As if thousands of pointless Parent Support Advisers were not enough, what schools really need is more business managers, according to Vernon Coaker.
"Schools in England should employ dedicated business managers, says the new schools minister Vernon Coaker. He will tell a conference of school business managers that they can save schools thousands of pounds per year. They are vital in allowing school head teachers to devote more time to teaching and learning, he will say.
"A survey of 1,100 school leaders suggests seven in 10 heads believe school business managers free up at least 20% of the head teachers' time. And the survey, carried out by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), found some senior business managers working in large secondary schools had saved their school up to £70,000 per year."
Okay. Firstly, I am pretty sure that most people could free up a fifth of their time if they thought about what they were doing, why, and whether or not - or when - they should be doing it. That includes head teachers - this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, for example. Secondly, the NCSL have a vested interest in trumpeting the role of the business managers they get paid for training, so I think it's sensible to take everything they say with a pinch of salt. Thirdly - does it really take a senior business manager - on a salary of approximately £45k - but up to around £65k - to save a mere £70k a year? Taking their salary into account, this equates to no more than £25k a year saved, plus whatever you cost a fifth of a headteacher's post at - and these savings are not even achieved in every school, or for every head teacher. That doesn't sound like good value for money (sorry, VFM) to me.
"Mr Coaker will tell an international conference of school business managers: "The school business manager is vital during these tough times, when demand for effective education services is stronger than ever. Managing resources effectively and efficiently is essential for the successful running of a school and a school business manager can be worth their weight in gold when it comes to ensuring the financial house in order."
Well yes, the "financial house" of any organisation should be kept in order - but this is a legal requirement, not some fluffy corporate aim that deserves gratuitous admiration and applause. Does the evidence cited by the NCSL demonstrate that school business managers are really the best way of improving performance in schools? Or do these new posts (as with so many in the public sector) sound nice and corporate, but exist only to duplicate the work of existing postholders who are simply not competent (but will never be tackled)?
"The NCSL says they help identify strategic partnerships with other schools, which can save schools time and money, and manage complex challenges. NCSL deputy chief executive Toby Salt says: "By maximising resources and ensuring schools are effectively run, school business managers enable schools to maintain the high standards to which they have become accustomed. That can only mean one thing - better attainment and outcomes for more of our children."
It's funny, isn't it, that schools - the experts in education - are so clearly struggling to "idenitfy strategic partnerships" to "save time and money" and "manage complex challenges" that they are compelled to employ thousands of very well paid executives specifically to maximise resources, ensure that schools are run effectively and maintain high standards in order to secure "better attainment and outcomes" for children - and still not do it very effectively.
I can think of a community of diverse educators who achieve all of this organically; collaborating and creating in a variety of ingenious ways, with little or no payment for so doing, and certainly no training from the NCSL.
Crikey. It sounds far too effective. It must be stopped immediately.
