In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, many organisations will have looked to their emergency and business continuity plans to deliver critical services and enable alternative ways of working. In fact, many of the things we learned during the pandemic will help us be more resilient in the future.
Following a disruptive incident, emergency and business continuity plans should be reviewed and updated with any lessons learned so the plans remain relevant. It’s important to embed the plans in your school’s culture by training your staff in their roles and exercising the plans to test if they work or need to be improved.
If you haven’t reviewed, updated and exercised your emergency and business continuity plans since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, now is the time. It’s important to consider other emerging issues in your review process such as cyber-attacks, power outage, extreme weather so you can plan how to respond to and maintain your critical services should any of these disrupt your school.
There is a template emergency plan on the Emergency Planning Team traded services portal that schools can download free of charge.
For any emergency planning or business continuity queries, set up a Head to Head meeting and we’ll connect you to our Emergency Planning Team.
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If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
Wandsworth’s Smart School Services has created a more accurate workforce planning app that is easy for schools to use and will be rolled out this spring term (2023) to schools signed up to the Schools Financial Advisory Service.
Smallwood Primary (rated Good by Ofsted in 2022) has a unique superpower – access to a really accurate workforce planning tool after signing up to financial planning support with Wandsworth’s Smart School Services. It also speeds up the time that used to be lost reconciling the payroll.
“It’s been a real journey, and the budget mirrored what was happening in other areas,” says headteacher Fiona Loudon who moved to Smallwood in Wandsworth after running a school in Scotland for 11 years. “We had quite a big deficit budget, a lot of work to do (the Ofsted rating required improvement) and we needed to save money. When I started in May 2017, we had 18 teachers leaving, so it was a really difficult time,” says Fiona who explains that alongside mainstream classes, there are 45 students in Smallwood’s Speech and Language Unit with educational health care plans (EHCP).
“A big proportion (75%) of our budget was going on staffing, but the spreadsheets didn’t show what level people were being paid, (eg, .5 or full time),” says Fiona who employs 56 staff.
Business manager, Dionne Campbell (who joined the school in 2018), adds that with figures out of sync, forecasting and pay felt, “like stabbing in the dark, with nothing that pulled the information together and no clarity.”
Things really changed when Smart Schools Financial Adviser, Charles Roberts, collaborated with a handful of pilot schools (and the payroll service) to devise a more accurate financial planning system for Wandsworth. The aim was to reduce the time and effort it takes heads and business managers to estimate the cost of the workforce and reconcile actual pay with the school’s budget.
Charles Roberts, Smart Schools Financial Adviser
If your forecast is out by even one or two percent of income that’s quite a chunk of cash when school budgets are managed so tightly.
Charles Roberts
“It’s a different approach to a problem,” says Charles, “and that’s important because 80 per cent of a school’s budget is spent on staffing, and if our existing Excel tool was a few per cent out, that’s material. If your forecast is out by even one or two percent of income that’s quite a chunkof cash when school budgets are managed so tightly.”
So how does the magic happen? Charles explains: “The app replicates the reality of all things that happen in the payroll service and payroll departments and is more accurate on national insurance, pensions, spreading a salary across the months in the year, managing pay rises and changes in incremental grades and also manages to model ad hoc payments for extra hours or overtime.”
This enables a school to be able to recast their budget swiftly, if asked to do so.
“Smallwood school had an annual spend of £1.3m on staffing, and the tool was £14 different, which is why it’s called RAPTOR –ridiculously accurate planning tool for organisational resourcing. Ultimately, it’s all about giving the school business manager and head teacher confidence in the numbers,” says Charles.
Dionne Campbell, Business Manager
For business manager Dionne this new way of financial planning speeded up the accuracy of the monthly payroll as well as the six monthly forward planning. “What Charles created pulls up errors in red so we can easily identify and investigate what should be paid and answer, for example, questions about why’s that person got an extra £100 – of yes they’ve done two extra hours.”
Reconciling payroll data is no longer super time- consuming. Charles explains that’s not unusual for schools as, “Some have 40-50 employees – but the tool just highlights those employees that need to be looked at, so is driving action by exception, rather than having to work through everybody. The tool does most of the work for you and will flag those it thinks you need to look at. That creates the feedback loop, so next month it gets more accurate.”
Less discrepancies also meant Smallwood spent less time trying tocontact the payroll team – a particular plus through lockdown when many people were working from home and seemed harder to reach.
We have confidence in the staffing structure of the school, and being able to keep it at the level we need, because very quickly we can see if the percentage of pay for staff is going up, it gives us confidence about managing our budget and staff.
Fiona Loudon
Fiona Loudon, Headteacher
Operating as a pilot, Smallwood has now been using it for a year. “Charlescomes in once a month. He has a report-ready database on his laptop which has got all of our staff data,” says Dionne explaining how the pair go through,“ line by line, so any discrepancies [eg, from sickness, pay increases, reduced hours, jury service, pensions, unpaid leave, unauthorised absence, extra hours and pension opt in and out] are highlighted quickly. It’s easier to use and really helped, as we feel more confident that this is the accurate figure on staffing and can put in any questions that governors have.
“We have confidence in the staffing structure of the school, andbeing able to keep it at the level we need, because very quickly we can see if the percentage
of pay for staff is going up, it gives us confidence about managing our budget and staff. It is now monitored so carefully, we are not going to get any big surprises,” says Fiona delightedthat the budgets are fit for purpose and reconciliation far quicker.
Dionne agrees: “Charles has been instrumental in supporting theschool and getting the budget into the really good position that it is in now. That app works really well.”
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
In pursuing leaner operations and more efficient processes, time is an often overlooked factor to consider when looking at cost savings.
As time invariably equates to money spent, you may look at reducing the school’s administrative burden through outsourcing, or engage with specialist educational expertise that adds value to your offer; or ensures your have the right plan in place to protect your position.
Operational drains on a school’s finances are not always obvious, which is why it is imperative to partner with a resource that can help you objectively view the complete picture.
Magnetic Marketing
Increasing pupil numbers is a crucial strategy for expanding budget allocation. The more pupils your school attracts, the larger your budget.
In marketing terms, this revolves around creating more awareness of your school’s unique offer. After pinpointing how your learning experience differs from other schools, you can then align your strengths, values and approach with the criteria parents and pupils are looking for.
This service is a new partnership between Smart School Services and West Creative – marketing and communication experts, with a proven track record of helping local and national education sector partners.
A tailored response based on your school’s unique marketing needs
Working alongside schools to create actionable marketing plans with an accompanying suite of deliverables
Full suite of integrated creative services available – digital and print expertise
Mitigating Risk / Insurance
Catering equipment is one of the big ticket items that can burn a whole in your school’s budget, especially if equipment breaks down before a planned upgrade.
Smart School’s Catering Service offers comprehensive equipment hire insurance to ensure school’s minimise the cost of repairs or replacements – with no limit on how many times a school can make a claim.
Given the cost of a condemned combi oven is anything up to £10,000 to replace, this service is definitely a smart money investment.
Cut Your Losses
Unfortunately, the true cost of equipment does not always become apparent until after its purchase.
While a paper shredder may seem a relatively inexpensive purchase, the valuable time it takes to operate, unblock and ensure the waste is disposed of safely quickly adds up.
Smart School’s Confidential Shredding Service will not only take over these time-wasting tasks, it also removes the risk of fines from a data breach by providing a certificate of destruction.
On the Money Outsourcing
Payroll comes with a unique set of complexities and demands that goes much further than reconciling the monthly payment cycle.
From compliant practice to improved accuracy, outsourcing your end-to-end requirements often makes more fiscal sense.
Using Smart School’s Payroll Service allows schools to benefit from dedicated, accountable expertise while saving on the cost of employing and retaining staff.
Plan. Respond. Recover.
Smart School’s Emergency Planning Team offer schools a comprehensive risk assessment that identifies all potential emergency threats and hazards that could potentially impact the school.
Ultimately, the business continuity plan keeps your school running during and after an incident, reducing costs as well as the duration of any disruption.
Protect Your Provision
Smart School’s Heath and Safety Service focuses on sharing knowledge to reduce financial liabilities through fines and prosecution.
The service provides a cost-effective way for schools to ensure they have access to expert Health and Safety advice and support, including health and safety inspections, audits and training.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
In line with Richmond and Wandsworth’s net zero targets, Smart School Services have launched the net zero decarbonisation framework to support schools in achieving their decarbonisation goals.
Please click here to find out more information on the school’s decarbonisation framework. The framework sets out information and guidelines on how schools can reduce their consumption and stay on track with their decarbonisation targets.
Within the decarbonisation framework you can find a list of funding streams that may be available to you, along with contact details for the relevant organisations.
This article is written by James West, a marketing consultant with a track record of working with education provides across the U.K.
“Educational Waffle”
Let’s unpack the problem – “Educational Waffle”. It often feels like schools are duty bound to use the same limited pallet of stock phrases and statements with flimsy sentiment. This “waffle” – technical term – might feel like it conveys your values. However, just look at half dozen school prospectuses and you’ll soon understand how dizzying the effect of reading repeated promises of quality, aspiration and attainment makes you feel.
The issue here is at the heart of what causes parents’ problems and reduces the effectiveness of all marketing and communications (for enrolment, retention, and the overall perception of a school). The reason it happens is that it’s easier to write in educational waffle, it’s a familiar shorthand and common place – but none of these reasons should be excused.
The problem that causes these symptoms is that not enough work has been done to understand the uniqueness of your school’s learning experience – the few specific aspects that separate your school from the others. When we work with education providers, they are often able to rattle off a list of 10+ features that make them ‘unique’ – that is, until we show them that nearly every other provider uses the same set or similar. This revelation of seeing themselves from the perspective of a parent, pupil or partner quite quickly reveals how samey their offer is perceived to be.
Why not have a look at a dozen websites of schools in your area – how many tangible distinctions can you spot in the ‘About’ sections? Try to avoid ‘reading between the lines’ and just go with what is said on the page.
What can be done?
Understanding differentiator/s is the core of what is needed to unlock your communications and make your unique school learning experience stand proud.
STEP #1
To start, we recommend two things:
Listen to your parents, pupils, partners, and staff (Ask them what they think about the school, what specifics they really value, why they decided to enrol, work or partner with your school).
Write a long list of features and ask yourselves ‘Which are unique to us?’ (If at first you don’t get any, keep going – push yourself to look for specific aspects that could be unique or closer to unique)
Remember we’re looking for things that make you unique. From our studies of educational websites, the following should cause alarm bells if they are featuring on your features list:
Active learning
Heart of all we do
Success in life
Hard-working
Successful
Realising potential
Dedicated staff
Inclusive
Welcoming
Community focused
Achievement driven
Learning journey
STEP #2
Once you’ve found your differentiator or a set of possible differentiators, we encourage schools to use something like Geoff Moore’s Value Proposition to start articulating the benefits.
Example:
FOR parents living in Roehampton
WHO are worried about their child’s transition to school
OUR induction series IS the ideal first step
THAT gives parents and pupils time to make the adjustment.
STEP #3
The final step is still very much the start of the process. As soon as you think you’ve found a differentiator, start using it. At this stage you want to test to see how it is received – By using it in a newsletter is a different action received? Did we get more enquiries from putting it on the front of a marketing flyer? When I say it out loud to parents, is their reaction affirmative?
So much of marketing and communications is like writing a recipe for a cake. You need to tweak the ingredients until you find the right balance – the aim of this work is to get going and start to see if you can find the perfect recipe for marketing the benefits of your learning experience.
James and his company West Creative are working in partnership with Smart School Services to help support schools with their marketing and communication activity. If you would like to discuss your school and this service, please complete the Head to Head form below and we’ll be in touch.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
Employers are legally required to provide information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of their employees and safeguard the pupils. Agnieszka Wojcik
When is H&S training required?
H&S training is required upon:
Induction – Provided for new employees to help them to settle into the new workplace environment and activities.
Exposure to new or increased risks
Existing skills may have become rusty or outdated
When current training requires refreshing
How will your employees and school benefit from H&S Training?
Providing health & safety information and training will help you to:
Meet your legal duty to protect the health & safety of your employees.
Contribute towards making your employees competent in health & safety;
Ensure you or your employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do;
Develop a positive health & safety culture, where safe & healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;
Find out how you could manage health and safety better;
Can help your school avoid the implications that accidents and ill health cause;
Can help you avoid the financial costs of accidents & occupational ill health.
H&S training methods available
There are many school health and safety training options available, including:
Classroom Offsite
On-site at the school (school)
Online
Blended Learning
In school, the following training are examples of H&S training needed (the list is not exhaustive)
All Staff
H&S Awareness
Fire Awareness
Manual Handling
Premises Officers
H&S Awareness
Fire Awareness
Asbestos*
COSHH*
Ladder Training*
*where applicable
Senior Management
H&S Awareness
Fire Awareness
Risk Assessment
Specifically appointed roles
Fire Marshall
EVC
First Aid
Staff whose work involves a greater element of risk will need extra or specific training.
A record of H&S training should be kept up to date, with details of who in your school has completed which training course, which staff are trained sufficiently and whether their certificates are still current.
Steps to achieving compliance in H&S training
Review staff H&S training needs upon induction
Organize necessary training
Keep an up-to-date record of who has completed H&S training and when
Carry out regular reviews and monitoring of dates to book training refreshers
Ascertain that training expectations are met by carrying out staff supervision and assessing training after delivery with staff
When to renew H&S training
As a general guide, unless otherwise stated in the training certificate, refresher training should be undertaken every 3 years.
Our Health & Safety Team provides training that can be tailored to the school needs and delivered on site.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
The UK Health and Safety Legislation outlines basic requirements for creating a safe work environment and actions to be taken to reduce to risks to staff, pupils, contractors and visitors.
What should be in place?
Every workplace should provide welfare facilities and a working environment that’s healthy and safe for everyone in the workplace, including those with disabilities.
a healthy working environment – a clean workplace with a reasonable working temperature, good ventilation, suitable lighting and the right amount of space and seating
a safe workplace – well-maintained equipment, with no obstructions in floors and traffic routes, and windows that can be easily opened and cleaned
fire safety measures – each building should have suitable fire safety precautions and a clear emergency evacuation procedure for all occupants including those with disabilities
What to do if there is a problem?
If the right facilities are not provided in your workplace, staff should raise this with their manager or staff representative. If appropriate action is not taken you should contact Smart School Services by booking a Head to Head meeting.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) is regular and routinely performed maintenance on physical assets, to reduce the chances of potentially serious and expensive equipment failure and unplanned equipment downtime.
It is to manage and extend the lifecycle of equipment, but is also a compliance requirement to satisfy statutory and legal obligations. The work should be scheduled in advance and can range from weekly to annually, depending on equipment and risk.
Failure to deliver compliance can result in service delivery failures, which whilst not as severe as legal failures, it can impact on the operation of your facilities, your core business and cause reputational damage.
Why is preventive maintenance important?
It is important because it keeps equipment and assets running efficiently, and it maintains a high safety level, which helps to avoid large and costly repairs, as well as service downtime.
A properly functioning preventive maintenance program ensures operational disruptions are kept to a minimum.
Specific examples of preventive maintenance include regular inspections of your heating, ventilation or air conditioning systems (HVAC) ensuring they are properly cleaned and repaired and that your water hygiene and electrical systems are also functioning within safety and compliance levels.
How can Facilities Management help?
We can provide the relevant PPM services through our experienced contractors that will deliver a professional planned maintenance function across your school portfolio.
Here are just a few examples of PPM services available to you through Facilities Management:
Boiler servicing
Lift servicing & repairs
Electrical Fixed Wire Testing
Mansafe systems
Legionella Risk Assessments
Water Hygiene inspections
Flushing of infrequent used Water
Water Temp. monitoring
Fire Detection & alarm servicing
Fire Extinguisher servicing
PAT Testing services
Commercial Kitchen equipment servicing
Air Con Servicing
Facilities Management (FM) are now offering our services for your Planned Maintenance 2022/2023 Compliance requirements. To order and buy into this service, you can order or request a quote, before the end of March 2022, via the Smart School services portal.
If your school chooses not to use the Council FM service, you are still required to upload your certification documents to the councils Concerto CAFM system.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
Without warning, the Covid pandemic upended school life across the UK. Overnight, headteachers had to establish remote learning, absorb and implement an avalanche of guidelines and advice, while supporting students, parents and staff academically and emotionally. The scope of the crisis and the subsequent reopening have created distinct challenges, but also highlighted potential opportunities for whole school positive change.
The Future is Now
There is little doubt that the pandemic has stretched resources, accelerated trends and highlighted inequalities across the education sector. But while significant challenges remain, this is also a time of exciting opportunity as we learn the lessons from the largest disruption to education in living memory.
As we step into the ‘new normal’, it is imperative that we allow room for analysis and reflection. To think about the bigger picture. Where joined-up collaborative ideas help to connect a wide range of tailored services to benefit all aspects of a school’s ecosystem.
That takes time.
And we understand that time is a precious resource. Schedules are unforgiving and workloads unrelenting.
It is the main reason behind publishing Lessons for the Future – to start a discourse – to show that if we all collaborate to create and implement best practice, we can alleviate pressure on teaching professionals while realising the best future for schools.
A future, for example, where technology not only supports learning, but helps to realistically reduce workload, increases operational efficiencies, engages students and communities, and provides tools to support excellent teaching, monitors attendance and raises student attainment. In short, creating a smart school.
We hope you find value in Lessons for the Future. We hope it inspires ideas and sparks debate. That it opens a discussion on what is positive and achievable as we pivot to realise the opportunities of post-pandemic education. And we would like to be part of that discussion.
Michael Hallick Assistant Director – Business and Resources Wandsworth Council
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
There has never been a time in recent memory where so many critical decisions around school operations have had to be made with such short notice.
Now is the time to take stock and breathe. But it is also the time to evaluate and embrace new, smarter ways of doing things.
That begins with designing intelligent operations that seamlessly handle systems, management and contracts – creating genuine partnerships between schools and outstanding suppliers, while freeing school leaders to spend more time focusing on school life.
Smarter Buying
In procuring a wide range of goods and services in often complex marketplaces, schools can face higher costs than they need to, spending money which could be better spent on providing high quality teaching and achieving better educational outcomes for their pupils. We need to help schools overcome these procurement challenges.
The rising costs of materials, resource shortages and driver shortfalls hindering the supply chain are just some of the macro issues presently affecting non-staff expenditure. Schools do not typically have specialist procurement skills available in-house. This can make efficiency savings to help manage these ongoing financial pressures, while continuing to improve standards for their pupils, difficult for schools.
In the future, we need to think differently about the way we approach procurement. Supporting schools to look locally, developing a sharing economy across school network or creating strong relationships directly with suppliers can realise tangible cost savings. From catering services to site cleaning, schools need to re-evalute the way in which they contract suppliers to ensure they are getting the smartest value for money.
PAYG Procurement Advice
Procurement of key services is not an everyday task, which is why Smart School’s Central Procurement Team offer their services on a per day basis. Advice, support and guidance during the planning, implementation and awarding stages from professionally qualified individuals ensures your procurement process is more robust. The procurement team can also help with the on-going management of procurement activities.
Zero Carbon
Reviewing which suppliers schools contract is one of the services provided by Smart School’s Facilities Management team, and is one of many ways they are helping schools reduce their carbon footprint – an increasing priority at both a local and national policy level. The team are also helping schools to prepare funding applications for de-carbonisation projects and to carry out energy audits.
Book your Head to Head
If we have piqued your interest in Smart School Services, why not meet with our head team to see how we can work together.To arrange your Head to Head, or for any other enquiry, simply fill in the contact form and we’ll be in touch shortly.
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