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Caretaker Recruitment for Academy Trusts: The Smarter Way to Hire Site Managers
Multi-academy trusts (MATs) are managing increasingly complex operational demands across multiple school sites. From health and safety to day-to-day maintenance, site managers and school caretakers play a vital role in keeping sites safe, compliant, and running smoothly.
However, caretaker recruitment for academy trusts is becoming a growing challenge. National caretaker shortages are currently colliding with tightening budgets, with experts warning of an estimated 3.5-4% real-terms funding cut this year. As a result, many schools are facing higher costs and greater strain on leadership teams.
That’s where TIB Services comes in, offering a streamlined, KCSIE-compliant, and cost-effective estates staffing solution designed for the needs of multi-academy trusts.
Contents
The Real Cost of Caretaker Gaps Across a Trust
Caretaker shortages in the UK continue to impact trusts of every size. The education sector is feeling the effects of a wider shortage of school support staff, and for MATs, these operational headaches quickly multiply across multiple sites.
For school leadership teams, recruitment can take over two months. Research by TIB Services highlights the true scale of this drain on resources:
- 30 hours - The time senior leaders spend on recruitment and vetting per new hire.
- 2 months - Typical disruption while just one school’s site team is short-staffed.
- 200 days - The potential cumulative disruption caused by just three vacancies across a trust in a single year.
Download our report
Beyond the administrative burden, this impacts pupils and staff directly. Without reliable site staff, classroom and wider school environments deteriorate, affecting focus, wellbeing, and attendance. Senior leaders often have to take on extra duties just to keep the school safe and open, diverting them from strategic improvement.
Why Caretaker Recruitment is Different for Academy Trusts
Recruiting for a single school is a challenge; managing estates staffing across a whole trust is a complex strategic operation.
When caretaker recruitment for academy trusts is handled in a fragmented way, it leads to one school with a well-maintained site, while another struggles with compliance gaps. A centralised approach ensures that every academy, regardless of its size or location, benefits from the same standard of operational reliability and a robust workforce.
Breaking the Cycle with a Trust-Wide Approach
Caretaker recruitment for academy trusts remains a key operational challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. By centralising recruitment, MATs can reduce duplication, improve efficiency, and strengthen consistency across their estates. This proactive strategy allows trusts to:
- Set consistent standards: Ensure every school meets the same expectations of safety, compliance, and care.
- Reduce pressure on leaders: Fewer emergency recruitment cycles free senior teams to focus on teaching and safeguarding.
- Improve staff retention: Knowing the required skills in advance helps trusts design roles that attract the right candidates first time.
How TIB Services Supports Multi-Academy Trusts
At TIB Services, we deliver specialist caretaker recruitment solutions built specifically for the operational structures and compliance needs of multi-academy trusts. With a nationwide network of 11,000+ skilled candidates, we can usually have temporary cover in place in less than 2 weeks.
Our service includes:
- Access to a network of skilled candidates: Our site managers and school caretakers are carefully selected for their practical skills, reliability, and community ethos. We often source professionals with experience from the Armed Forces, emergency services, engineering and trade backgrounds.
- Flexible staffing models: Temporary cover, permanent placements, and temp-to-perm trials are available to match each site’s needs.
KCSIE-compliant screening: Every candidate undergoes rigorous vetting in line with the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) requirements. This ensures any candidate is fully cleared to work within a school environment, allowing them to hit the ground running.
Every placement is aligned with your trust’s ethos, operational priorities, and the latest KCSIE requirements, ensuring consistency and compliance across every school.
A Streamlined Approach to Caretaker Recruitment for Academy Trusts
To support the unique demands of MAT leadership, we have developed a Priority Service model specifically designed to handle the scale and geographical spread of multi-academy trusts. We move away from "one-off" fixes and instead work as an operational partner that understands your trust’s specific challenges, long-term goals, and the precise mix of skills required across your estate.
This partnership-led support includes:
- Fast-tracked staffing solutions for all your academies.
- Free temp-to-perm options: Trial candidates before making long-term decisions.
- Exclusive savings: We offer a 10% discount on the first month of cover for every school, delivering trust-wide cost savings.
“TIB Services has provided us with a number of high-quality staff over the past few years. All have been excellent and a credit to TIB.”
Read our case studies to learn how other trusts have transformed their recruitment processes.
Why MATs Choose TIB Services
TIB Services acts as a strategic partner for MATs, maintaining compliance and reducing operational disruption across multiple estates. Trusts choose us for our ability to provide KCSIE-compliant cover typically within two weeks, ensuring trust-wide resilience and consistent support across all schools.
Contact TIB Services today
Caretaker Recruitment for Academy Trusts: FAQs
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Caretaker recruitment for academy trusts refers to the process of sourcing, vetting, and placing school caretakers or site managers across multiple academies within a trust. Unlike single-school hiring, it requires a centralised approach that ensures consistency, compliance, and operational resilience across all sites.
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Academy trusts manage estates across multiple locations, each with different risks, layouts, and staffing needs. Fragmented recruitment can lead to uneven standards, compliance gaps, and repeated emergency hiring. A trust-wide caretaker recruitment model helps MATs maintain consistent safety, compliance, and site reliability.
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Traditional caretaker recruitment can take over two months per vacancy when handled at school level. For academy trusts, this disruption is often multiplied across several sites. Centralised recruitment models can significantly reduce time-to-placement by using pre-vetted candidate pools.
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A specialist caretaker recruitment provider for academy trusts should offer:
- Experience working with MAT structures
- KCSIE-compliant vetting processes
- Access to skilled site managers and school caretakers
- Flexible staffing options across multiple academies
- The ability to provide efficient cover to minimise disruption -
Centralised caretaker recruitment allows academy trusts to:
- Apply consistent standards across all schools
- Reduce pressure on senior leaders and estates teams
- Improve staff retention through better role matching
- Achieve cost savings through trust-wide staffing solutions -
Yes. Many academy trusts use temporary or temp-to-perm caretaker recruitment to maintain compliance and continuity while assessing long-term needs. This approach provides flexibility without compromising safeguarding or site safety.
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TIB Services provides specialist caretaker recruitment for academy trusts through a trust-wide, compliance-led approach. We supply KCSIE-vetted school caretakers and site managers, offer flexible staffing models, and act as a long-term operational partner to MATs.