Time to get creative about budgets and resources

The schools best positioned to ride budget and resource cuts will be those that plan ahead – and think creatively. Ros Perry reports.

Times have changed. The era when resources steadily increased year on year is well past us and today resource savings and income generation are top of the agenda at many senior leadership team meetings nationwide.

But the growing need for support and advice for leaders contemplating the new financial year hasn’t gone unanswered, with a rich range of resources, advice and support now available from bodies such as the National College, the Department for Education and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA).

The latest support opportunity was a National College workshop called ‘Creative approaches to managing a budget’, which saw 46 heads and school business managers (SBMs) from across the Midlands gather at the College’s Learning and Conference Centre in Nottingham to share and discuss approaches to these challenges.

Alex Green, headteacher of Abington High School in Leicestershire, led one of the workshop sessions and urged leaders to think about their priorities before looking at budgets: “We must think about our priorities, and then consider what impact they have on our children. We must drive our decisions based on values.”

Staffing doesn’t have to be the first place to look for savings, he said. When trying to achieve resource savings, Alex suggested that because teaching salaries account for approximately 55 per cent of a school budget – rising to 80 per cent for all staff – there is scope to look at other areas of the budget to make savings first. However, smaller schools may find limited scope for significant savings within the non-staff budget and may need to think about restructuring, reducing hours or redundancies.

Viv Keller-Garnett, headteacher of Ashby School and one of the College’s school associates, said that schools needed more flexible approaches to staffing, where they could share services with each other and support other schools.

Some clusters of schools timetable teachers between schools to give them up to 80 per cent contact time with pupils. Outwood Grange Academy in Wakefield, West Yorkshire uses a 0.79 teacher-to-student contact ratio, which enables teachers to provide a broad and balanced curriculum with an average class size of 27.

“We must think about our priorities, and then consider what impact they have on our children. We must drive our decisions based on values.”

Alex Green suggested that schools can put themselves on the front foot with budget planning. “Schools should link their budget and school improvement planning cycles together and be proactive rather than reactive to 2011–2012 funding issues,” he said.

Whatever the approach, the need for good communication and an open and trusting working relationship between the head and the SBM was vital, delegates agreed.

Morag Somerville, school business director at Fox Hill and Monteney Primary Schools in Sheffield, seemed to underline that sentiment with her contribution. “Our whole senior leadership team knows our priorities and has a shared responsibility over where funds are directed,” she said. “So if unforeseen things happen that require money, there is always a degree of flexibility. Priorities change and we work together to make cuts elsewhere.”

Practical guide – ideas for tackling the budget and resourcing challenge

The SBM arena in the National College’s online network is a good forum for discussing efficiency or income generation ideas with other schools. Here is a selection of practical ideas put forward in a recent discussion.

Challenge historic costs

• Evaluate contracts and negotiate service level agreements for best value. Bob Farmer, school business director at Upper Shirley in Southampton, says: “This allowed the school to opt out of its service level agreement with the local authority and will achieve savings of £15,000 a year”.
• Review your local authority approved supplier list and/or TES BuyWire prior to making large purchases.

Challenge curriculum and staffing strategies

• Consider your workforce. The National College, CWDC and the TDA have developed a process for building and implementing an effective local workforce strategy.
• Consider SBM support. The National College is offering primary partnership grants to support groups of schools seeking to employ a skilled business manager.

Generate additional income or resources

• Contact local businesses and/or parents for help with enterprise. Cotgrave Candleby Primary in Nottinghamshire is a good example of an enterprising approach.
• Contact Bag 2 School to generate money for your school. Jackie Pierre at St Alphonsus Primary School, Middlesbrough says: "Our Bag2School collection has been a great success, enabling us to take almost 60 children and 10 adults on a day trip to the Yorvik Museum."

Collaborate

• Work with local schools to share good practice and save money collectively. Nina Siddle, advanced school business manager at Withernsea Junior School in East Yorkshire offers business support to local primary schools. She says: “Though each school is funded independently my aim has been to harness the power of five school budgets collectively so we can get the very best from every single pound for the benefit of all the children in the area. In our first year we saved £37,000 between us.”

Save energy and recycle

• Go paperless. Paypal is efficient for payments and introducing parent email and/or text systems will also reduce admin time. The College’s online community is currently discussing how ICT can be used to engage parents.
• Go green. Alex Hunt, vice principal of business at Ringmer Community College and Sixth Form in East Sussex and National College SBM advocate, has won the green flag award for efficiency and the EI Environmental Award. The college has installed solar panels, a wind turbine, ground source heat pumps and a biomass boiler – all part-funded through grants. Alex says: "The energy generated by our solar panels has surpassed our expectations and we’ve reduced our total energy consumption by switching to energy-saving light bulbs, using energy-saving mains connectors for computers, and we’ve replaced appliances with more energy efficient versions. We recycle 29 tonnes of paper a year and have a total recycling programme of around 110 tonnes per year.”