Great people equals great teams equals happy workplace - Head of Communications and Engagement Outcomes First Group Employee Review

I personally have a good team and generally understanding SLT. My pay is a decent for the market. Wonderful children to work with.

They push for everyone to complete the “Great Place to Work” survey with silly incentives, but address none of the issues raised once their corporate staff give them praise. 4 day working week is the first thing in all their job adverts yet it has not been implemented in many of the settings, mine included. It is a tough job when working with complex cases and is to be expected, I believe my SLT are doing their best with absolutely no resources or budget being given to them. We often get site visits from OFG corporate management who seem to have no perspective of what we’re dealing with and who slate and change everything we’re doing based on their beliefs rather than rationale or best practice. We are supposed to be therapeutic in our approaches, but the company seems to expect our SEN students to fit into a one size fits all box and it’s only therapeutic when not under the gaze of inspections or management. Regulation first is often preached but not practiced. Clinical staff doing their best but neither clinical nor teaching staff have the capacity to implement a lot of the measures suggested. Many staff not qualified to be working with SEN, but due to shortages are being hired regardless. Staff safety not a priority, injuries treated as a given rather than actively looking for a solution as to why these situations occur.

Its really hard to find any pro's if I am honest.

When I joined I was told I would get a 4 day working week after my probation which when I finished I did not get it at all and in the last term we get it once every 2 weeks, but it is used to punish people rather than an incentive. Upper management are so far removed offering no support for people on the ground. Boast training and only offer rubbish on line courses that have no recognition and is not worth the paper its printed on. I have been asking for over a year for a decent training course. Learners are treated as cash cows. Tasks constantly dropped on you at the last minute with totally unachievable deadlines.