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How 3 schools achieved efficiency in their staffing budgets
The largest proportion of any school’s budget is spent on staffing. Learn how 3 schools achieved optimum value for money by re-evaluating their hiring processes, contracts and staffing structures.
Contents
- Increasing efficiency: case studies
- Begin by reviewing your recruitment processes
- Succession planning and evaluation of roles
- Consider the type of contracts you’re using
- Restructuring administrative support
- Use trainee teachers, early career teachers (ECTs) and graduate interns
- Address staff absence as part of your review
Increasing efficiency: case studies
In the sections below, you'll see how 3 schools – St Bart’s Multi-Academy Trust, Moor End Secondary Academy and Preston Manor School – changed the way they organised their staffing budget to improve efficiency and save money – with 1 school achieving sustainable savings of £500,000 a year, on a budget of around £14m.
For more guidance on how the DfE defines efficiency, including the data used to calculate efficiency in schools, see the financial efficiency metric tool here.
Begin by reviewing your recruitment processes
Questioning your school’s norms is an important part of increasing budget efficiency. Moor End Academy saves time and money during the recruitment process by:
The school has found online recruitment services and web-based advertising of vacancies to be less time-consuming and more cost-effective than paying for printed
- Academy Trust Handbook: changes from September 2021
- Allocating departmental budgets
- Benchmarking data: questions to generate discussion and analysis
- Benchmarking staff salaries
- Budget planning: how to and templates
- Calculating the cost of lessons and courses
- Consistent financial reporting (CFR)
- Financial benchmarking: how-to guide
- Financial procedures manuals: examples
- Financial transparency: requirements for maintained schools
- How to calculate the cost of your whole-school SEN provision
- Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP): checklist and guidance
- Paying for refreshments out of the school budget
- Presenting your budget to governors: templates
- Request form for curriculum funds: template and guidance
- School budget: expenditure on staffing
- School budget monitoring: questions to discuss
- Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS): summary
- Teachers' pension grant: what you need to know
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