HR Adviser (Schools)

Job description

Contract terms

Starting salary: PO3 (£45,750 – £49,056)  
Work location: Alexandra House, 10 Station Road, Wood Green, London, N22 7TR  
Hours per week: 14.4 (Part time) 
Contract type: Fixed term contract (Till 31st March 2027) 
Closing date: Sunday, 12th July 2026 at 23:59 
Expected interview date: W/c 20th July 2026  

If you are intending on going for a secondment opportunity, please ensure you have notified your line manager/head of service to seek approval

About Haringey

Haringey is a fantastic place to live and work – the world in one borough. A place brimming with creativity, personality, radicalism, and community. It is a place where we stand up for each other. A place that is proudly distinctive. We’ll be celebrating all this and more as the “rebel borough” when we are the 2027 London Borough of Culture. 

Our history champions change-makers and everyday rebels; revelling in our differences, battling discrimination, championing equality, and doing things our own way. Haringey’s people are a huge asset, with knowledge, expertise, and passion. Our staff members embody our organisational values: Caring, Creative, Courageous, Collaborative and Community-focused. These values keep us looking forward, ambitious for the future, and continuously striving to do our very best for all of our residents. 

About the role

We are seeking an experienced HR Advisor (Schools) to provide a high-quality, professional HR advisory service across a portfolio of schools. In this role, you will support Headteachers, Governors, and senior leaders with a wide range of employee relations matters, ensuring compliance with employment legislation and best practice. You’ll play a key role in managing complex casework including absence, disciplinary, grievance, capability, and organisational change, while also coaching leaders to build their confidence and capability in people management. Alongside casework, you’ll contribute to policy development, training delivery, and strategic workforce planning, helping schools drive improvement through effective HR practices.  

About the team

You’ll be part of a collaborative HR function within Culture, Strategy and Communities, working closely with the Head of Schools HR and wider stakeholders across education and local authority services. The team partners with schools through a traded service model, meaning service quality, relationship management, and continuous improvement are at the heart of everything we do. You’ll regularly engage with senior stakeholders including Headteachers, Governors, trade unions, and legal teams, building strong, trusted relationships while supporting schools to navigate complex people challenges and deliver positive outcomes for their workforce and communities. 

About you

We’re looking for a confident and knowledgeable HR professional with strong employee relations expertise, excellent communication skills, and the ability to influence and coach senior stakeholders. Crucially, it is very important that you have significant prior HR advisory experience within a schools or education setting (such as a local authority or multi-academy trust). This is a non-negotiable requirement, as the successful candidate must be able to step into the role and immediately apply their understanding of school environments, policies, and challenges without the need for extensive training. You will ideally hold a CIPD qualification (or equivalent experience) and have a strong working knowledge of employment law, as well as experience operating in a unionised environment. Above all, you’ll be proactive, resilient, and capable of managing complex, sensitive situations with professionalism and sound judgement 

Working for Haringey

At Haringey Council we are committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included, and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce so welcome applications from all ethnicities and communities so that we continue to make a difference to our residents and community.  Our benefits package includes a leave entitlement of 31 days + bank holidays, potential hybrid working opportunities, health and wellbeing support, a generous local government pension scheme and a range of discount schemes across leisure and culture that provide both financial and money-saving discounts.   

Please note: we reserve the right to end this advert before the noted deadline if we receive sufficient applications. If you wish to apply for this role, please ensure that you do so as soon as possible.   
 
Additionally, we are aware that automated emails may be diverted through to junk email folders.  Please continue to check these through the application process.  If you have any questions about the status of your application, please contact ResourcingHub@haringey.gov.uk