Education Partnership Trust: Making DfE-aligned EV salary sacrifice simple for schools

28 EVs through salary sacrifice

75 tonnes of CO2 saved

37,830 trees saved

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About Education Partnership Trust

The Education Partnership Trust is an established and successful multi-academy trust supporting schools in north-west England. It aspires to create ambitious, inclusive schools that transform learning, lives and communities.

🌎 Industry: Education

📍 Headquarters: Lancashire and Greater Manchester

👨‍💼 Employees: 300+

Intuitive. Well-organised. Efficient. We never saw these words on our school report card, but they do appear in the Education Partnership Trust’s feedback on their Octopus EV salary sacrifice scheme.

This is a shining example of how EV salary sacrifice can work at an academy trust, sixth form college or further education college within the latest Department for Education (DfE) guidelines. 

We spoke to Caroline, HR Director, from the Education Partnership Trust about their experience setting up EV salary sacrifice and some of the benefits they’ve seen.

Here are just some of the things we do to make your setup smooth and reduce the amount of admin. 

• Your employees’ EV salary sacrifice handbook explains how the scheme works and what’s expected of them.
• Your employees can check out the cars available online and see their personal tax savings. Our website makes sure their monthly payments won’t take them below minimum wage (which helps with the DfE’s minimum wage compliance check). 
• Your HR dashboard lets you review and approve EV order requests, check eligibility for cars, track how many of your team have cars on the road and see how it’s benefitting your business.

Salary sacrifice helps drivers save up to 40% on a shiny new EV. Insurance, maintenance and breakdown cover are bundled into one monthly car payment, and the EV Benefit in Kind (BiK) rate is cheaper than for petrol, diesel or hybrid cars. 

EVs are a huge boost on your trust or college’s net zero journey. Each employee that switches to an electric vehicle reduces your organisation’s Scope 3 emissions by 1.5 tonnes a year.

There are three big reasons why businesses choose Octopus EV. 

• Financial security: Our scheme is free to set up with no ongoing running costs. We use our own funding line (meaning no brokers or middlemen) and include Early Termination Protection for your peace of mind. 
• Ease and efficiency: We make sure there’s minimal extra work for your HR and payroll teams, and your account manager is your single point of contact to help you launch and promote the scheme to your team.
• The Octopus experience: Get even more benefits by adding smart energy solutions and workplace charging into your organisation. 

For trusts and colleges, there’s a bonus fourth reason. Octopus EV is on the list of approved Government Commercial Agency suppliers that the DfE recommends you go with.

Any trusts or colleges out there that want to save cash, cut their emissions and boost employee engagement, please raise your hand. How it works: 

1. We’ll start with a 15-minute call to understand your payroll setup and what EV salary sacrifice might look for you. 
2. Then, we’ll send over our Master Hire Agreement for you to check. If you’re a trust or college, this includes the all-important Early Termination Protections that help you satisfy the DfE’s risk guidelines.
3. You could have employees browsing for a quote and ordering their EV in as little as two weeks.