Narrow Quay Solutions
Consultancy Services for Schools and Charities.
We are experienced education and charity consultants, proud to be affiliated with VWV, a full service law firm. As experienced school leaders, management consultants and accountants, we bring detailed knowledge and understanding of governance, finance, compliance and operations and we have hands-on experience of strategic planning and managing risk. We are experienced in inspecting schools.
What do we do?
At Narrow Quay Solutions, we help schools and charities become more effective without compromising outcomes. We do this by using our sector experience and professional expertise to build capacity in leadership teams, either on a short term or an ongoing basis, to improve efficiency.
We understand that a 'one size fits all' approach doesn't work. Whether you need help with a single piece of work or ongoing support, we offer a range of flexible options tailored to your situation.
We deliver 3 Core Functions of:
Project management
Our team can adapt to your needs, providing dedicated project support across finance, risk management, governance, operations and HR. We can help with a single project or provide ongoing support, whenever a 'spare pair of hands' is needed. Examples of where we have helped include:
- Financial reporting, investment appraisals, financial modelling, scenario planning, bank financing and cashflow planning.
- Reviewing, benchmarking and analysing financial information to help identify opportunities for growth and optimising costs.
- M&A support including project management, due diligence, synergy and other reports as required.
- Estates master planning, to include preparation and high level costing of options.
- HR review – working with our colleagues at Narrow Quay HR to review teaching and support staff structures, including key roles, responsibilities and salary scales.
- HR process - working alongside Narrow Quay HR on sensitive investigations.
- Complaints process – we can provide an independent clerk or panel member for stage 3 hearings.
- Governance support including clerking, review of scheme of governance and delegation arrangements.
Finance support
Finance support is an efficient way to access high level financial leadership and support. We work with clients to help understand their business strategy and plans, build robust financial forecasts and help manage and develop their finance team on a part-time or fractional basis.
Safeguarding and compliance audits and inspection health checks
Our consultants are experienced compliance managers. They have led regulatory inspections and inspection challenges for their own organisations and have audited and inspected others, including for the ISI.
Leveraging our expertise and sector knowledge, we can help you to ensure the safety and compliance of your school or charity, whether as part of a routine external process or in preparation for inspection. Our specialist consultants can audit all or part of your operation.
Our audit normally involves an on-site visit, tour of the school, meeting with key staff and high level review of policies. We report our findings and recommendations which supports our schools and charities with their ongoing monitoring and review process.
Our clients tell us that keeping up to date with changes to compliance and inspection is a real challenge and we offer a free subscription to VWV's Resource Hub which gives access to a suite of and resources.
Our services are available as part of a retainer package or can be tailored to your specific needs.
