Tag Archive for: team

Accredited Mediator Sarah Joins Narrow Quay HR, Expanding the Breadth of Support the Consultancy Can Offer Clients

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Sarah Carrington has worked extensively as the senior HR professional for a range of organisations across the public, charitable and private sectors, including the NHS, Social Care and most recently the cultural sector.

Her impressive CV includes leading on numerous transformation change programmes, managing complex employee relations issues, negotiating and implementing new systems and terms and conditions of employment including pay and reward and job evaluation initiatives plus implementing strategic learning and development programmes.

Sarah is also a fellow of the CIPD, an accredited Mediator, a CIPD Enterprise Advisor and mentor, a school governor for a pupil referral unit, and a Mental Health First Aider.

Sarah’s wealth of knowledge and expertise makes her a great addition to the expanding Narrow Quay HR Team. This skillset is exemplified by the work she has undertaken on a recent project reviewing the leadership structure and competencies for a critical team within a national cultural organisation, including setting up strategies and mechanisms to resource plan and manage.

Sarah commented on her appointment:

“I am delighted to join Narrow Quay HR, working with such a supportive and friendly team of professionals (towards colleagues and clients alike) with an extensive and inspiring range of individual and collective experience and expertise. The team’s approach is wholly client-focussed, with a genuine ambition and care for finding workable and successful outcomes that are tailored to meet specific needs. No ask to the team appears too small (or large) from our clients, they are all important. I look forward to helping with the expansion of services the team can offer, including using mediation as a tool to resolving workplace conflict.”

Narrow Quay HR Directors Caitlin Anniss and Sarah Martin commented:

“We are absolutely thrilled Sarah has joined us. Her deep understanding of HR best practice coupled with her practical strategic mindset and outcome focussed approach will be invaluable to our clients. Not only is she a hugely skilled and experienced HR Practitioner, she is also a qualified Mediator. Mediation is such an effective means of dispute resolution and is a great fit with the services currently offered by Narrow Quay HR.  We are hugely excited to develop this area of our business in conjunction with Sarah.”

New Consultant Brings More Education Sector Expertise to Growing Team

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We are pleased to welcome Jo Bradbury to the Narrow Quay HR team. Jo joins from a multi-academy trust where she was a Senior HR Advisor, with responsibility across five secondary schools and eleven primary schools.

Jo is a qualified employment lawyer and spent the first 10 years of her career at Birmingham firm Shakespeare Martineau before deciding to opt for a change and further her career within a school in-house HR team.

Jo commented:

“This was a wonderful opportunity to see a different perspective of the sector, develop my knowledge, and understand the challenges and pressures first hand.”

As a member of the school leadership team, Jo worked extremely closely with Headteachers to introduce and embed a new culture of raised teaching standards, supported by robust business management, and improved training and professional development for staff. 

Jo’s immersion in the education sector, coupled with her background as a qualified employment lawyer, means that she is ideally placed to provide a great level of support to both our schools clients and those in the other sectors we support.

Jo is a school governor at an outstanding academy, holding the office of Chair of Governors for six years, further signifying her passion and commitment to the education sector.

Commenting on her appointment, Jo added:

“I’m thrilled to be joining Narrow Quay HR and a team whose values resonate with my own. They deliver exactly what I’d look for as a client – that magic blend of friendly and approachable, robust and pragmatic, focussed on the client’s needs, committed to understanding each distinct project’s sensitivities, a willingness to go the extra mile, and a power-house of HR expertise. I’m looking forward to being a part of that!“

Narrow Quay HR Directors Caitlin Anniss and Sarah Martin said:

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Jo to our growing team. Her experience will no doubt be invaluable to our clients!

Her enthusiasm for working closely with clients in order to deliver the best outcomes to their HR challenges aligns with our focus on really getting to know our clients and providing creative, commercial and pragmatic support.

We are sure that Jo will play a pivotal role in continuing to develop Narrow Quay HR, particularly within the school’s sector.”   

Narrow Quay HR is a commercially-focused, professional HR consultancy with experience in the education sector. We are delighted to work with a range of schools providing them with professional HR support and services, from investigations and panel support, to staff consultations and staff training.

If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.

Narrow Quay HR Turns Four Years Old!

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Narrow Quay HR, the HR consultancy of VWV, was set up on 1 May 2017 and has gone from strength to strength over the past four years.

Initially it was a team of two – Caitlin Anniss and Sarah Martin, both experienced employment lawyers who left the Employment Law team at VWV to set up Narrow Quay HR and work as HR consultants.

The work carried out by Narrow Quay HR complements VWV, with HR support being provided across a range of sectors, including a number of schools and charities. HR solutions and retainers and support are also provided to a wide range of clients, including smaller businesses and charities, some of whom do not have an in house HR function. Narrow Quay HR also provides an HR retainer which sits alongside the established VWV legal retainer for academy clients.

Narrow Quay HR has established particular expertise in carrying out complex workplace investigations and supporting clients with their HR projects – whether that be consultations with staff, reviews of workplace culture or HR support with disciplinary and grievance processes. 

Growth of the Team

2020 was a challenging year for most businesses but against the background of COVID-19 and the restrictions in place, the Narrow Quay HR team continued to grow. The team now stands at six consultants who are a mix of experienced employment lawyers and experienced HR practitioners, giving our clients both the practical HR expertise and the legal grounding.

Our new HR Consultants include:

Simon Martin

Helen Couchman

Sue Meehan Boyes

The team continues to grow with a new team member joining later this month.   

What’s Next?

This financial year Narrow Quay HR have ambitious plans for continued growth, whilst remaining true to the core values of providing excellent quality HR support to clients that is always commercial, creative and pragmatic.

To find out more about the services offered by Narrow Quay HR, please get in touch with one of the team.