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REVIEW OF DEVOLVED SCHOOL MANAGEMENT: Working Group Report

D GOOD PRACTICE

One of the aims of the review of DSM was to establish and share items of good practice. The questionnaire issued to Local Authorities and schools asked questions about the:

• Links between DSM and School Development Planning;
• Monitoring and Evaluation procedures;
• Training for staff with DSM responsibilities; and
• Information systems in use to control and monitor DSM schemes.

These questions yielded evidence to suggest that good practice exists in many councils and schools. The results of this are detailed in Figures 5 to 8.

Links between DSM and School Development Planning

The survey revealed awareness of the requirement to develop links between DSM and the school development plan. These links were considered to be a strong across all education sectors.

Recommendation

Following careful scrutiny of the System Three Research analysis the Group welcomes the strong linkage between DSM and the School Development Plan, but is mindful that some respondents reported that these links were not particularly strong in their area. To address this the Group recommends that:

The Scottish Executive should:

• Encourage the development of links between DSM and the SDP. - Recommendation 13 - target for completion January 2002.
• Local Authorities should:
• Provide advice, guidance and training on linking budgetary decisions and development planning. - Recommendation 14 - target for completion January 2002.
• Schools should:
• Continue to develop the links between DSM and the SDP, so that strategic objectives and the effective use of resources, reflects the requirements of the Improvement Agenda for the school. - Recommendation 15 - target for completion January 2002.

Monitoring and Evaluation

The majority of respondents confirmed that they had procedures in place to monitor and evaluate their DSM scheme. However, the presence of monitoring and evaluation procedures varied considerably by local authority. The survey also established that monitoring and evaluation procedures were more common in secondary schools and large primary schools than in other smaller schools. The survey asked respondents to describe their arrangements for monitoring and evaluation and this elicited a wide range of methods.

Recommendation

Financial probity is an essential element of any decision-making involving public money.

Local Authorities and Schools should:

• Assure themselves that the necessary procedures are in place to provide an audit of financial decisions reached at school level. - Recommendation 16 - target for completion January 2002.

Training

The importance of training was highlighted in Circular 6/93, which stated that appropriate training for Head Teachers and School Boards should be provided to support the implementation and administration of DSM. The survey results show that the majority (81%) of respondents had received some form of training to help them understand and administer DSM. However, the survey results revealed that, of the proportion of respondents who had received training the quality provided and the views of the effectiveness of the training varied among local authorities.

Recommendations

The Group recommends that the following action is taken to alleviate the problems associated with the quality and effectiveness of DSM training provided by some Local Authorities:

Local Authorities and Schools should:

• Review training and support for DSM schemes at school and authority level so that all involved, including parent bodies, have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. These training programmes should be the subject of regular evaluation. Ongoing staff training is essential. - Recommendation 17 - target for completion 2002-03.

The Scottish Executive should:

• Through the Ministerial Strategy Committee responsible for developing a framework for continuing professional development, ensure that senior school managers' training needs in relation to DSM are addressed. - Recommendation 18 - target for completion August 2003.

Information Systems

The Local Authority questionnaire also sought to establish the types and attributes of the computer systems in place to support DSM procedures. All but one of the local authorities reported that their DSM procedures were supported by a computer system. However, only 50% of these computer systems are fully networked and compatible between local authorities and school networks. The survey also asked local authorities if they believed that their computer system fully supported the requirements of DSM. Respondents were divided on this particular question.

Recommendation

The group believes that it is essential that the improvements in modern technology be utilised to assist the quality of management information.

Local Authorities should:

• Prepare plans to maximise the benefits from integrated ICT networking and should seek to achieve this within four years. - Recommendation 19 - target for completion Autumn 2005.

Financial Management Systems

Financial management has always been an important aspect of successfully operating Devolved School Management. The growing complexity of Education Finance through the introduction of Excellence Funding, direct funding for schools, etc. and the need for accountability and transparency has emphasised the requirement to have good financial management systems.

Some of the features that are evident in the best systems are set out as follows:

• any system must be easy for school-based staff to use and understand
• reports and on-screen enquiries should meet the needs of non-financial managers and be readily adaptable
• the system should be as integrated as possible with ordering, processing of invoices and general ledger all directly linked
• incorporate a commitment accounting facility i.e. any orders should be processed through the system and the impact reflected on the available budget
• directly linked (or part of) to corporate system to avoid duplication of input, reconciliation, etc.
• ability to follow progress of orders through the procurement process
• adequate audit trail and security
• should be an on-line, real-time system
• flexible coding structure to provide information in a variety of formats e.g. by department within a school, by development plan objective, excellence fund project, etc.
• wherever possible this should be a link to non-financial information e.g. number of supply days, energy consumption, number of pupils benefiting from supported study, etc.

The last bullet point is becoming an important aspect of school management. While there needs to be caution to avoid undertaking analysis for its own sake, it can nevertheless be helpful in determining the success and indeed cost effectiveness of various initiatives.

With advances in Information and Communication Technology, particularly e-mail and internet, there is an opportunity to further improve systems to take advantage of the new technology. For example, to meet e-government targets schools should be able to order goods and services electronically. It is important to stress however, the presence of internal controls to ensure these facilities are not abused.

It would appear that while, most authorities do have robust systems in the former larger regions the functionality of systems meets a number of the above requirements. Most of the other authorities have some of the features but there are still examples of schools using subsidiary systems e.g. spreadsheet to make up for deficiencies in the departmental/corporate system. Efforts should be made to overcome these problems and also to determine how best to embrace the potential of new technology.

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