HFL Education (Formerly Herts for Learning)

HFL Education (Formerly Herts for Learning) are a leading national provider of school improvement and business support services, training, and resources for schools, settings and trusts, helping them to deliver a great education for their children, to help them flourish and reach their full potential.

With hundreds of advisers and subject experts in house, we are a trusted partner to education and learning professionals across the country, providing a unique and comprehensive offer to every school and setting – all in one place.

Formed in 2013, HFL Education (then known as Herts for Learning) became the UK’s first schools’ company, with a simple ethos to be run by schools, for schools – something that still holds true today. Our unique and innovative school-centric, not for profit model, quickly became the benchmark for others to follow – some of which we helped get started. Since 2013, 37,000 children are now in a better school, so we know that what we are doing - and how we are doing it - works.

With an endless commitment to ensuring every child gets a great education and supporting schools and trusts in a fair and balanced way, we have grown beyond our initial geographical borders, to become a national provider of high-quality services, training and resources, working with over 100 trusts and more than 3000 schools and settings.

Leadership and Management: HFL Education provides comprehensive leadership and management support for school leaders, including tailored coaching, training, and strategic advice. Key services include programmes for new and aspiring headteachers, senior leader coaching for growth and resilience, business management services, and recruitment support. There is a strong focus on school improvement, inspection preparation, and HR training for staff at all career stages.

School Improvement: We provide expert-led consultancy and training and resources to enhance teaching quality, curriculum design and student outcomes across all phases from Early Years to Post-16.

Business & Operational Support: We offer essential back-office services, including financial management, HR services and technology solutions and support and governance services providing training, clerking services, and strategic advice to school governors and trustees to ensure effective leadership and accountability.

Inclusion, Wellbeing and Pastoral support: Pupil wellbeing, inclusion and behaviour are not standalone priorities. They sit at the heart of curriculum quality, school culture and effective school improvement. Our specialist advisers support schools in meeting SEND statutory requirements and implementing whole-school strategies for, behaviour, anti-bullying, religious education, wellbeing and mental health, equalities, race equity and anti-racism, PSHE, PSHE, personal development and online safety.

Professional development: We offer an extensive training programme to support staff in schools and educational settings at all stages of their careers. Our diverse training, conferences and events are run live, delivered both digitally and face-to-face, as well as pre-recorded training which is available to access on demand.

Our work is focused on supporting the schools, settings and trusts we work with to achieve long-term successful outcomes for their children. We believe that celebrating and replicating the strength of successful schools and academies is more powerful than interventionist, corrective action once they are struggling.

For over 10 years we have worked with schools, settings and trusts, recognising the diversity of our clients’ experience, operating ethos, knowledge and ambitions. Much of our work focuses on partnering with leaders and their teams to ensure their resources are effectively planned and assets utilised to best effect, and to provide sustainable outcomes for children.

Services are tailored dependent on your individual needs and through a combination of challenge and support, we will work together with you to ensure every school or trust is able to sustain improvement. Our education services teams have a strong track record of school turnaround and rapid improvement.

We can support settings with operational efficiency in order that they can maximise investment in teaching and learning. Our business services teams have extensive experience in facilitating resource management and organisational restructuring, ensuring that leaders can effectively manage within their allocated budgets.

Each year we organise an extensive number of courses and conferences that support compliance, educational excellence, efficiency and sustainability.

We not only provide technology services to schools but are also firmly committed to the deployment of digital technology and the development of online learning.

We operate as a social enterprise on a not-for-profit basis.