A BUSINESS which supports schools with a range of professional services is celebrating a major contract win from central Government.

Avec Partnership, based on Aycliffe Business Park, in Newton Aycliffe, has been appointed by the Department for Education (DfE) to provide school resource management advisers as part of a national programme.

The DfE will be deploying 160 advisers to schools around the county over the next two years, and Avec Partnership will be asked to provide up to 15 of those roles covering North-East and Yorkshire regions.

Sarah Monk, who is a co-director alongside Julie Sowerby, said: “It was a highly-competitive tender process against some of the nation’s biggest service providers in our industry, so for a relatively small North-East company it’s a significant contract win for us which we’re delighted with. What is most pleasing for us is that it’s the very first central Government contract we’ve been awarded.”

Avec, named after the French word for “with”, provides schools and academies with professional support, from human resources to finance, health and safety and governance services.

It was launched eight years ago and now employs 40 people and provides support to more than 50 multi-academy trusts and almost 200 schools, from Northumberland to Yorkshire.

The financial specialist teamed up with human resources expert Ms Sowerby after working together in local authorities.

Ms Monk added: “As part of the submission we had to provide evidence around our skills, knowledge and expertise of the education sector, our understanding of school finance and how to help schools to save money and be more efficient.

“They are looking for us to provide direct support to academy trusts and local authorities, identifying opportunities to improve resource management. It’s part of the DfE’s overarching objective to help improve outcomes for pupils and promote social mobility, by getting the best value from school resources.”

For more information call 01325-281480 or visit avec-partnership.com