Five years ago the Coalition government claimed that through some fairly simple changes the average secondary school could save £100,000 a year, while the average primary school could save £25,000 a year.

Many people were a little doubtful, but we waited… and waited… for the Department for Education to come back and tell us all what had actually been achieved as a result of this initiative.

This year they have launched the Schools financial health and efficiency collection.

This programme doesn’t seem to report on whether the savings proclaimed five years ago have been achieved, nor really explore what has happened in the past five years.

So, as part of School Business, Management and Administration Week (which will take place early next term), we are trying to fill in the gaps by researching what is happening in terms of efficiency and money-saving planning in schools.

I’d be really grateful if you could spend a moment (it absolutely won’t take more than three minutes) answering our questionnaire – whether or not you or your colleagues have spent time thinking about ways of saving money or otherwise making the school more efficient.

There are only six questions on our questionnaire, but it really will help everyone understand how people like you, working in a school, feel about the issue of whether schools can be made more efficient and effective.

Or whether schools are already doing all that they can to balance budgets while maintaining the quality of teaching and learning.

To complete the questionnaire please just click here.

Results will be published on the School Business Management and Administration Week website which will be launched in the near future.

Tony Attwood
School Business Management and Administration Week.