Hear our new podcast, 'the new academy'.

Listen to our latest podcast and hear the thoughts of two heads on becoming an Academy.


Click play to begin.

Martin Post of Watford Grammar School for Boys talks about the pains and gains of becoming an Academy. Lorraine Allen of Whitley Abbey Business and Enterprise College, which is not currently an Academy, talks about her thoughts on the subject including the impact on students and the pressures a transition might bring.

Plus all the latest education headlines and meet the personalities behind the job titles here at SE.

You can also listen to, and share our podcast at iTunes by clicking here.

SE Exhibits in November

Strictly Education will be taking stands at the following events during November.

New Heads Conference
15/16th November – Lancaster Gate Hotel, London

Specifically for newly appointed Headteachers, there will be a range of workshops offering tools, advice and techniques to help support the Headteacher in their new role and an exhibition to take a look at alternative products and services.

NASBM Annual Conference
19- 20th Nov - Metropole, Brighton

Specifically for school business managers, bursars, finance officers, administrators and school secretaries. The exhibition gives an opportunity for you to meet current suppliers of products and services to the school and to take a look at alternatives. There will be key note presentations, workshops and a gala dinner, where money will be raised for Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital.

SSAT
24th Nov - ICC, Birmingham

Specifically for school leaders to meet together, discuss their experiences and meet and engage with cutting edge thinking in education. They will take back to their schools new thoughts and ideas. The exhibition provides a look at products and services which can be compared to those currently being used in the school with “Best Value” in mind.

Strictly Education at Capita Academies Conference

Strictly Education will be taking a stand at the Capita Academies Conference on 20th October in London.

Timed to coincide with the new developments post-election, this is a must attend event for representatives across the education sector. Be the first to hear the latest strategy on the Government’s plans to expand the Academy programme and get to grips with the changing political landscape.

Click here for further information and be sure to drop by to see us if you are attending.

Podcasting

Strictly Education is looking to launch a number of conferences in September, in order to answer questions posed by schools about transitioning to an Academy. To accompany these, we will be launching a few podcasts on the subject, hoping to stimulate debate and improve knowledge amongst schools. Be sure to check our website regularly for updates around this time.

If you would like to be a part of a podcast, please state your interest to Stuart Collard (Head Of Sales).

Stuart.collard@strictlyeducation.co.uk

Strictly Education's Upcoming Events

Over the next few days, we'll be at the Wakefield Council "Harnessing Technology for Learning" Conference, july 13th. We'll also be at the National College training event in Manchester, "Achieving World Class Schools". Over 450 delegates from around the world will be attending these events, and we have had a great deal of interest in our Academy work from a number of influential schools.

Please do drop by and see us!

Quality Assurance

Thanks to our Payroll and HR clients that responded to our recent quality assurance questionnaires. Your feedback is appreciated. Our ICT service questionnaire will be distributed in the next few days.

How do you prevent toxic plants from seeding themselves in your playground?

Maintaining your grounds and cleaning your building can be an onerous task. Take our quick Health Check quiz to find out whether you have everything covered.

Click here to go to quiz.

School Governors - a guide to improving economy and efficiency in schools.

As a school governor, you play an important role in the financial decisions made by the school, deciding how to spend the school’s budget and agreeing an annual budget plan. This Audit Commission briefing provides you with a guide to going beyond good financial management to improving value for money.

This will help you ensure as much money as possible can be spent on improving outcomes for children.

Just click on the title of this post to download your copy now.

ASCL conference - thanks for dropping by

Many thanks to all the people who visited us at the ASCL conference last week. A combined payroll and HR service seemed to be the hot topic of conversation. We're busy following up with all those schools who asked to see us. And of course, even if you didn't ask for a formal appointment on the day, feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss any aspect of your school's management or administration.

Independent schools - stop wasting money on solicitors

We find clients in the independent sector particularly value our Human Resources and Health and Safety support.

Our clients tell us that the benefits of working with Strictly Education include:

*Our proactive and preventative approach
*The significant reduction in budget spent on solicitors’ fees
*The ability to create capacity through best people practices

Talk to us and you'll find that we:

*Are experts in the education sector
*Have a full understanding of Governors’ statutory responsibilities
*Are passionate about linking good people and processes to deliver improved educational outcomes
*Are always solution focused
*Treat every school as an individual client

The first step we recommend is an initial audit of your current provision which reassures you that the minimum standards to meet legislation are in place – or comes up with a solution if you find they are not.

Click here to visit the Independent School Association web site.

Cash Crop? Options on handling your payroll

Using the local authority for services such as payroll isn't the only option. More schools are using third parties or bringing the payroll function in house to save money and improve the service they offer to staff. But is it worth it? In the case studies below, two schools share their experiences with Leader - the magazine of the Association of School and College Leaders.

http://www.leadermagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=1694

See us at ASCL's first business managers' conference - 5/5/10

Strictly Education will be taking part in the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) first annual business managers’ conference, to take place on 5th May at the Birmingham NEC Hilton Metropole.

During the day we will be hosting a workshop on outsourcing your payroll to a third party provider.

For more information about the conference click here.

If you are planning to attend the conference please do drop by and see us or book a space on our workshop.

Planning any building work during the summer holidays?

If you are planning building work for this summer then you might be worrying about how smoothly it will run and who is going to oversee it.

If that’s the case, Strictly Education’s Property Services can relieve that burden.

There’s two ways we can remove the hassle.

Firstly, if you have your contractors lined up, we can act as Project Sponsor. That means we will take over the running of the project, liaise with your contractors and ensure everything is running to time and budget.

Or we can Project Manage the whole thing. It’s not too late for us to source contractors, produce specifications, develop a project plan and manage the whole thing against your timetable.

It’s what Canonbury Primary School did when they needed a new toilet block - “The project was completed on time and on budget and the school now has very smart toilet facilities which, thanks to Strictly Education, we are very proud of.”

Download more information here or visit our website for full details.

What’s more, you’ll find us highly competitive with our rates.

Find out more today – call our sales team on 01908 208289 or email us here.

Best Value Audits

There are many reasons why you may be considering a Best Value audit.

You may need reassurance that you are receiving value for money. Or you may have concerns about existing contracts – or the lack of them.

Whatever the reason, Strictly Education can help. We can audit building cleaning, catering, lettings management and premises management.

For one school recently, our cleaning audit, conducted by a BICSc accredited Field Officer, showed that they were receiving good value, although we were able to highlight a number of recommendations to improve the cleaning provision. This audit proved valuable evidence for the school’s FMSiS assessment.

For another school we had a very different situation. There was no formal cleaning contract in place and the school had been employing agency staff in the mistaken belief that this would allow them to abdicate out of employment rights. The school had overspent dramatically against its cleaning budget and the audit action plan required major change to upgrade the cleaning provision to a satisfactory level.

Amongst the actions arising from the audit we recommended that a formal cleaning contract needed to be set up. We have drawn up the tender documentation including specification and bills of quantities and will shortly be tendering the contract through the OJEU due to the size of the site. We expect to substantially reduce the school’s cleaning costs (potentially £40k saving) as well as upgrade the cleaning standards considerably.

Following contract award we’ll support with the TUPE transfer arrangements and monitor the contractor’s performance on behalf of the school. In effect the school needs to do very little and can concentrate on their core activities around educational achievement, enjoy a clean school environment and consider how they will effectively spend the funds they have saved on cleaning.

On another occasion, a catering audit highlighted concerns about which the school management had been unaware: food was not cooked or maintained at the correct temperatures, meat was unlabelled so no means of telling when it should be disposed of or if it was halal. Insufficient food was being prepared to get through the service and no batch cooking was being undertaken. Food was not nutritionally balanced and most of it was expensive frozen ready meals.

We recommended the implementation of a low cost sandwich bar, also selling pasta, salad and fruit and advertise meal deals to encourage take up. The catering team was sufficient to prepare freshly made meals and batch cook so this was a further recommendation. Forgoing frozen ready meals not only improved the nutritional balance of the meals offered but substantially reduced the cost resulting in a healthier menu at reduced cost.

Build your school budget in minutes

This e-bulletin contains lots of useful information for schools - look for Strictly Education on page 9.

http://cde.cerosmedia.com/1U4b5ef834001c3012.cde

Let us help brush up your skills

Did you know that Strictly Education can offer training across a whole range of subjects?

Payroll - Whether you operate an in-house service, or just need to ensure you are up to speed on the latest requirements, we offer bespoke training and guidance on every aspect of payroll.

Finance - Finance training requirements are constantly changing. We offer group or individual training packages to suit your requirements. We can also provide training onsite, using your own data and systems that you are familiar with.

HR - We can help you give your staff the knowledge and tools to manage HR issues internally through our range of specialist training courses. We run courses aimed at Headteachers, Leadership Teams, staff and Governors and can design a bespoke course to cover any area of concern for you.

ICT/MIS – We run many ICT training courses at our training suite in London and also in schools. We can tailor courses to meet your
requirements. Typical courses are half day to a full day and cover MIS training and general ICT skills.

Property Support - Ensure your staff are aware of the ever-increasing raft of Health and Safety Legislation. Our Property Support Division is able to provide training, either on a bespoke basis or through our published programme of courses, covering several key Health and Safety subjects.

Visit our website for more information www.strictlyeducation.co.uk

Considerations when implementing a managed ICT service

In this extract from BECTA’s report on ‘Implementing managed services – benefits and considerations’ we detail the considerations when implementing a managed ICT service

· Gaining a more accurate picture of expenditure on ICT and associated services, and of the quality of that service before outsourcing will enable a more robust value-for-money proposition to be developed.

· If the current ICT is underperforming, then ICT costs will increase as there will be a need for capital investment in equipment alongside the managed element of the service. However, it is the managed element that provides extra value through greater reliability, increased confidence, and less staff time lost to dealing with problems.

· Establishments considering employing a managed service need to ensure that a senior member of staff is given sufficient time and resource to oversee and champion the process, ideally from procurement through to the final implementation.

· An output specification in which the benefits of the managed service are expressed in educational terms is very valuable. It is important to invest time in understanding and articulating these benefits.

· Specialist advice should be sought from the local authority or an independent consultant to help define the specifications and procure the most appropriate managed service.

· Establishments should have complete clarity of their business needs in regard to functional requirements and educational outcomes before they engage with suppliers. Becta’s procurement frameworks give guidance on this process. [www.becta.org.uk/schools/managedservices]

· Any affected staff, or unions, should be involved from the beginning. This will aid in personnel issues such as TUPE and the unease that this can create. It should be noted that respondents highlight tangible benefits for transferred personnel including training and career path benefits.

· Establishing a sound and realistic service level agreement (SLA) that is aligned with the establishment’s needs is an essential element to engaging any managed service.