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Tom Packer, ISP East Midlands Network Chairman
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The school as a business
The great enabler
Budgeting:
Leaders in schools – senior and middle – would be horrified
if they felt they had no part in shaping their school’s future.
Yet I suspect that probably 50% or so of leaders do just that
– of their own volition!
Finance, budgeting. Dirty words for some teachers, for others
simply the Bursar’s or Business Manager’s job. One of the
exercises I ask staff to complete during my various CPD
sessions up and down the country is to prioritise their varied
and valuable roles. Out of over 500 delegates, only two
considered the budget to be towards the top of their agenda.
No one has ever put it at the top.
I submit, however that, quite simply, a budget is a plan for the
future. It might be the plan to operate the school for the
forthcoming year: curriculum, assessments, marketing,
pastoral care, events etc. Or it could be a strategic five year
development plan. Either way a budget is a plan for the
future, translated into financial terms.
Looked at this way, the budget becomes everybody’s
business. Certainly all leaders should have this plan at the
top of their agendas. Without it, I fail to understand how
the school can expect to survive comfortably in what is,
arguably, one of the toughest times in the history of
Independent Education.
The other side of the coin is, of course, how the school’s
hierarchy, including governors, views the process of
budgeting. For my argument to succeed, all stakeholders
need to acknowledge that the plan comes first. Only then is
it perhaps the Bursar’s job to translate the plan into
financial terms (although personally I should expect all
leaders to have a good understanding of how this
translation works and to assist in the process).
Understanding where the money goes
Following on from the notion that a budget is simply a future
plan expressed in financial terms (by the way, this isn’t just my
notion, most commercial business see it that way too) we
need to pay more attention to exactly how the budget is
constructed. Here are some of the priorities a school might
consider (this is by no means exhaustive):
Devising and teaching the curriculum; free child care before
and after school; marketing; new building developments;
extra-curricular activities; maintaining grounds and buildings;
maintaining the school’s database, staff training.
It’s well known that staff costs take up the biggest slice of the
budget. Yet looking at the list, how aware are you of the staff
costs involved in each item? Too often staff costs are simply
lumped together as one item, so it’s impossible to analyse
properly. What about the other costs involved? Does the
amount spent on each reflect its priority? For example, one
school I visited spends nearly £60,000 on staff costs
associated with child care and £3,000 on staff development.
Does this reflect the ethos and vision of that school?
I’m suggesting that schools might take a fresh look at
budgeting. The process often works like this. We start with
last year’s expenditure, adding on a bit to cover inflation and
other extra costs (teachers’ pension contributions, for
example), factor in any developments and compare this with
projected income. We then make some cuts and increase
fees to arrive at a balanced budget.
I’d suggest starting with the plans. The operational plan for
the next academic year: a prioritised list of what we intend to
deliver together with any long term developments. Take a
keen look at potential areas of waste, too. Translate these into
costs and, taking account of your priorities, make any cuts,
carefully assessing their impact, to arrive at the level of fees
and ultimately the budget.
I maintain that as far as possible the budget should reflect the
vision and values of the school. That means every member of
staff and parent understanding where the money goes •
Look after your Budget; it’s your plan – your great enabler.
Page 34 | Issue 3 | innovatED | Autumn 2019
Tom is a former Head, Inspector and School Governor. You
can get in touch with him by visiting:
www.independentschoolsportal.org/thomas-packer
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