NYES

Triple Success at PPMA Awards

Our North Yorkshire Council HR and OD team are celebrating their triple win at the PPMA (Public Services People Managers Association) awards on 10th April.

These awards, which took place at the PPMA Annual Conference in Manchester, seek to recognise the exceptional work happening every day in public services. They serve as a platform to celebrate the achievements that often go unnoticed. This was a particularly special year for the PPMA as they celebrated their 50th anniversary.

The team were shortlisted in five categories and took home three awards, including the highly coveted Gold Award, which celebrated an outstanding display of excellence across multiple categories.

The awards
Best Public Sector HR & OD Team of the Year 2025 – The judges said:
"Their outstanding collaboration, innovation, and commitment to delivering impact across the organisation truly set them apart. This win celebrates the power of people coming together to create real change."

Best Employer Brand Award – The judges said:
"Backed by bold vision, authentic values, and a powerful sense of place, their employer brand truly captured what it means to belong, grow, and thrive in public service."

Gold Award – The judges said:
“After an outstanding display of excellence across multiple categories, North Yorkshire Council has truly set the standard for public sector leadership and innovation. Their achievements are a testament to the power of effective people management, transformation, and a people-first approach to service delivery.

We’re thrilled to celebrate the work of our fantastic teams, and also send warm congratulations to the winners of the other awards. 

Day In The Life - NYES Digital School Technician

Our NYES Digital School Technician service provides invaluable support to schools to ensure they are always online and their systems are not only efficient but safe and compliant for the sake of all users.
Today we wanted to share a behind-the-scenes look at a day in the life of a school tech. We’ll take a look at the essential tasks and challenges that come with maintaining and developing the ICT infrastructure in a school. From routine maintenance and troubleshooting to supporting staff and students with their tech needs, every day brings new opportunities and hurdles. Whether its upgrading systems, ensuring backups are secure, or simply keeping everything running smoothly, the role of a school tech is crucial yet often unseen.

Hear from Richard Freytag who has been working with schools for over 23 years.

How does a typical day in your role look? My day starts early, ensuring that all systems are up and running before the school day begins. I begin with routine maintenance tasks such as backing up anti-virus software, verifying that all backups are correct, and reviewing any failed backups to ensure they are constantly monitored. Fixing connection issues and supporting the school in finding solutions are also part of my morning checklist. Throughout the day, I also support the school with various development tasks. This includes assisting with Windows 10 issues and upgrades to Windows 11, upgrading servers, PCs, laptops, and tablets, and setting up new equipment. Staying proactive is key to keeping the school online and providing advice on ICT infrastructure. With the NYES Digital School Tech service, even if I am not on site the school can access support through the NYES Digital helpdesk too, so they always have someone there to resolve any issues and queries. This ensures that any problems are dealt with promptly, minimizing downtime.

What do you think are the main benefits of utilising a NYES Digital School Technician?

Having an expert on-site to navigate the complexities of school ICT systems is invaluable. Working with the wider team and being proactive allows us to pass on issues to the digital team for further support.

What is the biggest challenge in your role?

One of the biggest challenges is the tight school budget. Schools know they need to prioritise their ICT needs and invest in their equipment to keep the school running smoothly. However, ICT is sometimes underappreciated, making it difficult to secure necessary funding. I’m also often working on tasks that schools don’t see, such as background maintenance of Office and Windows systems. Without these, the school’s operating system would fall apart but these tasks are just part of my usual day and not as visible to staff in the school.

Why should schools have a Digital Technician?

Without a school tech, there would be a gradual decline in the system as there is just no one around to maintain and support it constantly. Eventually, the system would break down, phones would stop working, and CCTV would fail. Myself and my team help schools to make sure their systems are operational, compliant and efficient to protect the school to the best of their ability.

What do you enjoy about your job?

I enjoy every aspect of my job, which I’ve been doing for 23 years. Configuration and new updates keep the work interesting and challenging.

What is your biggest tip for schools?

Invest in the system. Consider the total cost of ownership and the time lost on ICT issues. More investment means more time to be proactive with systems and updates.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself!

In September, a newly qualified teacher started at a school who had been born after I started this job 23 years ago!  And a fun fact: I’ve broken the national speed limit on a bicycle, reaching 62mph down Barden Road!

About Our School Technician Service

The School Technician’s scheme provides North Yorkshire schools with technical support that can assist with computers, printers, installing software and maintaining ICT equipment throughout the school. Our School Technician Service is designed to be entirely pro-active, providing subscribing schools with regular visits of agreed duration and frequency by a named technician, to carry out all those regular maintenance tasks that help prevent costly failure, minimising downtime and maximising your investment in ICT systems.

We understand that a school’s ICT support requirements can be quite complex and no one individual can fulfil every need. So when you subscribe to our School Technician Service, you are not simply engaging one individual, you have the expertise and knowledge of the entire Schools ICT Team supporting them. Our school technicians are able to carry out a range of tasks, many that lie outside the scope of our standard support services and that would normally incur additional charges. Tasks such as installing new hardware or software, server user management, general network “housekeeping”, ensuring all data is being securely backed up, updating tablet devices. These tasks would normally be charged at £80 for the first hour and £48 for each subsequent hour.
To find out more about utilising the support of an NYES Digital School Technician, please get in touch with NYES Digital by emailing nyes.digital@northyorks.gov.uk or call 01609 536 086

Celebrating 10 Years of NYES: Meet our Sales Manager, Ellen Wilson

As we mark our 10th anniversary, we reflect on a decade filled with growth, innovation, and unwavering commitment to our customers with our final meet the team piece. Today, we invite you to meet our Sales Manager Ellen Wilson, who, along with her team, work hard to build lasting relationships and deliver exceptional service to our customers to ensure they access the support they need.
What are you most proud of achieving in the last 10 years?Over the past decade, our growth has been remarkable. When I first joined the NYES Team, we were all finding our way with Traded Services and customer support (a little bit like the blind leading the blind)! Now, 10 years later, NYES has a clear drive and purpose. Within the Sales Team, we have expanded our business to support schools and MAT’s in 20 different local authority areas, we have often supported these schools at short notice when their current supplier has withdrawn.Additionally, we have successfully assisted many North Yorkshire maintained schools in converting to academies and multi-academy trusts.
Throughout this journey, we have worked closely with our Traded Services to ensure their offerings remain competitive in the academy market and as a result we have expanded to support many academies across the North of England. What’s next for NYES and where do you see the business being in 10 years time?10 years, we could be anywhere!But hopefully we will we still be a leading provider of comprehensive education services, known for our innovation, customer commitment, and positive impact on the education sector. We aim to be a trusted partner for schools and academies, helping them achieve excellence in education.
What has been the biggest change you have seen happen in the education industry?When considering the operational aspects of running schools, the most significant change has been the academisation process. When I first joined the team, we were working with only about four academies within North Yorkshire. Today, we support over 500 academies and Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) across the North of England. This shift has fundamentally altered how schools are managed and operated. In terms of pupil learning, the impact of COVID-19 (dare I mention it) cannot be underestimated. The pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in education, forcing schools to adapt quickly to new methods of teaching and learning. Remote learning became a necessity, and schools had to innovate to ensure that students continued to receive quality education despite the challenges, alongside still supporting children of key workers and vulnerable pupils in school. What do you think is the biggest challenge for schools? The list could be endless but we generally hear the most concerns around the lack of funding for schools, the increase in SEND pupils, the challenges in recruitment and retention and the pressure of Ofsted. Overall schools are continually trying to do more with less.
What makes NYES different?It’s the amazing team we have of course!As a not-for-profit organization and part of the Local Authority, we share the same values as our customers. Additionally, our extensive range of services allows us to support schools in numerous ways, covering all aspects of school operations.
If you’d like to find out more about how NYES could support your school as we enter into what looks to be another exciting year, please get in touch – email nyes@northyorks.gov.uk or call 01609 533222.

Case Study: Are You Facing Provider Withdrawal?

Learn How NYES HR Supported York Schools In 2016 we were asked by City of York local authority to take over HR support for over 30 York schools on an interim basis. They lacked capacity to deliver the service and we offered to support with a view to taking over permanently. In 2017 City of York discontinued their HR service and it became a permanent arrangement.
 
We asked Harry Rashid, NYES Director and Head of HR for North Yorkshire Council to talk us through the process. How did we go about taking over provision from another local authority?We worked closely with City of York and the York schools to understand what their needs were, to enable us to create a tailored package. We looked at what their current HR provision covered, and then at what we thought we could add to that, to make a more complete offer. We took this offer to sessions with the schools’ Business Managers to check if this worked for them, before finally agreeing the SLA.
 
Can you outline our usual timeline to onboarding?We generally work to a 12-week lead time as this gives us time to do a standard “client health check”. We work with the existing provider and the client to make sure that nothing “falls through the gaps”. We check the policies and procedures in place in schools, look at live casework and delve into issues which may be coming over the horizon. Is there anything where we need to plan for significant resource? Is the Single Central Record compliant?When the client is fully onboarded, we make sure that everything has been considered and the schools are fully supported. Do you think us being part of a local authority makes us a good choice in comparison to a private organisation?Yes, I do – we’re very different to a private organisation. We’re “not for profit”, we fund ourselves and any surplus income is reinvested back into public services, however, we work on a commercial footing and with a commercial mindset. With us you get the “best of both”.
 
We have many years’ experience in the education sector and as part of a financially stable local authority will be around for many more. Over the last decade we’ve seen a trend in private sector companies entering the education market, building up clients and then selling or walking away from the market. We have recently supported Middlesbrough schools through a similar transformation and onboarding process. Middlesbrough schools were previously supported by a private sector provider who issued notice to end all their HR and Payroll SLA’s with schools. When the provider withdrew from the market they were left high and dry. Of the 30 schools we spoke to 27 signed up and continue to work with our service. Thinking about the York schools, what are you most proud of?Since 2017 we have continued to work closely with the City of York, and the York schools and we’re naturally thrilled that this partnership is still going strong. Our churn rate is next to zero and we put this down to our consultative approach, which has worked really well for us over the years. We continue to receive exceptional feedback from our clients, knowing the value that our schools place on this partnership is really rewarding.
 
Where do we go from here?We will continue to work in partnership with our clients to ensure that they get the best service possible.We’re also looking for further opportunities to support schools who may be left high and dry by their current provider.