Education Personnel

In June 2010 Graphite Capital backed John Bowman to lead the £45 million management buy-out of Teaching Personnel, the number 3 player in the provision of supply teachers and teaching assistants to schools. A year later, Graphite supported the company to acquire Protocol Education, the fifth largest company in the sector, for £31 million, creating Education Personnel, the number 1 player. The businesses were successfully integrated and a coordinated organic growth strategy was formulated which included the continued roll-out of the group's national branch network under the two existing trading brands.

The transaction represented an opportunity to benefit from the strongly increasing demand for education supply staff by schools. At the macro level this was being driven by the government's intention to improve education standards combined with a rising level of pupil numbers. At the school level, increasingly stringent regulations and candidate vetting requirements, combined with reduced support from local education authorities, have resulted in more schools turning to external providers like Education Personnel. The company offers schools a range of staffing solutions, a high quality of service delivered at a localised level access to the best and widest range of candidates.