Empower Teachers

Quality Policy Statement:

Empower Teachers is committed to providing clients with a service that is delivered to meet both their required specifications and timescales.

The reliability and quality of our service is of paramount importance to us at Empower Teachers. Our reputation is staked on our ability to deliver a quality service in a timely manner that is competitively priced.

Our procedures ensure that we have in place at Empower Teachers ensure that the quality of our service is managed, maintained and enhanced.

Quality Management Systems are regularly reviewed by the Directors and project teams. The review findings are documented and the suggested actions subsequently implemented with a view to continually improving our service to clients.

It is the responsibility of the Directors to ensure that our Quality Management System is audited, documented and implemented.

Empower Teachers’ Quality Management System has been formalised and is described in our Quality Manual.

Diversity Policy

Empower Teacher embraces diversity and will seek to promote the benefits of diversity in all of our business activities. We will seek to develop a business culture that reflects that belief. We will seek to widen the mediums in which we recruit to ensure as diverse as possible employee and candidate base. We will strive to make sure that our clients meet their own diversity targets.

Empower Teacher is committed to diversity and will promote diversity for all employees, workers and applicants and shall adhere to such a policy at all times. We will review on an on-going basis all aspects of recruitment to avoid unlawful or undesirable discrimination. Empower Teachers will treat everyone equally irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, political beliefs or membership or non-membership of a Trade Union or spent convictions, and places an obligation upon all staff to respect and act in accordance with the policy. Empower Teacher is committed to providing training for its entire staff in equal opportunities practice.

Empower Teachers shall not discriminate unlawfully when deciding which candidate/temporary worker is submitted for a vacancy or assignment, or in any terms of employment or terms of engagement for temporary workers. Empower Teachers will ensure that each candidate is assessed only in accordance with the candidate’s merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the relevant duties required by the particular vacancy.

Empower Teachers will not accept instructions from clients that indicate an intention to discriminate unlawfully.

Complaints Policy and Procedure

Empower Teachers is committed to providing a high level service to our customers. If you do not receive satisfaction from us we need you to tell us about it. This will help us to improve our standards.

If you have a complaint, please contact Compliance Officer. You can write to her at: 49 West Ham Lane, Stratford, and London E15 4PH

Next steps

1. We will send you a letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our letter within 5 days of us receiving your complaint.
2. We will record your complaint in our central register within a day of having received it.
3. We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps;
4.  We may ask the member of staff who dealt with you to reply to your complaint within 5 days of our request;
5.  We will then examine the member of staff’s reply and the information you have provided for us. If necessary we may ask you to speak to them. This will take up to 4 days from receiving their reply.
6. If necessary, we will invite you to meet one of our project managers to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint. She will do this within 5 days of the end of our investigation.
7. Within 2 days of the meeting, the manager will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions she has agreed with you. If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, the manager will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include her suggestions for resolving the matter. She will do this within 5 days of completing her investigation.
8. If you are still not satisfied at this stage, you can write to Empower Teachers again. The Director of the company will review the decision within 10 days. We will let you know of the outcome of this review within 5 days of the end of the review. We will write to you confirming our final position on your complaint and explaining our reasons.
9. If you are still not satisfied, you can contact the Employment Agencies Standards Office at the Department of Trade and Industry or the REC, the industry trade association, of which we are a member by writing to the Professional Standards Manager, REC, 36-38 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7RG.

Feedback Policy

It is important to ensure that our teachers are of the highest quality, suit the needs of our clients and are appropriately placed.  Teachers are subject to performance checks on varying levels and we make every effort to obtain feedback on all teachers for all assignments and this is collected in both written and verbal format.

In addition to securing feedback from the client we also ask the teacher to confirm that they are happy with the assignment and wish to continue.  We need to ensure that the teacher has a full understanding of what is expected of them and that they are being given clear instruction by the school.

• Daily supply.  At the end of the day a consultant will telephone the school to find out if they were happy with the teacher’s performance and if the assignment is to be extended.  Comments are recorded on a ‘Verbal Feedback Form’.

• Short-term supply.
  
  • Supply for more than two days but less than a week. Verbal feedback will be sought at the end of the first day and again on the last day.
  • Supply for more than a week but less than a month. Verbal feedback will be sought at the end of the first day to ensure that the client is happy to continue with the arrangement.  This is followed up by a written request at the end of the assignment.

• Long-term supply.
  
  • If the assignment is for one term or less verbal feedback will be sought at the end of the first day and then a written request will be sent out half way through the assignment and at the end of the assignment.
  • If the assignment is for more than a term verbal feedback will be sought at the end of the first day and then a written request will be sent at termly intervals until the completion of the assignment. A final request for feedback will then be sent.

All feedback is placed on the teacher’s personal file and if necessary cross-referenced with the client’s file.

If the client fails to return a written request form within one week of the assignment then a consultant will telephone and request verbal feedback.  Every effort is made to obtain feedback and our clients are made aware of the importance of this when the booking is confirmed.