New Strategic Management Tools

We have updated our Strategic Management tools to incorporate feedback from schools and our consultants. The new tools are user-friendly and have added interactive features. You can access the tools by registering and logging into the website. Access is completely free, and you can choose from:

• Project Management Tool: Do you ever find that projects overrun and exceed their budget? Or perhaps it is not clear who is responsible for each task in the project? This simple template helps you manage your timescales, workforce and tasks so that projects are completed as efficiently as possible.
• Accountability and RACI Tool: How do you align roles and responsibilities? How do you ensure that tasks are distributed fairly among your staff? The RACI tool (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) applies a simple methodology to tackle these issues. It is particularly useful when you are planning out your SDP and its implementation.
• SDPs and Budgets: How do you calculate the cost of implementing your SDP? This tool helps you understand if your intended SDP plans are viable and cost-effective.
• Prioritisation: Schools often have to juggle lots of different projects and initiatives. How do you know what to tackle first? How do you know which projects best address the needs of your school? A prioritisation tools helps you set out a range of key criteria (e.g. cost, impact, urgency) that are important to your school and assess your projects against these criteria. The tool automatically ranks your projects in order of their importance. You can then use this as an action plan to tackle your projects in the appropriate order.
• Surplus and Deficit: Is your school in surplus or deficit, and you don’t really understand why? This tool asks you a list of questions to help you understand your current situation and offers practical advice and next steps to help you improve your financial planning.
• Risks and Issues matrix: What exactly is a risk? What is an issue? How do you plan for risks and issues, and how do you manage them if they materialise? This interactive tool gives you an introduction to this important subject and provides you with useful templates for you to use in your own projects.

Over the summer term we will be updating the rest of our tools, as well as releasing some new tools. Keep an eye out for these helpful new tools, due to be released soon:

• Procurement benchmarking

• Managing change

• School Skills matrix

• Stakeholder management

• Guide to the Schools Financial Benchmarking website

Make the most of your school library and save money at the same time

If you are looking to make the most of your school library and want to save money at the same time, find out if your local Schools Library Service can offer you a good deal. Many Local Authorities offer this kind of not-for-profit service to their schools, and can help schools to make their library budgets go further, for example by borrowing resources rather than buying them.

Chester County Council Education Library Service have developed a short video to explain how this type of service works. Watch it online at www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/els.

The Booktrust have produced a leaflet full of resources for primary schools wanting to make the most of their library. It's available online here: http://booktrustadmin.kentlyons.com/downloads/Making%20the%20most%20of%20your%20primary%20school%20library.pdf

Ideas for school efficiency savings

Leicestershire County Council have produced a useful list of ideas for schools interested in making efficiency savings. To read more, click here:

http://www.leics.gov.uk/audit_schools_colleges/audit_efficiency_gains-3.htm

If you have a link about VfM that you think other schools would find useful, email us at support@consultancyforschools.co.uk

Recommended by Ed Balls - Consultancy for Schools

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Education recommended the VfM Consultancy for Schools programme during his address to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust annual conference yesterday. He also launched a discussion paper on achieving better VfM in schools.

Read "Securing our future: using our resources well," http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/...

And read the DCSF press release here: www.dcsf.gov.uk/news/...

New - Audit Commission Tools on VfM available online

The Audit Commission has recently launched two new tools to support schools to improve value for money. These tools follow up the Audit Commission’s national report Valuable Lessons, which was published in June.

Managing School Resources (http://www.schoolresources.audit-commission.gov.uk) is a voluntary online self-assessment tool. The action plan from the tool provides schools with a structure for value for money discussions, and sign-posts useful value for money resources.

The Audit Commission has also developed a workforce tool for secondary schools. This tool supports schools in breaking down expenditure by subject and comparing expenditure with outcomes, to support assessments of the efficiency of workforce deployment.

‘Harnessing Technology Grants’ available for schools

The British Computer Society is urging schools to make use of the Government’s “Harnessing Technology Grants”. These can be used for capital funding such as purchases or upgrades of ICT infrastructure (e.g. broadband connectivity) and equipment (e.g. whiteboards) as well as software and digital curriculum resources where these count as capital expenditure.

For more information, see this article:
http://www.edexec.co.uk/news/1000/harnessing-technology-grants/

Or review the full guidance on how to access the grant on the Becta website: http://localauthorities.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=fd&catcode=la_fu_02&rid=16361

New VFM Consultancy for Schools website launch

Welcome to the new VFM Consultancy for Schools blog. If you have any queries about this blog, or the new VFM website, please contact us on 020 7079 9020.