The National School Business Management Awards celebrate the achievements of school business management professionals, who work hard to ensure their school is as successful as possible.
We’re looking for the stars of the profession whose work is having a real impact on the whole school community – and could provide colleagues across the country with inspiration.
There are eight awards up for grabs, each relating to a different aspect of the school business manager (SBM) role. Those awards categories are:
- Leading support services – sponsored by Unison
- Core: strategy, efficiency and governance – sponsored by The Consortium
- Finance – sponsored by Tucasi
- Procurement – sponsored by Zenergi
- Infrastructure – sponsored by YPO
- Policy – sponsored by Optimus Education
- HR – sponsored by The Education Broker
- Marketing – sponsored by Pebble
The awards can only go ahead due to the generosity of all the sponsors and the National Association of School Business Management (NASBM) would like to them for their help and support in raising the profile of the profession and its professionals.
All the categories and their criteria are listed below. Remember, you can enter as many categories as you wish (although you must make a separate submission for each). If you need more information about entering, including essential details to include in your application, check out the guidelines here. You can also check out the process and timings here.
Don’t forget, entries close at 5pm on Wednesday 30 September 2015.
Eligibility:
- The awards are open to all school business management professionals who have been working in or providing support services to schools during the last academic year (2014/15).
- The nominee must demonstrate that they are personally responsible for the impact of the project or activity they are putting before the judges.
- In addition to showing impact in their school, entrants must also ideally show how their innovation could be/is effective across their local cluster, region or nationally.
- All candidates must demonstrate that they are committed to maintaining and improving their skills and undertake regular professional development.
Leading support services – sponsored by Unison
This category is for individuals to showcase how they are using resources – people, goods or services – in the most innovative ways. You need to demonstrate how you are deploying your resources inventively, and how this is allowing the school to flourish.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Lead on wellbeing initiatives for all pupils and users of community, and develop complex educational structures/academy provision.
- Develop an organisational strategy for innovation across complex educational organisations/structures.
- Lead and mentor professional colleagues through local and national networking groups, by raising the professional profile and representing professional views.
- Create an inclusive and innovative leadership approach that enables wider collaboration and develops the ability of the school/trust to respond to new opportunities.
Core: strategy, efficiency and governance – sponsored by The Consortium
This category celebrates SBMs who are working hand-in-hand with the headteacher and governors to develop a strategic plan for the school. Candidates will have developed appropriate budgets and long-term planning to ensure the strategic vision for the school can be delivered. The winner must demonstrate the impact they make both within the senior leadership team and in securing the future of the school.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Drive the strategic vision for the school across all operational areas, ensuring the best delivery of the local implementation plan and best possible outcomes for pupils.
- Demonstrate strong senior leadership, working alongside the headteacher and governing body/trustees to create an efficient structure.
- Lead long-term planning and secure the sustainability of the school.
Finance – sponsored by Tucasi
This category is all about demonstrating creative and innovative approaches to effective financial management. We want to hear from SBMs who are tackling the issue of reduced funding in ingenious ways. Whether you’re driving significant additional revenue for your school or making the funds you have work harder – we want to know what you’ve achieved, how you have done it and what impact it’s having.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Ensure the effective financial management of the school/trust’s budgets, including planning and monitoring, and controlling and communicating financial information for decision making.
- Influence strategic decisions and review long-term business and financial planning processes to deliver the school/trust’s strategic goals.
- Consider new solutions and opportunities with appropriate consideration of risk.
- Set and lead the delivery of the school/trust’s aspirational income generation targets.
- Identify how trading subsidiaries can be used to generate revenue and ethical implications (for example, conflicts of interest).
- Develop and implement a strategy to resource and deliver the school/trust’s strategic objectives.
Procurement – sponsored by Zenergi
When was the last time you saved a pretty penny by finding a new supplier or renegotiating contracts with an existing one? Or perhaps you’ve launched a local buying consortium across your cluster schools? We are looking for leading professionals who have made huge savings and efficiencies over the last academic year, and could see their approach rolled out across all schools.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Lead on using collective buying consortia for the school and to demonstrate the development of local collaboration.
- Ensure the procurement strategy is kept under regular review, ensuring value for money and cost savings/efficiencies.
- Prove they have made significant cost savings and efficiencies through knowledge of best practice contract management.
- Develop detailed systems and procedures to ensure that procurement is managed across the whole school to ensure the delivery of value of money and probity.
Infrastructure – sponsored by YPO
Whether it’s overseeing a school-building project or installing a new ICT suite, an SBM’s work is never done. The infrastructure category is dedicated to managers who have changed and shaped their school’s infrastructure to meet the needs of pupils, staff and the curriculum.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Provide an environment that supports outstanding teaching and learning.
- Provide a safe and stimulating environment for all stakeholders and use this asset to the commercial benefit of the school through additional income generation.
- Lead projects that secure funding via bids to external and government agencies. Deliver these projects successfully and on time.
- Lead on the development of expansion and improvement plans, including a long-term plan for the maintenance and development of the school/trust’s facilities in line with the strategic vision.
Marketing – sponsored by Pebble
The lesson “build it and they will come” might have worked for ancient cities, but nowadays schools face tough competition to attract the best students. They have to build vital links with the local community and businesses to raise their profile and become the school of choice. We are looking for managers who are doing just that – and showing real entrepreneurial spirit in the process. We want to hear from individuals who can show their school works with a multitude of partners, delivering tangible, beneficial results.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Raise the profile of the school across all stakeholder groups to ensure the school is the first choice locally.
- Use all routes to market to publicise and gain sponsorship opportunities for the school and its projects.
- Lead on the development and integration of a full media schedule, including social media, to engage with all stakeholders and support pupils’ access to the digital world.
Policy – sponsored by Optimus Education
Policy changes come thick and fast in education so it’s important SBMs keep up with what this means practically for their school and their profession. Whether you’re the policy lead on the SLT or engage in government consultations, we want to hear from SBMs who are heavily involved with policy, its interpretation and delivery, acting an authority within their school, cluster and region.
The criteria requires the entrant to show they can:
- Engage with local and national consultations, influencing the sector for the benefit of the profession.
- Demonstrate a commitment to the development of local professional networks, ideally as the lead or part of the committee.
- Understand policy making mechanisms at all levels, particularly in relation to education delivery, and show they have applied this knowledge, for example, through involvement on your local Schools Forum.
- Establish effective systems for policy development, consultation and implementation to ensure consistent application across the school.
HR – sponsored by The Education Broker
Staff are a school’s most expensive asset so it’s essential that managers deploy them effectively. How do you ensure your school attracts the best candidates? And how do you get the best from your team? This category is for SBMs who are leading HR, experimenting with new methods of employment and bringing ideas from industry into education.
The criteria requires the entrant to:
- Analyse, evaluate and lead on the improvements of workforce composition and deployment in the school/trust to ensure efficiency is maximised and costs are sustainable.
- Objectively review and recommend efficiency improvements across the school, maximising economies of scale and reducing duplication.
- Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and provide advice to governors and trustees to ensure the effective delivery of performance management across the school/trust.
- Prove that their knowledge of statutory frameworks and legislation has been applied to minimise risk to the school/trust.
If you’ve found one or more categories that suit you or someone you know, you can find more details on how to enter here. Alternatively, head straight to the entry form here.
Entry form | overview | guidelines | key dates | terms and conditions
