Appendix II
Analysis of Questionnaire
School Business Support
Services
December 2013
For more information contact:
Claire Bloss
Research and Intelligence Unit Worcestershire County Hall
Email: cbloss@worcestershire.gov.uk Phone: 01905 822020
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Summary of Key Points
Current buy-back of County Council services is high – 80%-99% of schools which responded to the survey (highest for HR, Schools Broadband and Legal and Democratic) Over half of schools that responded buy all services from WCC
59%-80% of school respondents want support from WCC in procuring the services
Across all services (except Property Services) a greater percentage of school respondents want support from WCC in procuring the service than want to work with others or procure alone
o For Property Services, a greater percentage of school respondents want to work with others to procure the service, than want support from WCC or to procure alone 65%-79% of schools that responded want WCC to take the lead in procuring services –
tends to be higher amongst First/Primary Schools than Middle/High Schools 52% of responding Academies do not see a role for WCC in procuring services
Depending on the service, 11%-21% of schools that responded would not enter into a contract with a third party (so 79%-89% would) – across most services, Academies and High Schools are least likely to enter into the contract
Financial Services and Schools Finance appear to be the services most vulnerable to reduced buy-back of services, particularly from High School and Academy respondents:
o Academies and High Schools are particularly unlikely to enter a contract with a third party for Financial Services (70% and 55% respectively) or Schools Finance (70% and 45% respectively)
o Academies and High Schools are particularly unlikely to enter a contract with WCC for Financial Services (67% and 52% respectively) or Schools Finance (61% and 52% respectively)
HR services (particularly Payroll and Strategic Advice and Casework) appear to be the least vulnerable to reduced buy-back of services in future, including from High Schools and Academies
A smaller percentage of schools that responded would not sign up to a continued WCC service (1% to 16%) than a third party contract (11% to 21%)
Schools that responded indicated that generally they would be willing to commit to longer contracts with WCC than with third parties
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Notes on the Data
The results in this report are based on a schools consultation survey that was distributed to schools on 23 October 2013, with a closing date of 20th December 2013.
Awareness of the survey was raised via email and at District meetings with schools, and responses were received from 125 individual schools.
When interpreting the results, the following should be considered:
• the analysis is based on responses to the survey only and therefore does not necessarily reflect the opinions of all schools within the county
• data has not been weighted in any way
•
there are currently a fairly small number of academies in Worcestershire, and many of these are early in the process of establishing themselves – it is not known whether, for example, service buy-back and contractual preferences may change as academies become more established.3
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Response Rates
A total of 125 schools completed the questionnaire; this represents a response rate of 51%. In a few cases more than one response was received from a school, for the analysis that follows the response of the Head Teacher was taken where available. The majority of responses were from Head Teachers, as can be seen in Table 1.
Table 1: Role of Respondent
Role of Respondent Number %
Head Teacher/Deputy Head 85 68 Business Manager/Finance Officer 35 28
Governor 5 4
In total 23 Academies responded, this is 62% of schools of the type in the county. The lowest response rate was in one of the largest group of schools (maintained1 first schools) but this is still a respectable 43% response and a good spread of responses from different types of school was achieved
Table 2: Responses by School Phase and Status
School Phase Number Academies Number Maintained
First 2 32 Primary 4 41 Middle 4 12 High 13 9 Short Stay/Special - 8 Total 23 102
School Phase Response Rate Academies Response rate Maintained
First 50% 43% Primary 57% 44% Middle 100% 75% High 62% 100% Short Stay/Special - 62% Total 62% 50%
The number of responses per school district is shown in Table 3 and demonstrates a good spread of responses from across the county.
Table 3: Responses by School District
District Number Response rate
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4 Bewdley 3 50% Bromsgrove 10 43% Droitwich 7 54% Evesham 13 43% Hagley 5 71% Kidderminster 7 37% Malvern 8 44% Martley 5 50% Pershore 7 44% Redditch 23 74% Stourport 3 38% Tenbury 1 33% Upton 5 63% Worcester 16 57% Wythall 3 100%
Please note, not all schools are allocated to a school district.
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Current providers
Schools were asked who they currently buy their services from. Please note that the information below relates only to those schools who responded to the questionnaire and these results need to be checked and looked at in the context of business data on actual service use by all schools in the county.
4.1
Respondents who purchase from Worcestershire County Council
Figure 1 shows that most of the schools responding to the questionnaire purchase services from the county council: almost all buy HR services, schools broadband and legal services from us and even the least frequently purchased services (financial services, energy management and appeals) are purchased from the county council by 81% of total respondents.
65 schools (52% of respondents) buy all these services from the county council. These schools are predominantly first and primary schools in the maintained sector, plus the majority of the short stay and special schools.
5 Figure 1: "Please identify who you currently buy the following services from" - Percentage of respondents who answered "Worcestershire County Council"
The buy-back rates for services are broadly very similar for all schools types, with the exception of high schools, where rates are generally lower. Notably, 36% of high schools responding bought transactional financial services from WCC, compared to between 88% and 93% of first, primary and middle schools.
Buy-back rates from the academies responding were generally lower than those of maintained schools in all services areas other than appeals. The most notable differences were in transactional finance services (where 26% of responding academies bought the services from the county council compared to 98% of maintained schools) and schools finance (30% of academies compared to 98% of maintained schools).
81 85 92 81 98 97 98 83 98 96 81 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Finance Services (Transactional Services e.g. paying invoices, raising bills)
Schools Finance (Strategic Financial Advice and Financial Systems Support)
Property Services Energy Management and Sustainability (including
BEMS)
Human Resources (Transactional Services) Human Resources (Payroll) Human Resources (Strategic Advice and Casework) ICT Support Schools Broadband Service Legal and Democratic Services Appeals
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4.2
Other providers
Where schools indicated that they bought services from a provider other than Worcestershire County Council, they were asked to provide the name of the provider(s) used. Responses are listed in Table 4.
Table 4: Other Providers from which Support Services are Bought
Service Area Alternative Providers Listed
Finance Services (Transactional Services e.g. paying invoices, raising bills)
Strictly Education PSF x 2
Schools Finance (Strategic Financial Advice and Financial Systems Support)
RSM Tenon (accountant)
SAGE and Haines Watts Accountants Strictly Education
PSF x 2 Civica
Property Services We use the Diocesan service as well as property
services, but couldn't tick both boxes! Strictly Education
Energy Management and Sustainability (including BEMS)
Strictly Education
Human Resources (Transactional Services) Strictly Education
Human Resources (Payroll) A firm of Accountants
Strictly Education Human Resources (Strategic Advice and
Casework)
Harrison Clark Rickerbys (solicitor) Strictly Education
ICT Support Mobile IT Solutions
Baxter College
Through Haybridge High School Capita for SIMS only
Baxter Pyramid Vale Tech x 2 Private Provider
Pershore High School Trading x 2
Schools Broadband BT
Legal and Democratic Harrison Clark Rickerbys (solicitor)
Strictly Education
Appeals Diocese x 3
Birmingham Diocese Strictly Education
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Routes to secure provision and role for the county council
5.1
Routes to secure provision
Across all services at least 59% of schools that responded would want support from the county council to procure services, with significant numbers (36% to 60%) also being willing to consider contracting with other schools (either in phase, pyramid or district).
7 Some respondents would consider securing service provision on their own (7% to 25%). Respondents from academies (17% to 57%) and special schools (17% to 67%) are more likely than maintained schools (5% to 21%) to fall into this category, but few first schools would consider securing provision alone (0% to 15%).
High school, special school and academy respondents are most likely to procure alone for transactional finance, schools finance, ICT and schools broadband (45% to 67%), and least likely to want to procure Edulink4schools alone (14% to 17%). Responding maintained schools, first schools and primaries seem more likely to want to procure property services alone (15% to 24%), and again are least likely to procure Edulink4schools alone (0% to 7%).
Respondents from high schools are generally more willing to procure alone than those from first and primary schools, 14% to 45% compared to 0% to 24%, with middle schools sitting somewhere in the middle at between 13% and 31% depending on the service area.
Figure 2: "If you were to decide to procure these services yourself without the support of the County Council which route(s) would you consider choosing?"
Note: Respondents were able to provide more than one answer to this question
Consistent with the message above, when asked about their preferred role for the county council in engaging with a third party to secure services, the majority of schools would like to see the county council taking a lead.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
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5.2
Role for the County Council
Figure 3: "If the County Council were to engage with a third party to secure business support services to schools, what role would you wish to see for the County Council?"
Generally speaking respondents from first schools and primaries are more likely to want the county council to take a lead role than are middle and high schools; depending on the service between 60 and 88% of first schools and 58 and 84% of primaries selected the lead role option, compared to between 21% and 56% for middle schools and 21% and 59% for high schools.
Responding academies are more likely than maintained schools to not see a role for the county council, up to 48% of academy respondents see no role for the county council in securing future services (for financial services and ICT support), while only up to 15% of maintained schools select this option.
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Commitment to contracts with third parties and with county council
6.1
Contracts with Third Parties
For any given service about 11 – 21% of schools that responded would not enter into a contract with a third party. However, as shown in the chart below this rises to much higher values for high schools and for academies - 70% of the 21 academies responding would not enter into a contract with a third party to provide financial services.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% no role for WCC WCC facilitate groups WCC take lead
9 Figure 4: "The County Council may engage with a third party to secure business support services to schools, would you enter into the contract with the third party?" Percentage of respondents who answered "Would not enter into the contract" by school phase and status
Table 5: % of Schools who would not enter into a contract with a third party by phase
Support Service School Phase School Status
First Primary Middle High Maintained Academy Finance Services (Transactional
Services e.g. paying invoices, raising bills)
12% 16% 13% 55% 10% 70%
Schools Finance (Strategic
Financial Advice and Financial Systems Support)
12% 16% 20% 45% 9% 70%
Property Services 9% 20% 20% 18% 15% 26%
Energy Management and
Sustainability (including BEMS) 9% 18% 13% 23% 14% 26%
Human Resources (Transactional
Services) 9% 11% 13% 23% 8% 30%
Human Resources (Payroll) 9% 11% 7% 27% 8% 30%
Human Resources (Strategic
Advice and Casework) 9% 11% 7% 23% 7% 30%
ICT Support 9% 20% 20% 36% 15% 43%
Schools Broadband Service 12% 7% 18% 6% 8% 26%
Edulink4schools 6% 13% 41% 12% 15% 39%
Legal and Democratic Services 12% 13% 27% 9% 9% 39%
Appeals 18% 27% 27% 18% 19% 30% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% % w h o w o u ld n o t e n te r in to c o n tr ac t
10 As Figure 5 shows, where responding schools would be willing to enter into a contract generally about a third would sign for only one year, a third for a maximum of two and a further third for three or more years. However, it is important to note the difference in the number who would not sign the contract across the different types of service.
The number of responding high schools who would not sign up to a contract differed markedly depending on the service area in question – from 18% who would not sign up for schools broadband, to 55% who would not contract for transactional finance. Comparatively, between 23% and 55% would sign up to services for 3 years or more, indicating high schools are slightly more likely to sign up for longer term contracts than middle schools who were more sign up for a maximum of one or two years. First schools were slightly more likely to sign up for 3 year contracts than anything else, and primary schools were more likely to sign up for one year contracts.
In terms of the split between academies and maintained schools, the survey results indicate that academies are more likely not to enter in to a contract than maintained schools, but where they would contract, most would do so a maximum of 2 years. Maintained schools seem more likely to sign up for a contract in general, but were slightly more likely to go for a one year contract than a 2 or 3 year.
Figure 5: "The County Council may engage with a third party to secure business support services to schools, would you enter into the contract with the third party? If so, what maximum level of contractual commitment would you be willing to make? A longer contractual commitment would be likely to attract better deals for schools from suppliers"
21% 20% 17% 16% 12% 12% 11% 20% 11% 20% 15% 21% 28% 27% 28% 24% 30% 29% 30% 24% 25% 24% 32% 28% 25% 27% 27% 30% 28% 28% 29% 28% 27% 28% 24% 22% 22% 23% 25% 27% 25% 25% 25% 25% 30% 24% 26% 24% 3% 3% 2% 3% 5% 6% 4% 2% 7% 4% 3% 5% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Finance Services (Transactional Services)
Schools Finance (Advice & Support) Property Services Energy Management & Sustainability Human Resources (Transactional Services) Human Resources (Payroll) Human Resources (Strategic Advice & Casework) ICT Support Schools Broadband Service Edulink4schools Legal and Democratic Services Appeals
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6.2
Contracts with the County Council
Schools were asked the same question about contracting directly with the county council. A much lower proportion of responding schools say that they would not enter into a contract (unsurprisingly as most already do) – between 1% and 16%. Again it is predominantly respondents from high schools and academies that would not enter into these contracts, and particularly for financial services. Figure 6 seems to indicate that the services areas most vulnerable to loss of school support as more academies form are financial services and schools finance. Other services, such as HR, seem to be at less of a risk as comparatively fewer academies would not contract with the county council for these services
Figure 6: If the County Council were to continue to directly provide these business support services to schools, would you purchase / continue to purchase these services from the County Council?" Respondents who answered "Would not use the County Council Service"
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% % w h o w o u ld n o t e n te r in to c o n tra
12 For those respondents that are willing to enter into a contract with the county council, more schools would consider a longer contract, with a higher proportion selecting three or more years.
Responses from academies seem to indicate that they are much less likely to enter into a contract with the county council than maintained schools – although it must be noted that the range across services is very large with 4% of academies stating that they would not contract for HR (strategic and casework) and 70% who would not contract for transactional finance. For maintained schools, between 0% and 14% would not enter into a contract with WCC.
Again high schools which responded seem more willing to sign contracts for longer periods: between 23% and 55% would contract for up to 3 years, compared to 13% to 19% of middle schools and 20% to 29% of primaries.
Figure 7: "If the County Council were to continue to directly provide these business support services to schools, would you purchase / continue to purchase these services from the County Council?
If so, what maximum level of contractual commitment would you be willing to make?"
16% 14% 12% 8% 3% 2% 1% 15% 6% 7% 6% 13% 17% 18% 27% 25% 19% 21% 22% 20% 18% 19% 21% 19% 27% 29% 25% 27% 31% 29% 31% 27% 24% 29% 29% 26% 25% 25% 24% 26% 32% 33% 31% 27% 35% 30% 29% 29% 15% 15% 12% 14% 15% 15% 15% 10% 18% 15% 15% 14% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% Finance Services (Transactional Services)
Schools Finance (Advice & Support) Property Services Energy Management & Sustainability Human Resources (Transactional Services) Human Resources (Payroll) Human Resources (Strategic Advice & Casework) ICT Support Schools Broadband Service Edulink4schools Legal and Democratic Services Appeals
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Opportunities and risks for schools
Around half the respondent schools see driving out inefficiencies through independent working and using local providers as positive opportunities, while two thirds to three quarters recognise the ability to collaborate and targeted solutions as opportunities.
Figure 8: "Do you see the following as positive opportunities for schools based on the potential to secure an alternative provider (s)?"
There are not major differences between responses from schools of different phases, though there is a tendency for the academies to be slightly more likely to view these factors as positive opportunities (with the exception of using local providers)
A free text box was provided for schools to respond to question 10: "What are the key risks you would expect the County Council to mitigate if the provider of Business Support Services changed in the future?". The main issues raised were;
• Maintaining quality of services
• Continuity of service/managing transition
• Ensuring providers can deliver with proven track record
• Retaining school specific knowledge
• Knowledge/compliance with legislation and legislative changes
• Capacity/expertise (particularly of smaller schools) Complete free text responses are available in Annex A.
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Most (and least) important factor in the future delivery of business
support services to schools
When asked to select the most and least important factor in future delivery of business support services from four possible answers, the majority of schools view more innovation as the least important factor but there is a fairly even split over which of the other three factors is most important; cost, quality and resilience.
48% 57% 69% 69% 76% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% driving out efficiencies through working independently
using more locally based providers ability to collaborate more widely within pyramid ability to collaborate more widely with similar schools in phase ability to offer innovative and targeted solutions for schools % s ee a s p o st ive o p p o rt u n it y
14 Middle school respondents are more likely to view cost as most important, while high schools generally perceive quality as a more important factor; there is little difference between maintained schools and academies.
Figure 9: "Which of the following do you see as the most / least important factor in the future delivery of business support services to schools in general?"
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Other comments
A further free text box was supplied for any further comments, the main themes largely echo those in the risks question and include;
The high value placed on the services schools currently receive from the county council A need for sufficient lead in time for any changes
Concern and lack of confidence/ expertise about procuring services A need to ensure that schools are involved going forward
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Cost savings / financial efficiencies
Improving the quality of service delivery
More innovation and new products /solutions
introduced
Resilience and stability of service provider
