There has been rapid change in the world of education over the last decade. The drive to raise standards despite diminishing budgets, curriculum alterations, exam changes and the proliferation of academies and free schools all present a challenging landscape. In this evolving world, one job in particular has become more vital than ever – that of the school business manager (SBM).
The profession has gone from being a virtually unheard of area 15 years ago to becoming a central part of school life, organising everything from facilities to marketing. To celebrate this – and share best practice – a select group of practitioners gathered just before Christmas to celebrate the National School Business Management Awards 2015.
The event took place in the Battlebridge room of King’s Place, London’s well-known music and arts hub beside the Guardian’s offices in a space decorated with fairy lights and golden decorative Christmas trees. Guests – who included award recipients, fellows of the National Association of School Business Management (NASBM), sponsors and education practitioners – chatted animatedly as they were seated for lunch in the spacious dining room overlooking Regent’s canal.
Stephen Morales, chief executive of NASBM, explained how the event highlighted what could be achieved by the profession. “The purpose of the awards and bringing together the most successful and highest achieving school business managers, is to develop a community critical mass and bring the rest of the profession up. The idea is that those at the top, through system leadership, raise the status of the profession.”
He said SBMs are vital to education as they ensure the right resources are in the right place at the right time: “The life chances of a child depend on the resources and environment in which they are taught, and the quality and enthusiasm of the teachers working in that environment. How do we make sure quality resources, teachers and funding are available? If you don’t get the operational bits right – human resources (HR), risk assessment, collaboration – then you’re vulnerable to austerity and cost pressures.”
Against this backdrop, it wasn’t long before talk turned to the value of SBMs. A NASBM fellow explained that this wide-ranging position, which comprises of everything from HR to marketing, is essential for improving the quality of education as well as saving money. She offered the example of how she reduced the cost of swimming in her old school by thousands of pounds by selling their poorly looked-after and expensive-to-run pool and using a local facility instead. Not only did this free up money to be used elsewhere, but it gave the children more space to learn and better swimming training.
Developing the theme of excellence, Morales took to the stage to hand out the awards. There were eight different categories up for grabs, he explained, each sponsored by a different organisation.
The winners received their awards to the tune of James Brown’s I Feel Good. Those who accepted the top spot included: Sandy Tomlinson from Vicarage primary school for leadership of support services; Hazel Wale from Sir John Lawes school for strategy, efficiency and governance; Ian Kirkham from Wade Deacon high school for finance; Micon Metcalfe from Dunraven school for procurement; Tim Morton from the RSA Academy for infrastructure; Justin Smith from Wymondham college for marketing; Susanna Taylor from St Peter’s Church of England first school for policy; and Sharon Carlyon from Laurance Haines primary school for HR.
Susannah Taylor said she was thrilled, but it was really an accolade for her whole team. “To make an impact as a senior business manager you have to have the support and trust of your team,” she said. She explained that the real value of her job is in supporting the headteacher. “SBMs are outward looking; we are great at networking and collaborating and finding different ways of doing things to improve all aspects of school life including teaching and learning, but also back office functions – the whole lot.”
Ian Kirkham, winner of the finance award, also expressed his surprise and happiness. He said that it was a real honour to be picked out, especially given the worthiness of everyone else in the profession. He reflected on how the post had changed over the last few decades too. “Originally the term used to describe SBMs was ‘bursar’. It was seen as a job in the private sector looking after a small number of accounts, but now it’s huge. Schools have thousands of pupils and in some cases about £8m turnover. The role has evolved as schools have become much more self-sufficient and independent in terms of finance and accountability. Local authorities don’t deliver this for schools now, it’s all under our control.”
However, this new responsibility brings its own set of financial challenges. Kirkham explained that, although school budgets are no longer shrinking, they are still not growing in line with overhead costs. “The big challenge in the future will be making schools viable to deal with the peaks and troughs in student numbers,” he added.
When the awards had been given out, Morales praised those who’ve worked “beyond the pale” in his own team, including Matthew Wheeler, who leads the support staff at Bordesley Green girls’ school and is a trustee of NASBM.
Wheeler then offered some rousing closing remarks: “What a year it has been for this profession. You will be able to look back and say of 2015 that this was the year that school business management came of age.
“This year we stormed the barriers and tunnelled under the walls: we’ve been to the House of Lords, we’ve invited headteachers’ associations to parliament to hear our view of what senior business managers should look like ... We’ve launched standards, we’ve created the SBM qualification board.
“Our business plan for the next five years says no glass ceiling. That’s because we broke it this year and are continuing to break it – and that’s the kind of bolshy project we expect from our newly mature professional association.”
