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| Proposals
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| a)
A more open market for school services |
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As noted above,
the value of delegating funds to schools so that they can purchase
the best mix of staff, goods and services to meet their pupils’
needs depends on schools being able to exercise real choice about
how to use their money. Buy-back arrangements under which blocks
of funding are returned to the Authority without the exercise of
genuine choice frustrate the purpose of Fair Funding and the principles
of Best Value. Schools’ ability to make real choices can be affected
by a number of factors:
- the lack
of adequate information about what is available, on what terms,
from the Local Education Authority and from alternative sources;
- the lack
of procurement skills at school level, and competing time pressures
which limit schools’ ability to secure the best possible deal;
- the packaging
and pricing of services in a way which may obscure true costs
and militate against choice, rather than encouraging it;
- for some
functions and in some areas of the country, the current lack of
any genuine alternative to the home Authority as supplier.
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Local Education Authorities have worked hard to mitigate these problems,
as far as they are under their control. A number of external providers,
from the public, private and voluntary sectors, have entered the market,
but far more are needed to enable even the majority of schools to
exercise a genuine choice. The Government will continue to look to
all Authorities to operate their traded services openly and at full
cost, and to help those schools who need it become better purchasers.
It will improve the transparency of reporting on expenditure by Authorities,
and supplement that by publishing guidance for schools this autumn
on effective purchasing. This should encourage more external providers
to enter the market. The Department is also working with a group of
Authorities to examine how their services are costed and to spread
accepted good practice in costing among Authorities. |
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To help schools
to be more effective purchasers of services, the Department is working
on a pilot scheme in one Local Education Authority area which offers
schools an independent ‘brokerage’ service which puts them in touch
with a range of suppliers and aims to achieve the best value from
their delegated budgets. The service is designed to be funded by
schools out of the savings generated by the broker. A number of
such brokerage services could operate regionally or nationally,
and the Department would be interested in working with other bodies
developing this idea.
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