Business partners

Almost 1,200 schools have joined together in partnerships that will give them access to a professional school business manager (SBM) for the first time. Richard Earle talks to leaders about the difference it has made to them.

When headteacher Shawn Fell joined Harlington Upper School he spent the first two and half years overseeing a major building project.

His workload was administrative in many ways and this prompted him to appoint a skilled business manager so he could focus more on leading the teaching and learning.

Eight years on, Harlington is among the first schools in the country to be spreading its school business management expertise as part of a National College initiative. The drive to improve access to skilled school business managers in England’s schools has taken a big step forward with close to 200 partnerships set up across the country.

These new partnerships are groups of predominantly primary schools who want to share the services of a professional SBM with the aim of making better use of resources and freeing up headteachers to focus more on leading the teaching and learning.

Since September 2010, £3.5m in grant funding has been awarded, resulting in 1,186 primary schools across the country gaining access to a skilled SBM for the first time.

“Sharing business management expertise in this way for efficient and effective use of resources is the way forward.”

Shawn said: “When I started this job the workload was administrative in many ways and we knew there were lots of ways we could improve by working collaboratively. The heads of the lower schools recognised this too and this was an important breakthrough.

“Over the last five years we have seen year-on-year improvements in exam results. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s because I have been able to focus on the classroom in ways that others can’t and that’s because of the broader leadership roles that a school business manager like Moira can do.”

Harlington’s school business manager Moira Boyle, who previously worked for HSBC, has used her skills to help the school run more efficiently and improve back office systems and data flows tracking pupil progress. Now the school is expanding its business management support across all 13 schools that make up the Harlington Area Schools family in rural Bedfordshire.

She said: “This initiative has helped us to employ a part-time SBM at one of the lower schools who is supporting all the other schools in the family as they become fully funded. In addition, all the schools are considering or at various stages of converting to academy status which has a lot of administrative implications, ranging from staff and stakeholder communications to legal, financial and governance arrangements.”

Among the other SBM partnerships to be established is Campsbourne Primary School in Haringey, part of a federation that includes an infant and junior school, two children’s centres and a play centre. It’s at the heart of the community and has been praised by Ofsted for its transformation and rising standards under the headship of Angela Ryan.

Having already experienced the advantages of partnership working as a federation, Angela and her school business manager Rahat Aboobaker wanted to explore how the benefits could be applied to school business management across the 13 schools that make up the network learning cluster.

They were successful in applying for a £15k SBM primary partnership grant from the National College which has been used to create a school business director (SBD) role across the schools.

The SBD will work in partnership with other SBMs in the cluster to develop working arrangements within the network to ensure that all primary schools have access to business management skills.

Angela said: “I strongly believe headteachers must work together, share resources and expertise to benefit all the children and communities we work for. Our experience of federation pointed strongly to the benefits of partnership working, ranging from administrative tasks to tracking children’s progress.

“We’re very excited about the possibilities of this project as schools sharing business management expertise in this way for efficient and effective use of resources is the way forward and could provide a model for other clusters in our area to follow suit.

“The intention is to rotate the SBD role annually within the cluster in order to promote professional development and raise standards and leadership capacity to take on the challenging changes in the educational sector.”

“We have already begun to make headway with savings on ICT contacts and negotiations with suppliers.”

The project is being spearheaded by Rahat who will perform the SBD role during the first year. Rahat, a former civil servant whose background also includes finance and commercial business roles in the public and private sector in the UK and Spain as well as voluntary fundraising work in Mexico, said: “Although the project is in its infancy, we have already begun to make headway with savings on ICT contacts and negotiations with suppliers to achieve further discount on their standard prices are also in train. The cluster of schools as a whole is expected to save more than the value of the primary partnership grant we received.”

It is anticipated that the savings in time and resources will enable the cluster to jointly sustain the salary cost of the SBD role.

Rahat, who completed the National College’s Diploma of School Business Management in 2007, added: “I am looking forward to starting the College’s School Business Director Programme in particular to develop strategies which will help support schools working together in innovative ways beyond the traditional school boundaries.”

Although many of the projects are still in their infancy, early evaluation by the College suggests most of the schools will see a positive impact.

On the financial side, schools involved in the scheme are starting to report efficiency savings and income generation. These range from renegotiating contracts and insurance policies and identifying ICT-related efficiency savings to finding new sources for grant funding. Most of the first partnerships to be established have also indicated the SBM role is already having a positive impact on the management and leadership of schools, with the headteacher being able to spend more time in the classroom.

Trevor Summerson, head of school business management at the National College, said: “School business management has come a long way over the past decade. This marks another significant milestone, with most areas of the country now having at least one cluster of schools that will be able to access a professional SBM for the first time. Although most secondary schools in England have enjoyed access to a school business manager for some time, a far smaller proportion of primary schools do. With increasing pressure on budgets, this development means far more schools will be in a stronger position to provide the best opportunities for pupils.”

The scheme, supported by the Department for Education, is based on substantial and compelling evidence gathered by the National College over the last three years demonstrating how appropriately skilled and effectively deployed SBMs can save about a third of a headteacher’s time and five per cent of the school’s resources.