Listening to the Sector: Key themes from our School Business Management Council meeting
It’s no secret that we place real value on creating space for honest, informed discussion with school and trust leaders. These regular meetings play a vital role in shaping our understanding of the pressures schools face and ensuring that our policy, advocacy and support work genuinely reflects the realities on the ground.
Equally important are the surveys we share across our network, which allow us to build a broader, evidence-based picture of what’s happening in schools. This week, for example, we launched a breakfast club survey to understand the real impact of the rollout of free breakfast clubs. It explores the implications for school finances, staffing and facilities, and whether current government funding is genuinely sufficient to support sustainable delivery.
This week, we were delighted to host the termly meeting of our School Business Management Council. This meeting brought together school business professionals from across our region for a wide-ranging discussion on workforce, finance, procurement and national policy, at a time when schools are navigating increasing complexity and financial pressures.
Maximising value for pupils: What’s changed?
A central focus of the meeting was the Department for Education’s new Maximising value for pupils programme, with Ben Hardy, Policy Manager at Schools North East, presenting the key elements of the programme. This initiative builds on the earlier School Resource Management programme, but with a notable shift: it now includes workforce, recognising that as around 80 percent of school expenditure is staff-related it is key to be included within the programme.
During the meeting, council members reflected on how the programme has been shaped, highlighting limited direct engagement with schools and trusts during its development. The council welcomes opportunities to work in collaboration with the department to develop the programme, with Schools North East and the National Network of Special Schools continuing to ensure that the realities on the ground are heard by policymakers.
Commercial – achieving better value when buying
The commercial pillar of the programme sparked a particularly detailed discussion. Members welcomed the introduction of the improved Financial benchmarking and insights tool, which many schools and trusts have already found useful.
There was also significant interest in the new support that had been signalled within the programme—especially around Management Information Systems (MIS), an area that has long presented legal and practical challenges. When it comes to areas of spend that could benefit from the DfE facilitating collective buying power, the overall feeling was that this would be placed continuing to focus in the utilities space, building on the Energy for schools pilot through which one trust leader had been able to achieve savings of £1m — suggestions from the council on areas where the department could extend this type of support into included broadband and water.
The importance of local suppliers was stressed when it comes to areas like catering, cleaning, and facilities management – both for ensuring that they continue to support their local community, and also because their understanding of the schools and context is key. For schools and trusts in our region to benefit from DfE approved frameworks, it is essential that there are opportunities for local providers to be on these.
Managing financial and physical assets
There was a range of innovative practice taking place from members of the council when we discussed opportunities to generate additional income. The introduction of the DfE’s banking tool was received well by council members however, the support needs to go further than this. Clearer guidance and support is needed when it comes to investing school and trust money, in particular when it comes to risk mitigation and ethical banking choices.
Workforce
When it came to workforce, the conversation centred on the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff in particular, Teaching Assistants who are providing invaluable support to the system but can earn more outside the sector for less demanding roles. We are seeing schools having to lower initial requirements to get staff in the door, while the complexity of the role (like supporting “school readiness”) is actually increasing. The expected standards for Teaching Assistants has continued to rise, and this needs to be coupled with the appropriate uplift in pay. The council waits with interest to see what the School Support Staff Negotiating Body achieves in this space.
Looking ahead: the need for clearer evidence and greater representation
Across all areas, a recurring theme was the need for stronger evidence, clearer data, and more practical guidance for schools. Members emphasised the importance that future phases of the programme genuinely respond to the operational realities of running schools and trusts, and we look forward to working with the DfE to ensure that this lived experience is heard.
There was also a call for better alignment of DfE policies, this is supported by evidence from our current survey on breakfast clubs where early responses indicate that over 80% of surveyed schools have diverted money from their core school budget to fill the gap between the breakfast club funding and what the actual cost is to the school (when taking into account both the food and the staffing requirements).
For Schools North East, meetings like this are critical. They allow us to test national policy against lived experience, identify where further clarity or challenge is needed, and ensure we are representing our network of all 1,150 schools in the region with authority and accuracy.
We will continue to prioritise these conversations, using the insight from our advisory boards and roundtables to inform our policy work, engagement with government, and the support we provide to schools across the North East.
For every child, for every school, for the future of our region.
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If you are a school business professional and would like to help shape these conversations, we would love to hear from you. Our School Business Management Council plays a crucial role in informing our policy and advocacy work, ensuring the voices of those working at the heart of school operations are heard. To find out more about joining the council, please get in touch with us at policy@schoolsnortheast.com