HFL Education (formerly Herts for Learning) is the largest schools’ company in the UK and an award-winning provider of products and services to schools, trusts and educational settings within and outside Hertfordshire. It believes that every young person, through access to a great education, should be able to realise their potential, regardless of where they live or their circumstances.
HFL Education focuses on supporting the schools it works with to achieve successful long-term outcomes for their children, as well as building a wider national profile with its digital product portfolio. The company is majority owned by Hertfordshire schools and operates with a not-for-profit ethos. In 2021–22 it generated £23.3m in revenue, of which 68% came from Hertfordshire schools, trusts and settings, 24% from contracts with Hertfordshire County Council (HCC), and 8% from traded income in the wider UK education sector. Beyond maintaining sufficient reserves and financing long-term projects, any surplus made is invested in the common good and / or the development of specific new services to address key challenges for its shareholding schools. Since its inception in 2013, HFL Education has reinvested nearly £1m in activities that would not otherwise have attracted funding. HFL has around 300 direct employees and a further 100+ consultants who support the delivery of its work.
With its 10 year anniversary approaching, and having successfully navigated the COVID pandemic, the Board recently undertook a comprehensive strategic review of the company. This resulted in the distillation of its strategy into four key objectives - thrive local; grow national; organisation effectiveness; and CSR - bolstered by a clear set of targets for each. With Carole Bennett joining as new CEO from May 1st, the focus of the executive team is now on implementing the strategy, recognising the challenges that the current economic environment is putting on all education settings, and the stated desire of the Government for all schools to have plans in place to be part of strong MATs by 2030.