Esphera’s innovative methodology, software solutions and unmatched expertise in staff absence mutual schemes provide scheme administrators and schools with a decisive advantage in managing this complex challenge. With school budgets under increasing pressure, safeguarding essential resources has never been more critical. Esphera is uniquely positioned to help you protect your budget and optimise staff absence management, giving you the edge you need to succeed.

What best describes you and your situation?

A Local Authority

Looking to establish a staff absence mutual scheme, or if you already have one, improve it for the practical and financial benefit of you and your schools

A School

Hoping to collaborate with other like-minded schools to get a better service and long term financial advantage compared to the usual commercial options

A Mutual Group or Purchasing Consortium

Working to create the ideal type of organisation to extract maximum value from a staff absence mutual scheme without conflicts of interest to deflect you from providing an optimal service to your schools

Here to Help

Who We Help

We have clients, well they are partners really, of all sizes. We have small metropolitan borough councils with less than 50 schools. We have medium sized unitary authorities and then we have county council authorities who have hundreds of schools in their schemes. Whatever your size we can help set up or improve your scheme. We now have groups of authorities and groups of schools who we are working with to form supermutuals. The larger the number of schools, the more we can maximise savings for schools. From 2025 we will also be helping schools directly with our new miniMAX virtual mutual.

When We Help

  • When a local authority or other body acting for schools wishes to start a schools’ staff absence scheme giving greater service for lower cost
  • When a mutual scheme is underperforming or having difficulty competing with the commercial insurance market
  • When the organiser of a mutual fund wants to optimise it and reduce the costs, time and effort involved with it
  • When schools have no local authority mutual to join and need the lowest cost option for a given set of benefits

How We Help

  • In the first instance we can provide advice on the “dos and donts” of staff absence mutual schemes
  • We can provide detailed micro-analysis of your schools absence history to calculate appropriate rates and factors which are then applied to a scheme rating mechanism
  • We can provide a unique web-based software platform which enables you to manage all aspect of your scheme with ease
  • We can provide any further administrative and support resource to run your scheme with the minimum of effort
  • From 2025 we will be providing the infrastructure for a schools’ virtual mutual, an innovative and cost efficient means of providing cost cover.

Why Choose Us to Assist You?

  • 20+ years of providing mutual scheme optimisation services

  • Extensive experience with in-house statistical, data processing and insurance scheme knowledge

  • We know what works best for schools and scheme operators

  • We’ve helped establish and optimise schemes from 30 schools to 300 schools

  • Our services used by county, unitary and metropolitan authorities to help 1000’s of schools

  • Lowest net cost for schools with extensive scheme benefit choices