Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 February 2018 to Question 128697, what additional advice or service the Department considers that schools’ existing school business professional may be able to provide in their role as a school efficiency adviser that they have not already provided in the course of their existing employment.

During the pilot being operated in this academic year, the funding for payments for School Efficiency Advisers (SEAs) comes from within the Department’s existing budget and has been allocated by the Department for this purpose.

SEAs are helping to share effective practice by extending the expertise they have already shown in their existing employment across the sector.

All the SEAs recruited to date are Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) Fellows that have applied in response to ISBL advertising the opportunity to its Fellows. The criteria for selection are having skills in school financial management and passing an accreditation process, demonstrating their ability to provide tailored advice to schools. The Department is still in the process of SEA recruitment and continue to receive expressions of interest for the role in the pilot phase.

The Department is currently carrying out the accreditation panels for the potential SEAs in the pilot phase. Of those who have been accredited as SEAs so far, 19 per cent are currently self-employed; and 81 per cent are employed as a school business professional.