Schools
Page updated: 15/05/2023
Gareth Morgans – Director of Education and Children’s Services
To assist schools in identifying cost reductions and better ways of working, and support the development of more sustainable school budgets and help protect front line provision.
- To support schools in identifying ways of developing sustainable financial budgets in the short, medium and long term and ensure that this work is aligned with the Council’ Sustainable Learning Communities Programme.
- To engage Governing Bodies in discussions in relation to potential efficiencies and costs savings within school budgets.
- To develop a framework to share and disseminate good practice across schools.
- To work closely with key Council services to identify data and information which can be used to inform discussions with schools in relation to potential savings opportunities e.g. staffing structures, business support, class sizes.
- To further develop and enhance the role of strategic procurement within schools and to support the use of appropriate frameworks to ensure value for money from school expenditure.
- To support a re-modelling of the relationship between schools and key Council services in relation to areas of delegated spend e.g. property and grounds maintenance.
- To develop mechanisms to support data benchmarking across the county’s schools in relation to key areas of expenditure.
- To work with the Council’s HR Unit and Headteachers with a view to reducing expenditure relating to sickness absence, and recruitment and selection, including the use of supply teachers
Project areas |
What we are doing |
| Benchmarking and Data | • A routine spend dashboard has been developed to identify areas of high or rising costs in individual schools to facilitate awareness and promote early intervention • Benchmarking allowing schools to compare their costs to other like schools is in development to support schools continuous improvement journeys |
| Handyvan Service | • Following a successful Primary trial, funding has been agreed for 2024-25 to facilitate visits to all schools to identify areas of risk in fabric and infrastructure of schools estate |
| Rising 4’s | • Review and Analysis of the Rising 4’s policy to identify a more efficient and cost effective nursery provision in schools • This is now part of a public consultation and awaiting Cabinet decision on next steps. |
| Saving opportunities | • Raising awareness of corporate contracts which can facilitate savings • Exploring options for administrative structures in schools to support workforce planning • Improving opportunities for school communication via Newsletters., Teams Channels and Admin/SBM meetings |
| ALN funding model | • Supporting the Inclusion/ALN department in developing more cost effective funding models for mainstream and specialist ALN provision in schools and specialist units. • Establishing an appropriate cost recovery strategy for out of county ALN placements |
| Agency Supply | • Following discussions with schools patterns and trends have been analysed and options for cost control and reduction of agency costs have been identified |
The purpose of transformation is to improve, to become a modern, innovative, and dynamic organisation we all want to work for. If you have any ideas for ways to make something within the council even better, let us know, all ideas are welcome, transformation is for everyone. If you feel your department could benefit from being involved in one of our current projects, please get in touch and start your transformation journey with us.
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