Leadership for a new climate

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Steve Munby argues that properly qualified school business managers can take some of the burden from headteachers and help strengthen school leadership

It's a tough time for public sector budgets, school spending included. Although the Pre- Budget Report pledged to ring-fence frontline school spending along with health and policing, the modest increases in spending projected for schools from 2011 will be funded by a major efficiency drive.

For school leaders who have been used to generous spending the squeeze will be unfamiliar territory. The challenge now is to ask how we can best prepare to meet the challenges that tighter funding will bring.

The signs are encouraging. Our schools have never been better led, for a start. The most recent annual report from Ofsted states that 72 per cent of all the schools it inspected in 2008/09 had good or outstanding leadership. The proportion of outstanding schools last year (20 per cent) was substantially up from the 16 per cent that were judged as having outstanding leadership in 2007/08.

But school leadership isn't just about the head. Distributing leadership of business functions, such as finance, HR and facilities management, is going to underpin the effective leadership of schools in this new climate.

Schools are already embracing professional school business management. There are more school business managers (SBM) than ever before and they are better trained than ever before. From 3,800 SBMs in 1997, there are now 8,100 working in the country's schools, and seven out of 10 hold one of the professional qualifications in school business management that we offer at the National College.

They are making a vital contribution, both to the efficiency with which schools' resources are managed, and to the wellbeing and attainment of pupils. But SBMs can do so much more and I believe the role will truly realise its potential in the drive for greater efficiency in the coming years.

Although finance is at the heart of their role, SBMs can also oversee the effective management of school administration, human resources, facilities, major projects and health and safety, as well as relationships with other schools and external partners.

And by putting SBMs on school leadership teams, the role can move from one that takes the administrative burden from heads, to one that makes a significant contribution to strategic leadership.

Research suggests business managers can save headteachers up to 30 per cent of their time to concentrate on core duties. When I speak to heads who have given their SBMs high-level roles they tell me that they feel even more in control of their schools.

The potential savings that these leaders could deliver for our schools are impressive. For example, our school business director (SBD) demonstration projects – where 14 areas, comprising 102 schools, are trialling a single strategic SBM who works across more than one school – are currently expected to deliver £1.2m in savings in 2009/10. If the outcomes of the demonstration project are reflected across England, estimates suggest that savings could be in order of £150m to £200m.

The schools involved are bringing together their administrative and back-office functions – creating economies of scale – while also sharing their individual and specialised resources to the benefit of all schools in the partnership. Such an approach will ensure that the provision available to children and young people is much less likely to be impacted by future tighter spending restraints.

The work of business director Louise Staunton and her colleagues in Greater Manchester is one example of the impact that SBMs can have on their schools. Staunton is now on the senior leadership team at Wellacre Business Management Support Partnership, saving upwards of £20,000 in one year across 20 primary schools and one technology college – savings over and above the cost of employing professional school business management that will be re-invested in school improvement plans.

The Wellacre approach has introduced economies of scale by increasing buying power – and given primaries that would otherwise not have the resources to employ their own school business manager a way of accessing business management expertise. The team has purchased insurance for all the schools as a group, restructured ICT functions at two schools and developed in-house training of admin staff.

Ray Howell, headteacher of Wellacre Technology College, says that as well as pioneering an approach of sharing resources and information across schools, the project has reduced the workload of primary headteachers, freeing them to focus on teaching and learning.

The demonstration projects have shown that by gaining access to high quality business management and by working in partnership – through federations, and other models of collaboration – schools can achieve better economies of scale in terms of administration.

Tighter budgets will be a significant challenge, but will also be an opportunity to think about doing things differently and to build sustainable and beneficial partnerships, which may well prove to outlast this time of economic uncertainty. It is an approach that will ensure that our schools will come through this challenge in even better shape.
Steve Munby is chief executive of the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services