School business managers needed

Released 07/04/2010

NAHT call for more business managers in light of procurement blunders

Schools urgently need to employ school business managers and business directors to avoid procurement blunders, warns Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT).

Brookes was responding to claims by a senior schools procurement civil servant that schools were wasting money as a result of bad business management.

Speaking at a Local Government Chronicle conference, Claire Dicks, assistant director of the educational procurement centre at the DCSF, said schools are getting tied into rolling contracts that can end up spiralling out of control.

"There have been cases where schools get caught in rollover leases - one school we dealt with was spending £250,000 on three multi-functional devices," said Dicks. "People should be wary of rollover leases because huge costs can be incurred."

"It can happen when school business managers change jobs and the knowledge is not transferred to the new person taking up the role. That person basically re-signs a contract, so they end up putting interest on interest," Dicks explained.

"They can end up paying for five or ten years and cannot get the costs to come down because the interest is so high."

Last September, a leaked report by Richard Handover, commissioned by Schools Secretary Ed Balls claimed a primary school had spent £50,000 on three toilets - five times the proposed sum - and another school spent £30,000 on a photocopier. Handover claimed headteachers have "no concept of the value of money".

Responding to the negative reports, Brookes said: "This just shows that we need get school business directors and school business managers in place to take away from heads these types of tasks.

"This is not what heads should be doing. What they should be doing is leading teaching and learning. They are not businessmen," added Brookes.

Source: TES

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