Aycliffe Today Business Aycliffe Today Business Issue 31 | Page 9

The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 9
School support firm expands
to new Aycliffe offices
By Martin Walker
Avec Partnership
directors Sarah
Monk (left) and Julie
Sowerby in their new
premises at Parson’s
Court on Aycliffe
Business Park.
A fast-growing business which supports
schools with a range of professional services
has expanded to new premises on Aycliffe
Business Park.
Avec Partnership has relocated from
Darlington to Aycliffe after acquiring one of
the previously vacant units at Parson’s Court,
off Welbury Way.
Launched by directors Sarah Monk and
Julie Sowerby seven years ago, Avec now
provides support to over 50 multi-academy
trusts and almost 200 schools, from
Northumberland to Yorkshire.
The business and its team has grown
significantly year-on-year – new additions in
the summer boosted its workforce to 35 –
and there are exciting plans to expand further
with a new Leeds office, to service Avec’s
growing client base further South.
Avec, named after the French word for
“with”, provides schools and Academies with
a wealth of professional support, from HR,
to finance, health and safety and governance
services.
Sarah explains: “Schools are becoming
more business-like, more autonomous and
more independent from local authorities, so
they need access to a wider range of skills.
“We have the capacity to help their
senior leadership teams by bringing a range
of different areas of expertise into place,
whether that’s finance, governance, HR,
health and safety, commercial and growth,
and looking at their ideas around future
development.
“Rather than working for schools, we see
it as partnering with them, and ultimately it’s
all tied into school improvement – improving
schools and helping them to do more with
less money and achieve their objectives.”
Finance specialist Sarah and HR expert
Julie launched Avec in September 2010 after
having previously worked together in local
authorities.
The firm started out with just the two
of them, but by the end of year one they’d
already grew their team to eight, which has
since more than quadrupled.
And it’s been their valuable understanding
of schools, the pressures they’re under
and what services they need which has
underpinned the business.
“We live and breathe education, it’s what
we’ve always done,” says Julie.
“We’re passionate about education and
children, supporting schools in giving every
child the best experience they possibly can
within school – that’s what drives us.
“We’re very aware there’s a constant
pressure on schools to improve, and what
we do is very high quality and niche, so we
combine our experience of working with
schools and local authorities with commercial
expertise to offer joined-up services to
dozens of schools, from very small nursery
schools through to 11-school multi-academy
trusts.”
Avec relocated from Lingfield Point in
Darlington to their new offices in Aycliffe in
September.
“We wanted our own space,” says
Julie. “We needed better parking facilities
and better transport links, because our
client base is all over the North-East, from
Northumberland down to Halifax in Yorkshire.
“We actually thought it might have been
a drag moving out of Darlington, but it
really hasn’t been. The facilities on Aycliffe
Business Park are great and it’s been
fantastic to see so many empty office blocks
being filled. It has really gone upmarket over
the last couple of years.
“We’re a bit different from a lot of
companies on the park – we won’t reap
business-to-business work – but it’s nice to
be part of the community.”
As well as expanding to Leeds and taking
on more staff, Avec have also relaunched
their governance service, which gives local
people and business owners the opportunity
to get involved.
“We’re keen to recruit people from the
business park who may be interested in
being governors or trustees in some of our
clients’ schools,” adds Sarah.
“There is a shortage of necessary skills, so
we’ve relaunched the service and we have a
new senior partner heading that up with new
team members, re-focusing that area of the
business due to the changing needs of our
clients.”
Those interested in getting involved
with Avec Partnership and its school
governance service can call the team
on 01325 281480 or email enquiries@
avec-partnership.com – or go to avec-
partnership.com for more information.