HR providers for schools, academies and MATs: a comparison

This page compares Access Education People with the HR providers most commonly considered by schools, academies and multi-academy trusts.

HR providers for the education sector fall into two broad camps - systems built specifically for schools (such as Access Education People, SAM People, Every HR by IRIS, Civica and Strictly Education) and broader HR platforms originally built for other sectors (such as MHR's iTrent, Ciphr and Breathe HR). The distinction matters because school HR has specific requirements only relevant for the education sector - teacher pay scales, Single Central Record updates, term-time contracts, teacher pensions, multi-contract staff and DfE returns. These are the things worth checking when you compare providers.

Access Education People is HR software built specifically for the education sector. It's used by single schools, academies and MATs to manage the full employee lifecycle from recruitment through to offboarding.

Where it differs from many competitors is platform breadth. Access Education People sits within our Access Evo platform, which means your people data connects with your other Access software – whether you have our finance, budgeting, curriculum or parent engagement software, or our wider employee lifecycle software from recognition and benefits to learning. For HR leads, school business managers and staff, that means logging in once and finding what needs their attention already surfaced for their role - staff absence, holiday requests, open vacancies, payroll exceptions, compliance status - without switching between systems, doing manual exports or pulling reports separately. Workforce data like sickness absence, turnover, vacancies and gender pay gap is consolidated in your People Insights Hub, so the trust-wide and school-level picture is available without manual reporting.

The grid below covers the criteria that most often shape an HR provider decision in education. Competitor data was accurate at the time of publish - we recommend verifying directly with providers before making purchasing decisions.

Most providers serving the education sector will support the capabilities that schools, academies and MATs handle as standard - including Monthly Contributions Reconciliation (MCR) and reporting for the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) and Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), the School Workforce Census (SWC), multi-contract employee support for staff with more than one role, and Single Central Record (SCR) functionality for safeguarding compliance. These are baseline expectations for any HR system used in UK schools, and worth confirming with each provider directly.

Where providers differ is in the breadth of connected school software they offer, the type of payroll service they provide, and whether the platform was built specifically for education or configured to serve it.

Access Education People is built for schools, academies and MATs from the ground up. MHR's iTrent is a multi-sector platform supporting over 1,800 educational organisations alongside customers in government, healthcare and retail. It's most often considered by large MATs and trusts with complex employment structures, and MHR offers both iTrent software and a separately managed payroll service.

For schools and MATs evaluating both:

• Education depth. Access Education People handles teacher pension complexity, term-time pay and pay scale management natively. iTrent is configurable to handle these scenarios but the depth depends on setup at procurement.
• Connected scope. Access Education People connects through the Access Evo platform with education-specific software including Access Education Finance, Budgets, Recruitment, Managed Payroll, GCSEPod for student learning and revision, and My School Portal for parent communication and engagement. iTrent's connected portfolio covers HR, payroll, finance, learning, talent and workforce analytics for general enterprise use, but doesn't extend to tools that support student learning or parent engagement.
• Payroll service. Access Managed Payroll is an education-specialist bureau accredited by the CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme with a 100% pass mark. MHR's managed payroll service is multi-sector rather than education-specialist.
• Workforce analytics. Access Education People includes a People Insights Hub at no extra cost, consolidating sickness absence, turnover, vacancies and gender pay gap data into trust-level and school-level views refreshed daily. MHR offers a separate People Analytics Platform alongside iTrent. Both providers offer workforce analytics; worth comparing what's included in the base subscription versus what sits behind a separate licence.

For schools and MATs evaluating both, Access Education People matches iTrent's enterprise-scale capability while going further on education-specific depth, built-in workforce analytics through People Insights Hub, and the breadth of connected software in the Access Evo platform, including tools that support student learning and parent engagement. Worth asking each provider for typical implementation timelines, what's included in the base subscription versus separate licences, and recent customer references at your trust size.

Access Education People and SAM People are both built for UK schools, academies and MATs - so the comparison isn't about whether either understands the sector, it's about what each one covers and how mature the services around the software are. SAM People has more than 2,000 customers across schools and MATs, mostly single schools and smaller trusts, and joined Arbor in 2024. Their offer covers HR, FACE-Ed for recruitment, and a payroll bureau that launched the same year.

For schools and MATs choosing between the two:

• Size and complexity of your trust. Access Education People is used by single schools and trusts of all sizes, including large MATs running HR centrally across many schools. SAM People is strong with single schools and smaller trusts. If you're a growing MAT centralising HR across an expanding estate, it's worth testing both at the scale you're heading towards.
• How established the payroll bureau is. Access Managed Payroll has run as an education-specialist bureau for years and is accredited by the CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme. SAM People's bureau is newer - launched in 2024 - so worth asking how many schools have run a full payroll year through it and what payroll accreditation the service holds.
• How HR tasks are surfaced. Access Education People runs on Access Evo, the platform that connects your people data with the rest of the Access software your school uses, from finance and budgeting to recruitment, screening, learning, recognition and benefits. Your systems talk to each other so payroll exceptions, contract changes and budget impact don't need manual exports. And when you log in, the things that need your attention, new starter checks outstanding, probation reviews due, absence cover needed, recruitment shortlists ready, are already surfaced for your role, so you know what to focus on. SAM People is a strong HR-payroll-recruitment system, but operates as a standalone HR product without the platform layer that connects all of your tools in one place.
• What the Arbor acquisition means for SAM customers. SAM People is now part of Arbor, who provide MIS to schools. If Arbor isn't your MIS, it's worth asking SAM how their roadmap, integrations and contract are likely to develop now they're part of an MIS provider - and how that affects schools using other MIS systems.

For schools choosing between the two, the comparison often comes down to scale. SAM People is a strong fit for single schools and smaller trusts focused on HR, recruitment and payroll. Access Education People is built for the same kind of school but also scales to large MATs centralising HR across many schools, with the wider platform and connected software estate to support that growth.

Every HR is an established name in education HR software, owned by IRIS and supported by a wider portfolio that includes iSAMS MIS, Dataplan payroll bureau, Every Recruit and Every Compliance. For schools and MATs comparing it with Access Education People, the question is less about whether either fits the sector, and more about how each provider's wider portfolio is shaped, and what each one does for you day to day beyond the HR product itself.

• What HR feels like day to day. Every HR is a strong, established HR system, used day to day as a traditional HR product: you log in, find what you need, complete the task, log out. The wider IRIS portfolio shares data between products, but each one is still a separate system you move between. Access Education People sits on Access Evo, which means when you log in, what needs your attention is already surfaced for your role: contract changes coming up, vacancies awaiting approval, training records out of date, DBS expiries on the horizon. Data connects across HR processes so recruitment, onboarding, payroll and learning don't need manual handoffs. Routine compliance tasks are handled in the background so you review and decide rather than chase. Both providers connect their HR product to a wider portfolio. The question is whether you want to move between products to do your work, or have a platform that surfaces and handles work across them.
• MIS independence. Every HR's strongest MIS integration is with iSAMS, the MIS owned by IRIS. Access Education People has live integrations with Bromcom, Arbor and iSAMs, with further MIS integrations on the roadmap. If your school or trust uses a non-IRIS MIS, it's worth asking Every how integration with your specific MIS is supported now and how that's likely to evolve.
• Payroll service choice. Access Managed Payroll is an education-specialist bureau accredited by the CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme. Every HR customers route payroll through Every Payroll or through Dataplan, both within IRIS. Worth asking which option Every recommends for your school size and how accreditation, support and service level are handled across the IRIS group.
• How your provider's portfolio grows with you. Both Every HR and Access Education People sit within wider portfolios. The IRIS portfolio extends across HR, payroll, recruitment, compliance and MIS (iSAMS). The Access Education portfolio extends further, into school finance and budgeting, staff learning and development, recognition and benefits, student learning software (GCSEPod) and parent engagement (My School Portal). Worth thinking about which portfolio fits where your school or trust is heading.

For schools choosing between the two, the comparison often comes down to two things: what you want HR to feel like to use day to day, and which wider portfolio fits where your school or trust is heading. Every HR is a strong, established HR system, particularly for schools already using iSAMS or other IRIS products. Access Education People offers HR that surfaces work, connects data across HR processes, and handles routine compliance tasks for you, sitting within a wider Access Education portfolio that includes finance, budgeting, student learning and parent engagement software.

Civica is one of the longer-established names in education HR, with roots in public sector software. Their Civica People Hub product is part of a wider Civica Education portfolio that includes Civica Financials for school finance, Civica Managed Payroll Education as a BACS-accredited bureau, and Civica Education Operations for school operations and compliance. They're particularly strong in maintained schools, Wales and Scotland, and trusts using public-sector frameworks.

For schools and MATs choosing between the two:

• The user experience. Civica People Hub is a capable, established HR system with a strong public-sector heritage. Reviews tend to describe it as comprehensive but complex, with users navigating into specific areas of the product to complete each task. Access Education People sits on Access Evo, which means when you log in, what needs your attention is already surfaced for your role: Teachers' Pensions submissions approaching, Single Central Record gaps, Workforce Census deadlines, contract end dates coming up. Data connects across HR processes so recruitment, onboarding, payroll and learning don't need manual handoffs. Worth asking each provider to show you a typical day or week of HR work in their product, end to end.
• Payroll accreditation. Both providers offer education-specialist managed payroll bureaux. Civica Managed Payroll Education is BACS-accredited, meaning their payment processes meet BACS standards. Access Managed Payroll is also accredited by the CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme, which is a process-and-team competence audit of how payroll is run end to end. Worth asking each provider what their accreditation covers and how recent their last audit was.
• MIS integration. Civica's strongest MIS integrations are with SIMS, iSAMS and Progresso. Access Education People has live integrations with Bromcom, Arbor and iSAMs, with further MIS integrations on the roadmap. The choice depends on which MIS your school or trust uses; worth asking each provider for current integration depth and roadmap with your specific MIS.
• How the wider portfolio extends. The Civica Education portfolio covers HR, payroll, finance and school operations. The Access Education portfolio covers all of those, and also extends into staff learning and development, recognition and benefits, student learning software (GCSEPod) and parent engagement (My School Portal). Worth thinking about which portfolio fits where your school or trust is heading.
• Pace of innovation. Civica is well-established with a strong heritage in public sector software, including education. Access is the chosen provider for more than 9,000 schools and academies, including 1 in 2 academies in England and over 1,000 multi-academy trusts, with continuous investment in platform-level capability through Access Evo. Worth asking each provider for their product roadmap over the next 18 to 24 months, particularly on AI and platform capability, to see how the pace of development compares for the parts of HR you care most about.

For schools choosing between the two, the comparison often comes down to fit. Civica works best for maintained schools, trusts in Wales and Scotland, and organisations buying through public-sector frameworks where Civica's heritage is a strong match. Access Education People works for schools and trusts wanting an education software provider with the scale and platform investment to support how HR works now and how it will work in the years ahead.

Neo People Management is an outsourced HR and payroll service for schools and trusts, delivering its service using MHR's iTrent software. It's a different kind of offer to Access Education People: where Access provides HR software, with the option of an education-specialist managed payroll bureau alongside, Neo provides a managed HR and payroll service built on top of someone else's HR platform.

For schools and MATs comparing the two:

• What you're buying. Access Education People is HR software, owned by you and configured to how your school or trust works. You can run HR in-house, or add Access Managed Payroll as a fully managed bureau service. Neo People Management is an outsourced service: their team handles HR and payroll operations on your behalf, using iTrent as the underlying platform. Worth thinking about whether you want HR software you operate, or HR and payroll handled as a service.
• The platform underneath. Neo's service runs on MHR's iTrent. That means if you choose Neo, your HR and payroll are ultimately on a multi-sector enterprise platform configured for education, with Neo's team operating it for you. Access Education People is HR software built for education, sitting on Access Evo, which surfaces your priority tasks for you day and connects with the rest of the Access Education portfolio.
• Control and visibility. With Access Education People, your HR team has direct access to the software, with workflows, reports and decisions made in-house. With Neo, your HR team works with Neo's team, who manage the operational work in iTrent on your behalf. Worth asking each provider how visibility, reporting and decision-making sit between your team and theirs.
• When each fits. Neo's outsourced model suits schools and trusts wanting to reduce in-house HR and payroll capacity, with an external team operating both. Access Education People suits schools and trusts who want their HR and payroll run by their own team, with software that handles the routine work in the background, plus the option of Access Managed Payroll as an education-specialist bureau if they want a managed service for payroll specifically.

For schools choosing between the two, the question is whether you want a team outside your school running HR and payroll on your behalf, or whether you want HR run by your own team with software that handles the routine work for them, and the option of a managed bureau for payroll when you need one. The decision shapes the rest of the procurement.

Strictly Education is a long-established provider serving UK schools, particularly maintained schools and academies, with an offer that combines HR software (EduPeople), and an HR advisory service. Their model is services-led: schools and trusts buying Strictly are often buying expertise and support alongside the software, with the HR advisory team as a defining part of the relationship.

For schools and MATs choosing between the two:

• Services versus software. Strictly Education's model leads with HR services, plus an HR advisory team available to support schools through queries and complex casework as an ongoing service. Their HR software (EduPeople) sits alongside. Access Education People leads with HR software, built on more than a decade of education HR expertise and supported by an education-specialist customer success team, with Access Managed Payroll as a CIPP-accredited bureau available if you want a managed service for payroll. Worth thinking about whether you want HR advisory delivered as an ongoing external service, or your own team running HR with the software, implementation and support behind them.
• How the work gets done. EduPeople is a working HR system used alongside ongoing support from Strictly's advisory team. Access Education People sits on Access Evo, which means your platform surfaces the HR tasks that need your attention when you log in, connects data across recruitment, onboarding, payroll and finance so they don't need manual handoffs, and handles routine compliance tasks in the background so you review and decide.
• Wider portfolio. Strictly's offer focuses on HR software, and HR advisory services. Access Education People is part of the wider Access Education portfolio, which extends into school finance and budgeting, staff learning and development, recognition and benefits, student learning (GCSEPod) and parent engagement (My School Portal).

For schools choosing between the two, the question is whether you want HR delivered as a service, with an advisory team handling the harder parts on your behalf, or HR software your team runs with Access expertise and support behind them, plus the option of a CIPP-accredited managed bureau for payroll.

Ciphr and Breathe HR are general UK HR software products used across multiple sectors. Some schools choose them, particularly when moving from spreadsheets or when a wider organisation already uses one of them, but neither is built for education and neither leads with the compliance and statutory reporting that schools, academies and MATs need to handle as standard.

For schools and MATs considering either:

• Education compliance coverage. Ciphr and Breathe HR are built for general UK business HR, not for education. Ciphr offers some compliance reporting and lists Single Central Record as a reporting feature. Breathe HR has no SCR functionality and no payroll. Access Education People handles the full set of education-specific requirements natively: SCR, School Workforce Census, term-time contracts, multi-contract staff, teacher pay scales and TLR management, and statutory reporting for Teachers' Pensions (TPS, MCR/MDC) and LGPS.
• Who the product is built for. Ciphr is built for UK mid-sized organisations, typically 200 to 2,000 employees across general industries. Breathe HR is built for smaller employers, particularly SMEs. Access Education People is built specifically for schools, academies and MATs of all sizes, with deep familiarity with how education HR actually works.
• Payroll service. Neither Ciphr nor Breathe HR offer an education-specialist managed payroll bureau. Breathe HR doesn't offer payroll at all. Access Education People is supported by Access Managed Payroll, a CIPP-accredited bureau with an education-specialist team, available alongside the software if you want a managed service for payroll.
• When a generalist system might still be the right fit. Ciphr or Breathe HR can work for very small schools with limited payroll complexity, or organisations that prioritise general HR features over education-specific compliance. Most schools, academies and MATs will find the compliance gaps a significant procurement risk.

For schools choosing between Access Education People and a generalist HR system, the question is usually how much education-specific compliance and reporting your school needs to handle natively, and how much you're prepared to manage outside the HR system (or in workarounds). For most schools the answer points to an education-specific provider.

Choosing HR software is a long-term decision. The provider you pick today will hold your people data, run your payroll, support your compliance, and shape how your HR team works for years to come.

Education HR is also a more demanding requirement than general HR. Schools, academies and MATs need a provider that handles the specifics of the sector natively, not as a configuration of a general HR system. Teacher pay scales, Teachers' Pensions, the Single Central Record, term-time contracts, multi-contract staff and DfE returns are baseline expectations, not optional extras.

If you're evaluating HR providers for your school or trust, these are the questions that cut through the marketing claims:

• Education depth: Is the product built specifically for schools, or configured to serve them? Ask each provider how teacher pay scales, Teachers' Pensions (TPS, MCR/MDC), LGPS, the Single Central Record, School Workforce Census and term-time contracts are handled natively. Access Education People is built specifically for the sector, with all of these handled natively, not as add-ons or configurations.
• Managed payroll service: If you want a managed bureau alongside the software, ask how long it has been running for schools specifically, what accreditation the team holds, and how they handle teacher pension complexity and pay scale changes. Access Managed Payroll is a CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme accredited bureau with an education-specialist team.
• How HR fits into your working day: Ask each provider to walk through a typical week of HR work in their product. How are tasks surfaced? How does data flow between HR, payroll and the rest of your school software? Access Education People sits on Access Evo, which surfaces what needs your attention when you log in and connects data across HR processes so recruitment, onboarding, payroll and learning don't need manual handoffs.
• Wider portfolio: Most education software providers have a wider portfolio. Ask what other software is available and how it connects to HR. The Access Education portfolio includes school finance and budgeting, staff learning and development, recognition and benefits, student learning software and parent engagement, with everything sitting on Access Evo.
• MIS integration: If you use Bromcom, Arbor, SIMS, iSAMS or another MIS, ask each provider for live integration depth with your specific system. Access Education People has live integrations with Bromcom and Arbor, with further MIS integrations on the roadmap.
• Scale and growth: Ask how many trusts of your size the provider serves, and how the product handles centralised HR across multiple schools. Access Education People is used by single schools, smaller trusts and large MATs centralising HR across many schools, with more than 9,000 schools and academies using Access Education software.
• Pace of platform development: Ask each provider for their roadmap over the next 18 to 24 months. How much of that roadmap is platform-level capability (AI, automation, surfaced tasks, data connectivity) versus incremental updates? Access Evo is the platform behind Access Education, with continuous investment in surfacing work, connecting data and handling routine tasks for users.

The answers to these questions will help you decide which provider is the right fit for your school or trust, regardless of which providers are on your shortlist. If you're already with a provider but looking to switch, here are some tips on switching HR provider for schools.

Access Education People is priced per employee per month. Access Managed Payroll, the optional education-specialist bureau service, is priced separately. Find out full package details and starting prices:

As well as connecting your tools for greater visibility across your software, buying software as a bundle could be a more cost-effective solution for your school or MAT. 

The Thriving People bundle brings people management, managed payroll and tools for staff engagement, recognition and learning together under one contract and per-school pricing. 

The Freedom bundle adds finance, budgeting, purchasing and operational software for trusts wanting their full software estate under one contract, one login, one cost.