So, who looks after the SBL?

Sue Birchall, business manager at The Malling School, ponders who looks after the person who looks after everyone else

I think we can all confidently say that the last year has been one of the most challenging in our careers of working in schools. Our normal way of working has been turned on its head and we have needed to be adaptive, reactive – and downright superhuman – at times in the situations we have faced. Whilst the same can be said for all staff in education, the role of school business leader – and all the roles that fall within this remit – is already laden with many levels of responsibility and workload. This has meant that it has not only been a case of adapting the way we work, but also that many of the new tasks have been additional to an already heavy workload.

The SBL is often the person in our schools that other staff lean on when the going gets tough. We are seen as problem-solvers, aside from the fact that we ‘hold the purse strings’. The responsibilities to our staff during this time have been immense – and not just on a practical level. Increased needs across the whole school family particularly, but not exclusively, in relation to mental health, have necessitated additional surveys, personal meetings, arranged access to support and many more face-to-face meetings. Personally, I want to support my colleagues, and I dedicate a fair bit of my time to this, but this time has had to be found from somewhere.

Adaptation of the site to meet the ever-changing guidelines to keep our schools safe has often been a daily task. At the beginning of this period adaptations were constant, with daily missives from the DfE and our local authorities, meaning that there were times when changes were made and almost immediately altered. The support of our site colleagues has been invaluable in managing this, but the overall responsibility naturally sits within the SBL role.

Relentless and stressful

Speaking of the daily missives, these have been relentless and, whilst the need for them is clear, they have often added to the stress felt by myself and I am sure others, worrying whether we have done the right thing, spent the money wisely and made the right choices. I cannot be the only one who found themselves looking out for these messages during evenings and weekends and then adapting things so that, back at school, everything was fit for purpose – and don’t even talk to me about budget and the money that we’ve spent!

However, I am not writing this article as a moan, more as a recognition of the amazing work that our profession has done during this pandemic. As professionals, SBLs love their role because it is diverse and challenging; we meet every day with a can-do attitude and solution-focused approach and would probably be quite unhappy if we weren’t ‘in the thick of things’.

Our ability to prioritise, multi-task – and generally be all things to all people – has been challenged during the lockdowns. Having said that, I believe that we can only be judged in the best light, not that anyone is judging! It is true that our role often goes unnoticed in schools simply because it makes the world go round.

So, back to my original question, who looks after the SBL?

Support comes in many guises

It is tempting, when you put things in place for your school, to see them as being ‘for others’ and, perhaps, not make use of them yourself. I am always promoting our employee assistance programme to staff, advertising the 24-hour support line it offers along with the sign-posting to a myriad of products which support all areas of life. We put in place a programme of wellbeing initiatives – some of which have been to address specific things such as anxiety and stress, and others to offer some light relief. All staff have a named person to talk to, and programmes of support for their many and varied concerns and problems.

Many staff have accessed, and benefitted from, the programme – but I have not even considered using it and, whilst this may say a lot about me, I am sure I am not the only one of my peers who would be in the same position.

For myself, my support comes in many guises. My business team are, and have been, amazing; having the day-to-day support from them rising to every challenge has enabled me to meet my own increasing set of demands head on. We have worked together within a team ethos which demands that no-one stands alone – including me.

Being part of the senior team, for me, has also been supportive, having daily meetings and being involved in the decision-making has shared the load and responsibility, always offering an alternative ear and opinion. As a support mechanism, not feeling that you are on your own, and isolated, is a great comfort when you are feeling a bit overwhelmed, as we all have.

We have been supported, as always, by our industry experts such as EdExec and other publications, as well as the ISBL, through a constant flow of e-mails and details via publications and blogs. These serve us as in ‘normal times’ in allowing us to compare our plans and decisions with others in our industry – a form of benchmarking which has been particularly welcome in the last year. The ISBL has also clearly been listening to us, and continue to liaise with the government to make sure that decisions are workable and adapted to make them achievable and viable for our schools. Knowing that this work is going on in the background is vital for our wellbeing; things can always be improved, and those on the ground are best placed to drive those improvements.

As we come out on the other side of these unusual times will we look back in a positive way? Who knows? Until then, we need to look after one another and accept that we are only human!