How does a school business professional’s role intersect with improvement?

Stephen Mitchell of Keystone Knowledge discusses why an SBL needs to be involved in all parts of school improvement 

An orchestra is not just the result of people who are talented at playing instruments. They’re all needed but the whole collection of people is required to finely hone the sound into a great acoustic spectacle. The same is true of schools; great teachers are the ones who can inspire a young mind to be a rocket scientist, to strive for advances in medicine, to win gold medals at championships, or to advance the boundaries of art – but they also need a whole team of people behind them, refining the way the school works and pushing forward for school improvement at every turn. 

The role of the school business professional is not just about balancing the books; it is intrinsic to excellent school improvement. Somewhere in the country, in one of our schools, is a future prime minister; we owe it to them to do everything we can to give our children the best education they can possibly receive.

An SBL does need to have a good grasp of the numbers – it’s a core part of their job. However, research in 2016 by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that finance teams spend more than three-quarters of their time analysing what had been spent, and less than 25% of their time looking forward, contributing to where the organisation was going. If we’re going to have the impact on school improvement that we need to, we need to flip those numbers on their head. We are spending taxpayers’ money so of course we need to know what we have spent it on, what worked, what didn’t, etc, but we also need to be absolutely involved in getting alongside our teaching colleagues and planning for the future, ensuring that we’re using the resources we have for the best possible outcomes of children.

Stepping stones

The school business profession has come a long way in recent years. The work of the ISBL in developing professional standards has been a great stepping stone in developing the language around how we engage with the educational focus of our schools. The SBLs who have the biggest impact are those who recognise their role is to support, to advise and to bring their own unique perspective to the conversation about how we improve a school. 

We’re uniquely placed to bring some really valuable insights to that table. Sure, we are not likely to be in a position where we can see that a particular child is struggling with the nuances of a particular topic, and advise what intervention to put in place, but we are most definitely a part of the decision and the vehicle that enables that. 

Integrated curriculum financial planning (ICFP) has been gaining traction for several years now and is a particularly favoured acronym of our friends at the ESFA at the moment. Lambasted alongside the early iterations of the SRMA programme as a process for cutting costs in schools, it has matured over time and is now being sensibly seen – as not the tool of a penny-pinching accountant, but as an enthusiastic resource and methodology for asking questions about the efficacy of where our finite resources are being spent, and why we do what we do. 

Using ICFP correctly, SBLs can work with colleagues to determine the curriculum that the school wants to deliver and marry that up with the funds they have. Knowing what your staffing profile looks like, what the teaching load is, where extra money needs to be deployed and where, perhaps, by doing something different, we can get the same or better result for less cost is where SBLs can work wonders. Key metrics such as the contact ratio (how much time teachers spend in a classroom delivering lessons) through to the pupil to adult/teacher ratios, combined with the average salary cost, the average cost per lesson, and the percentage spend on different budget areas, and where these sit compared to benchmark averages, do not in themselves, give you the answers. However,  they do give you the questions. Questions as to why you move away from the average, and to identify if your individual context justifies that.

Incredible insights

This whole talk about averages frustrates me. It’s easy to get transfixed by benchmarking, comparing ourselves to the school down the road, or the regional or national average. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be involved in an average school; I want to be involved in an incredible school, one that is making the educational experience magical, and giving children the best step up in life. I want to be an outlier – for the right reasons – and it’s the data, and the understanding of the school, that gives that insight. 

SBLs should be part of the senior leadership team in a school. Your voice is valid. Your place at the table is justified. We need to ensure that we don’t just focus on the spreadsheets, the health and safety compliance reporting, the catering figures, or the latest subject access request. We need to ensure that our voice is heard in discussing how can we make our schools better in the classroom too. How can we help shape the vision of our pedagogically-focused colleagues and bring that to life. 

The data you can bring to the conversation, the insight into what is possible – and what isn’t – will help to shape the outcomes for children. You can help the band of musicians to become an incredible orchestra.