Superschools get top marks on a budget.

February 7, 2011

An interesting article in yesterday’s Sunday Times showing that some schools are spending twice as much as rivals with a similar intake of pupils to achieve the same results, suggesting that money is being spent inefficiently.

As is always the way with statistics there are many variables in there that suggest that it’s not quite that black and white – some schools claim to be offering exams in harder subjects, others that costs are higher due to English not being the pupils first language thus meaning they accumulate fewer ‘points’.  That said, when some of the variables are stripped out the data does show that there are many schools where the only explanation for the difference in ‘value for money’ is the efficiency (or lack of) of how the budget is spent.

It’s worth remembering that although schools are in the ‘business’ of education they are still managing multi-million pound budgets and, like commercial businesses, some are better at this than others.  If the headteacher is the Managing Director then the bursar, or school business manager, is the Finance Director.

Like everything it’s about knowing your strengths and weaknesses as well as prioritising those activities which save money.  However, it’s also about the desire to spend efficiently.  Interestingly the Government is now talking about changing the ways schools are funded to reduce these discrepancies.  Hopefully this will pave the way to ensuring we are getting best value for the taxes we pay.

Posted by Lorraine | Filed Under Budgeting, Cost savings, Effective procurement | Comments Off 

school girl at desk
procurement consultancy services for schools

Search site