Rufford Primary School has long been celebrated for its warm community ethos and dedication to pupils’ wellbeing. Yet behind the scenes, the administration team faced a mounting challenge: juggling complex staff onboarding and compliance checks using Arbor MIS’s SCR. Recognising the strain on time and resources, the school turned to School SCR for a more user-friendly, intuitive solution - one that would help staff stay focused on what matters most: delivering a high-quality educational experience and keeping pupils safe. By moving to School SCR, Rufford Primary School discovered a faster, simpler way to manage vetting checks, document uploads, and SCR compliance tasks, transforming hours of administrative work into just minutes..
Background
With around 75 staff, Rufford handles the usual flow of teachers, contractors, agency staff, and volunteers. Previously, the school relied on Arbor MIS’s SCR, but their solution wasn’t able to meet the needs when it came to fast-paced, day-to-day compliance checks. The leadership team realised they needed a dedicated, user-friendly platform that would automate vetting and record-keeping tasks more effectively.
How School SCR solved Rufford’s Challenges
Rufford identified 3 key benefits they wanted in a new platform:
- Improve Administrative Efficiency: With 75 staff, the existing system was taking up too much admin time, time that was needed to focus on other priorities.
- Introduce Automated Audits: To manage the increasing complexity of KCSIE and Safer Recruitment requirements, Rufford wanted a platform that would automatically assist in identifying issues or gaps in record-keeping.
- Setup Intuitive Dashboards & Alerts: Rufford wanted a platform that would make it easier for multiple users to oversee compliance, avoiding reliance on a single person’s manual checks.
Based on the recommendation from another school, Fiona, Rufford’s Business Manager, reached out to set up a demo.
Transitioning to School SCR
Following a review of School SCR’s primary school solution, Rufford decided this purpose-built safeguarding and SCR compliance platform would meet their needs.
The key features that stood out included:
- RAG-Rated Dashboard: An easy-to-use, intuitive dashboard that colour-codes compliance statuses, making it instantly clear who is up to date and who needs attention. Multiple staff members can now log in and monitor the SCR, strengthening the school’s safeguarding culture.
- Automated Checks & Alerts: School SCR flags upcoming renewals for vetting checks, visas, policies and much more, ensuring critical deadlines are never missed.
- Secure Cloud Storage: A robust, bank-grade encrypted system that protects references, certificates, and other sensitive documents, eliminating the risk of lost or mishandled paperwork.
- All-in-One View: From full-time teachers to temporary contractors, every individual’s compliance status is recorded in one place, allowing a holistic overview.
Exporting their existing SCR from Arbor, the School SCR team cleaned up and imported their existing data to get Rufford up and running within a week.
Massive Impact: 75% reduction in workload in just 30 days
In the first month since going live, Fiona has already seen a dramatic decrease in her workload:
“It’s saving so much time that I can’t believe we went so long relying on our previous solution.”
Built on cofounder Jay Ashcroft’s experience working in the Academies sector, ease of use and time-saving benefits are core principles for everything School SCR does. Fiona added:
“It’s just so easy to use – I was onboarding a new member of staff and I was able to complete all their vetting checks as well as upload all of their references and certificates in less than 10 minutes. Beforehand, the same tasks would’ve taken me 40+ minutes.”
This 30 minute saving per staff member is a 75% reduction on the previous system, a massive reduction on a process that Fiona had already streamlined based on her experience.
With the number of new starters they have each year, Rufford anticipates this will save 15-20 hours of workload per year, valuable time for their small office team.
In addition, the RAG-rated dashboard and automated auditing features are saving Rufford hours for every SCR review they undertake, improving the workload of SLT, Governors and the DSL.
Collectively, Rufford anticipates that moving to School SCR will save 60 hours from their workload per year, all the more impressive given that Rufford have strengthened their processes and are sharing the SCR more widely.
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Ready to transform your school SCR processes and get huge workload reductions like Fiona and her team? Request a demo today.
