission all educational institutes must complete. The Schools Workforce Census captures key information about all of our staff including job titles, qualifications, start date, pay range and hours worked. The HR team manages this process centrally. Thank you to all of the schools who provided information about agency workers as part of this process.
The deadline to submit the SWC was 6 December 2024. We are pleased to confirm that this was submitted ahead of the deadline. We do not expect any further queries from the submission however, we will contact individual schools if there are any unusual queries we receive.
DET Benefits Document
A new benefits document has been created to capture all of the Trusts offerings. The document captures all of the benefits employees are entitled to as well as some useful links to 3rd party offerings particular groups of employees can benefit from. Examples include how to sign up for the Cycle to Work Scheme, Employee Assistance Programme service Season Ticket loan and a range of discount vouchers employees can sign up for.
A copy of this document can be downloaded from Every (the Trusts training and policy platform). Please contact the HR team at hr@det.org.uk if you have any questions.
Gym Membership
All Trust employees can benefit from a 10% discount on the cost of ‘Core’ and ‘Plus’ monthly memberships at PureGym, with no joining fee. Employees can register using either a QR code or a weblink (puregym.com/landing-page/ dunraven-educational-trust) and can then select their preferred home gym from any of the 380+ locations across the UK and choose the membership level that best suits their needs. Posters are displayed in staff rooms with details on how to join.
Overtime - DET Self-Service Portal
The DET Self-Service Portal is live and accessible for all colleagues. The portal enables colleagues to access information such as their payslips, P60s, personal information and emergency contact details at any point during the day. The DET self service portal can be accessed by clicking on this link; https://det.selfservice.global/login.
The next phase of the DET self service portal development will be the introduction of overtime claims. The Trust are currently trialing using the DET self service portal as a vehicle for all colleagues to submit their overtime claims. This new process would replace the paper submissions which are currently in place which should have the beneficial impact of removing delays in processing authorised timesheets. There will be further communication and guidance as we roll out the use of the portal across schools.
Please contact the HR team if there are any queries about the contractual details held on the portal (HR@DET.org.uk). Alternatively, please contact the payroll team at payrollandpensions@DET.org.uk if there are any questions about pay, pensions or P60s.
If you have any questions regarding HR contact: hr@det.org.uk