Effective School Management

Training decisions
Training should be seen as an investment and it should be remembered that
the greatest cost element in training someone is his or her time, or that of the
equivalent supply teacher. On this basis it is false economy to save money on
course fees if pupils will then be taught less efficiently.
In all the above examples, the point is not that cost/benefit analysis will
yield a result one way or the other. What matters is that we get into the habit
of assessing proposals in terms of their cost and benefits, however difficult it
may be to estimate the latter. Ofsted standards and the emphasis on best
value should help.
BEST VALUE
The four principles of best value have become central to the work of the Audit
Commission in evaluating whether public money is being well spent. The
same principles are used by Ofsted inspectors, who are required to answer
the question ‘Are the principles of best value central to the school’s
management and use of resources?’
The four principles are
(1) Challenge, e.g. do we need to do this/buy this at all? What are we trying
to achieve?
(2) Compare, e.g. prices, different approaches.
(3) Consult, e.g. those who would be affected by a decision to buy new
computers.

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
(4) Compete – obtain/provide the best possible service at the best possible
price by, e.g., a tendering process.
Ofsted will make a judgement as to how well these principles pervade not
just the provision of material resources, but also all management activities
and decision-making. There is no need for increased bureaucracy and
paperwork, and most schools are used to applying principles 2 and 4, and to
a lesser extent 3. However, we would suggest that the principle of challenge
is not widely used and school managers would benefit their schools by
applying it consistently.
BUDGETING AND FINANCIAL CONTROL
Fundamental to the success of investment decisions is that they are planned
through the process of budgeting. Budgeting should start with the school
development plan (see Chapter 11):
(1) What do we wish to achieve?
(2) What are our priorities?
(3) What do we need to do in order to reach our objectives?
What we then need to do is to see how we can best use the ‘budgets’ available
to us. This process is an ideal application for a spreadsheet computer model
with headings of cost down the side, months of the year across the top and, of
course, the appropriate formulae to total by type of cost and by month.
Last year’s costs will be a good starting point, but it is dangerous simply to
extrapolate, and real value comes from challenging every item of cost to see
whether it is really appropriate at that level for the coming year or whether a
better result may be achieved by cutting one item and increasing another.
Assumptions made should be written down in a plan, e.g. ‘We shall reduce
the cost of cleaning by employing Easisweep Contractors.’ ‘The maintenance
budget is increased by £X to allow for the re-painting of …’
In going through the budget, thought should be given also to increasing
revenue through, for example
(1) fund-raising;
(2) selling off unwanted equipment; and
(3) hiring out the school premises (not, of course, forgetting any additional
costs).
All this effort in drawing up a budget is, of course, to no avail unless actual
expenditure is monitored against it on a periodic basis, normally a calendar
or lunar month. The latter concept (i.e. 13 × four-week periods) often gives a
better comparison since we are comparing like with like.
Figure 13.1 gives a typical spreadsheet for budgetary control. For some of
the main headings you may need to have subsidiary spreadsheets (e.g.
teaching salaries by department).

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MANAGING RESOURCES
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