How many of the following statements do you agree with?
- We have all the funding we need to deliver our ICT vision.
- We are 100% confident that our ICT strategy is being delivered and supported efficiently and effectively.
- We have an ICT strategy and know how this will be delivered over the next 5 years.
Well, how did it go?
For those who didn’t agree with all three (if any), don’t worry you’re not alone.
With the constantly moving goalposts, the budget restrictions and the ever-evolving technology, it can be difficult to keep pace and to deliver those crucial life skills that children and young people need to become the next generation of professionals in tomorrow’s society.
So what should you do?
Well you could buy a bunch of laptops and Chromebooks, or you could create an ICT suite with a dedicated space for “technology lessons” and the computing curriculum, but that’s so 2010. So instead, you could develop a plan that delivers short, medium and long term goals that evolve as your school and the technology does too.
While ICT is often seen as a separate entity, in reality, it should be a consistent theme in your whole school development plan. A theme that plays an omnipresent role in your teaching and learning while being interwoven seamlessly throughout your daily operational activities.
“But we don’t have the money…”
What with revised funding formulas and grants that are offered but with limitations, and if all of that wasn’t bad enough, you now have to find unplanned resources to fund PPE and additional health and safety products.
Unexpected expenditure has a large role to play in limited school funding, as there is the potential to get caught out year-on-year with surprise invoices and subscription increases. But with so much ICT being embedded into the school day, it’s also important to foster efficient and effective spending habits in this regard.
- Do you know how much your school spends on ICT?
- Do you know what constitutes ICT spend? (this is not a silly question; you’d be surprised)
With an ICT sustainability plan, not only are you working towards a long term strategy (say 5-7 years) but you are prepared for eventualities and also considering the environment. And yes, it is rare to find this level of planning across many establishments but what if you could?
You could balance the books, you could find pockets of cash that you didn’t know were available, but ultimately, you would have a full understanding of where you are over/under spending and where these funds might be better placed – and no, still not in an ICT suite.
You could also benchmark your school in comparison to other schools or simply compare your school to DfE expectations, which will help you to understand your direction of travel.
Helping you find the money!
This is just like the lottery catchphrase “you’ve got to be in it, to win it” but instead of £2 you could have a chat with one of our experienced consultants here at Dataspire and we will help you find the money.
Here’s how:
- We will do an ICT audit to identify potential cost savings and efficiencies
- We will help you to find those quick wins (it’ll feel like finding £20 in your pocket that you didn’t know was there)
- We will help you to create medium to long term goals, with smarter purchasing, cloud considerations and new places to reinvest that new money
- We will also help you find other opportunities through centralisation and economies of scale
- We will help you to define your overall goals and the strategies required
- And we will help you to implement the tactics that are needed to execute those strategies.
Basically, we will help you to plan for long term ICT expenditure and ongoing financial planning.
What do you have to lose?
By simply having a chat with us, it could be nothing but it could be EVERYTHING, so contact our team today – they would love to speak with you.