10 March 2010

- Schools in every Local Authority to have a School Business Manager -

- £300 million savings in DCSF and agency budgets announced -

Primary schools will have access to up to a thousand extra school business managers under a scheme launched to help schools make their money go further.

Ed Balls, Schools Secretary, also confirmed details on how the Government will reduce spending by the DCSF and its partners.

School Business Managers have been shown to save schools up £30,000 in a year. Following today's announcement, the DCSF will provide The National College for Leadership of Schools and Children Services £5 million to fund 250 school business managers next year, each working with four or five schools, with a further 250 more in each of the following three years.

Today's announcement means that schools across the country now have access to:

- school business managers working to save money in clusters of primary schools
- Free consultancy support on how to save money
- Advice and guidance from the DCSF and National College on partnership working, procurement and delivering value for money

In addition, Ed Balls also set out how the DCSF will take the lead on saving money by:

- Reducing spending on Government agencies by £135M
- Cutting start-up costs for extended services by £100M
- Reducing bursaries for initial teacher training as part of a package of measures to produce savings of £50M
- £21M savings on DCSF back office and communications spending, including moving Teachers TV online.

Together all these savings add up to over £300 million over 2 years, with work underway to identify a further £200 million worth of savings, as agreed with the Treasury at the Pre-Budget Report.

Ed Balls, Schools Secretary, said:

"Schools business managers make a real difference, helping some primary schools save up to £30,000 a year. They help heads save money and allow them to maintain the record numbers of teachers and teaching assistants in classrooms across the country.

"We have seen sustained increases in spending in education in the last 12 years and school funding is at its highest level ever. In the Pre Budget Report in December the Chancellor guaranteed real terms increases for schools for the next three years.

"It was a tough but fair settlement and now more than ever we need to ensure we are getting real value for money from our investment. We will only achieve efficiency savings while at the same time continuing to improve school standards and raising levels of achievement by working together.

"We also know that if in tough times we are to protect the frontline and ensure it can continue to deliver high quality services to children and young people, we need to drive efficiencies and make tough choices about reducing direct spending by DCSF and its partners. That's why I'm setting out details of how we, and our partners, will save over £300 million, with more to come over the next three years.

"If we prepare now we can protect our frontline priorities such as the additional 41,000 teachers and 120,000 teaching assistants that are working in schools and our one-to-one tuition and school-building programme.

Toby Salt, deputy chief executive of the National College, said:

"It's vital that schools start planning today to secure maximum value for money from their budgets tomorrow. While it's extremely encouraging that many schools are reaping the benefits of SBMs, not least their ability to free up a heads time so they can focus on teaching and learning, there are still far too many are not realising their full potential.

"This is not just a question of value for money. Effective financial management means that we can be assured our schools will continue to deliver the best possible outcomes for our children and young people in the tough times ahead."

The new school business managers will work across for four or five primary schools, helping them save significant money off their budgets, so that the schools' front line service is maintained and improved.

Currently only a third of all primary schools have business managers. Those that do report that on average, they are generating an additional £30,000 a year for the schools, through managing budgets effectively, maximising resources and securing additional income streams.

This announcement is in addition to the free consultancy advice that all schools can access on how best to save money. 96 per cent of schools who have received this consultancy have said they would recommend it to other schools.

In November DCSF published a discussion document to help schools hare best practice on making the best use of resources and the National College have organised a series of conferences where schools have shared best practice.

Areas on which schools believe they can save money include on procurement and back office functions and through federations and collaboration.

The Government believes that savings can be made centrally, and through its partner Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs).

All NDPBs are expected to make efficiency savings, but in particular the Government plans to save £45 million over the two years 2011-13 from Becta's budget and £55 million over the two years 2011-13 of the Training and Development Agency (TDA) non core initial teacher training budget.

Other savings will be found through cutting start-up funding for extended services (£100m), and reducing golden hellos for teachers (£50m) in subjects that already have large numbers of new applications.

In addition, the DCSF will reduce is communications budget by £5 million. This will include moving Teachers TV, which is now used by a quarter of the schools workforce, so that it will only be available online, saving £1 million a year.

Editor's Notes

This press notice relates to 'England'

1. Pilots run by the National College show that head teachers with access to school business managers report reduced workloads, with higher-level school business manager role having a potential to free up to 30 per cent of their time.

There was also evidence that the new roles are allowing schools to release funds by maximising existing resources and engaging clusters of schools to work together strategically.

2. In addition, the groups of schools will also receive:

- targeted support from existing SBMs and groups of schools which are already realising the benefits;
- continuous professional development from the National College for the appointed School Business Directors; and,
- a range of appropriate advice covering achieving better value for money, and changing models of school organisation and leadership.

3. Last November The Government launched a website - marketed at schools offering a huge range of financial advice and support for schools:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/schoolfunding/schoolfinance/letstalkresources/

The support package for schools includes:

- Free national consultancy programme for every maintained school in England - giving tailored, timely advice to schools that request help and guidance on how they can make the best use of their resources:
- Wider school workforce - how schools plan and manage their staffing;
- Leadership - how much time and experience school leaders have to focus on delivering value for money;
- Strategic management - how schools approach financial and resource management, including linking the two with school improvement;
- Collaboration and partnership - how schools work together - and with other organisations - to improve outcomes together;
- Challenge and Governance - the role of the Governing Body in supporting delivery of value for money; and
- Procurement performance - how schools approach procurement.

5. NDPB savings

BECTA and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) have made a huge contribution over the past few years, TDA in recruiting, training and developing the school workforce and BECTA in seeing the schools system through rapid technological change. Building on the 21st Century Schools White Paper, which set out the strategy to devolve more responsibility and power to schools, it is possible to cut back the level of support TDA and Becta provide to schools, while retaining their strategic expertise and ability to concentrate at a system level on the improvements that are needed.

6. Extended services start up funding

Over 95 per cent of schools are now offering access to extended services - and all should be doing so later this year. Start up funding was designed to be used to support schools to develop sustainable extended services and to overcome barriers that might have prevented them from developing extended services.
Over time extended services should become sustainable either through charging, for childcare for example, or through reconfiguring funding strands at local level through children's trusts, or by pooling budgets to support extended services through schools. Funding to support schools in offering extended services, and to subsidise those on low incomes to participate, is protected through the PBR settlement for schools.

7. Reductions in bursaries for initial teacher training

The Government will continue to protect the initial training and recruitment of teachers to secure the best in the future. However, given the very buoyant recruitment market in many areas, it is possible to make reductions to the level of bursaries for recruitment to Initial Teacher Training which will contribute to savings in the order of £50m in the 2011-13 period.

There are now enough quality candidates coming forward in subjects such as Music, RE, modern languages and biology so the to offer bursaries at their previous level (£6,000-£9,000) for some subjects is less.

This announcement was made in October 2009 and it will come into for postgraduate students starting in September 2010. A base level of £4,000 will still apply to all postgraduate course with some subjects eligible for bursaries of £6,000 and £9,000 as before.

8. Communications

The £5 million savings from communications and marketing expenditure is achievable through making more information available digitally, and reducing money spent on printing and publication of documents that the public would rather see online only.

Teachers TV has been running for four and a half years and now has 230,000 people using the service every month - a quarter of schools workforce. Viewers are increasingly accessing Teachers TV online with demand for the more traditional TV route falling - and on current projections by next year more people will be accessing online and on demand rather than through broadcast anyway.

From August this year the Government will turn off the broadcast channel, saving £1M a year.

9. Reductions in central administration costs of DCSF

DCSF staff numbers have been reduced by 1465. 1130 jobs have been moved out of London and the South East. Premises costs have been cut by £12 million a year and significant reductions of £36.3 million made on back office costs, with £8 million per year in efficiencies going forward from HR, procurement and finance costs.

CASE STUDIES OF SCHOOL BUSINESS MANAGERS

Withernsea School Business Director Demonstration Project, East Riding of Yorkshire

The Withernsea School Business Director Demonstration Project commenced in January 2009, consisting of a cluster of one junior school and four primary schools within the East Riding area of Yorkshire.

The main focus of the demonstration project is to pilot an initiative to demonstrate how Advanced School Business Manager roles can support headteachers in allowing them more time and resources to effectively lead teaching and learning, as well as the business aspects of the schools, by developing innovative approaches to current issues.

A light touch strategic business management service for the cluster schools has been offered, as well as the further development of an induction programme for newly qualified headteachers, which embeds the benefits that can be achieved from a high quality school business management service.

For the 2009/10 financial year this project has already achieved projected estimated financial gross savings of £116,000 across the cluster of five schools (Oakleigh Consulting, Dec 2009), which includes a projected £10,000 saving in streamlining and increasing the effectiveness of school administrative systems. In addition, the project has achieved savings of £2,000 in one school by moving to managing cleaning services in-house, and additional income and financial savings totalling £39,357 have been realised across the cluster by improving ICT service level agreements.

The East Riding of Yorkshire Local Authority is strongly committed to the long-term sustainability of the demonstration project and will use its findings to inform the introduction of a wider model of school business management provision across the Authority.
Fishburn Primary School, County Durham

Fishburn demonstration project in Cleveland hired a school business manager to work across the five junior and primary schools in the cluster at the end of 2008.

As one of the clusters selected in the first wave of demonstration projects launched by the National College, the Fishburn Partnership was quick to benefit from having a school business manager (SBM) in place. As well as saving Headteacher time, savings of about £20,000 were identified across five schools in Durham, with reinvestment being made in learning.

The SBM role has become sustainable and, working collaboratively, they continue to renegotiate service level agreements (SLAs) to get better value for money, cut CPD costs and develop and put out tenders for services within the project. They have also been able to secure new sources of external funding, including National Lottery money.

Wellacre Technology College, Greater Manchester

The Wellacre Business Management Partnership demonstration project consists of the technology college and 15 primary schools, who are working together to maximise their resources and increase school leadership capacity, through the use of highly-qualified school business managers (SBMs).

The partnership is exploring the potential of a high-level, strategic business manager working across a cluster of primary schools, led by the technology college. They are developing a bespoke SBM service that will be 'bought' by local primary schools in order to reduce the administrative burden on headteachers, improve the effective management of resources, provide strategic input to school management, and secure other potential funding streams. Over the whole of the cluster, this collaborative working has released upwards of £20,000 to reinvest in enhancing their staffing structures and allow increased investment in school improvement plans.

Kingfisher Community Special School, Oldham , Lancashire

As a special school, the Kingfisher Community Special School in Oldham faces unique challenges, where the pupils not only require dedicated staff but world class facilities which have to be flexible to meet the changing needs of the pupils. Given that the needs of the school constantly change, the school continuously renegotiates with specialist suppliers and contractors, making sure it maximises its resources and pursues new avenues for income.

The school procured funding for interactive plasma screens in every one of their classrooms, working with a specialist company. The screens have proved to be wonderful learning aids for all of their pupils, regardless of their capabilities.

As access to learning in a special educational school is more important than other pressures such as exam results, the school encourages its pupils to learn at their own pace. To aid this, Kingfisher secured £250,000 of funding for a specialist outdoor playground. On completion, it was 90% wheelchair accessible and is one of the largest special needs playgrounds in Europe.

Contact Details

Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

Press Notice 2010/0061