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Withernsea shared business support

Withernsea was one of the ‘best practice’ examples on show at the event. Five small primary schools in and around the East Riding seaside town have been benefiting from the skills of advanced school business manager Nina Siddle.

The project has helped free up headteacher time and has already saved an estimated £37,000 in one year. Savings have been identified through areas such as improved management of ICT resources, energy savings and an overhaul of finance systems. The local authority has been a key supporter of the project and is using it as a pilot for a wider roll out of its ‘shared business support’ model across the authority.

Moving to a collaborative approach had its challenges, said Nina Siddle, who has completed school business management courses with the National College, a BA in School Business Management and is about to start the College’s School Business Director Programme. “I’ve been very careful about not appearing to be imposing approaches upon the schools.

"I wanted to give them every opportunity to use my support and expertise and let them know what the clear benefits would be to their schools. It was their choice to use my expertise at the end of the day – if you try and impose an approach like this you will meet resistance.”