Changes in ICT - Good news
 for the education sector?

Going back 15 years to the days of Tony Blair’s ‘education, education, education’ statement stressing his commitment to the sector, schools have experienced a budget increase of, on average, 3.5 per cent per annum. Coupled with this was the Government’s Curriculum Online eLearning credits scheme, established to support investment in multimedia resources. By 2010, school’s bursars were sitting in what could be described as a financially comfortable position. With the arrival of the coalition Government in 2010 came a series of immediate changes to ICT investment by schools.

Panic over cuts
For the first time in 15 years, schools were being hit with a cut rather than a budget increase, that caused a certain level of panic to set in. However, looking at this objectively, while BESA’s recent ‘Resources in English Maintained Schools’ research shows that 2011/12 has seen budget cuts of 1.8 per cent in primary education and a  2.7 per cent drop in secondary education, schools still have significant funds to spend, particularly when compared with budgets ten, five or even two years ago.    

For schools, it was the speed with which the cuts arrived and the fact that this was the first decrease in many years, that caused a level of budget panic to set in. Combined with this, many schools started to opt out of local authority control. Dylan Jones, managing director at BESA member itslearning, experienced the sector’s reaction: “Following the changes to the Government’s procurement policy, we experienced a large drop in orders from both local authorities (LA) and schools. I believe that local authorities simply have no money to invest. Taking Essex LA as an example, it had previously purchased an itslearning, learning platform for all its 400 schools. However, soon after the arrival of the coalition Government, the entire ICT team was made redundant and all central purchasing stopped. This has lost the economies of scale in purchasing and now probably only 50 per cent of the schools have access to a learning platform and have no guidance, nor support from the LA”.

Freedom at last
For the first time in history, school leaders, who were trained as teachers, have been given significant freedoms. They are now working as managers of a ‘business’ comparable in size to a large company and are conscious of not mismanaging their school’s budget, leaving nothing for unexpected costs later in the year.

Combined with all these changes, the delay in the Government’s National Curriculum Review until 2014 has again caused schools to hold back some funds for the new curriculum’s necessary support material. The result has been a significant change in school expenditure. It is interesting to note however that these changes have not always been in the form of a drop in expenditure.

Another BESA member, Phil Neal, managing director of Capita SIMS explains: “In our experience schools are still very keen to purchase ICT, particularly if they are spending money on tools that will help them manage their school more effectively or contribute to school improvement. We have noticed a strong trend in schools investing in products that will save them money. Our email and text communication tool is selling well as they reduce printing costs. The fact that pupil reports and communications to parents no longer need to be sent out in hard copy appeals to budget conscious school leaders. Other mainstay products, such as those for recording lesson-by-lesson registration, continued to be in demand.”

Geoff Jones, marketing director, ParentMail agrees; “Even during the tough times, we noticed an increase in the adoption of our parental communication systems. This is because for example, ParentMail should save an average school at least £2,000 every year (bigger schools even more) by cutting paper, photocopying, phone and post bills, not forgetting the staff time involved as well.”

Recent Upturn
By the time 2012 arrived, BESA’s quarterly survey of the school’s digital content industry in association with the Education Publishers Council (EPC) showed a return of market confidence as procurement across UK primary and secondary schools increased by 8.6 per cent in quarter one, compared to the same quarter in 2011.This analysis into school’s expenditure on digital learning resources gives us extensive insight into an increasing level of teacher confidence and of their recently re-structured budgets.

Schools are now realising that the level of funding for education resources is still good, and are starting to invest again. There is still a level of caution – obviously, as schools are now investing more wisely, which reflects the code of practice offered by our BESA member organisations; buy from trusted suppliers, who offer good value for money, which will ultimately have an impact on improving education standards.

Better Understanding
Dylan Jones, managing director, its learning adds: “Schools now seem to have a better understanding of funding, especially where they have already moved to academy status. The United Learning Trust and the United Church Schools Trust (ULT/UCST), a leading education charity which currently operates a family of 11 independent schools across the UK, make great use of both centralised purchasing and economies of scale.”

Ian Curtis, Head of Northern Europe at Promethean concurs: “We certainly saw reduced spending patterns on ICT in education in the UK over the past 18 months. However, the first months of 2012 have seen an upturn and many providers, including Promethean, are cautiously optimistic for the rest of this year. One reason for this optimism has been the positive impact of improved usability of classroom technologies in their adoption and use.”

BESA’s research findings are not only good news for our education sector, but for the nation as a whole. In these times of massive change, ICT and digital learning content have become the new currency for learning; children need to learn in a way that will prepare them for the world they are going to live and work in. To avoid a digital divide developing, schools across the country now realise that the Government’s removal of ring fenced funding for technology was simply its message that technology should now be embedded across the curriculum and that schools now have the freedom to buy what is needed for their specific learning needs. The removal of ring fenced funding was not a missive to stop investing in technology.

Pupil Premium
The pupil premium, which was introduced to improve social mobility in education, has also driven increased money in some schools, although this should of course be limited to expenditure on supporting children eligible for free school meals, who may also have additional learning support requirements.

Phil Neal of Capita SIMS Capita adds: “There has been a significant shift from schools buying what they have been advised to purchase, to what they feel will add real value in their school. This means the technology gets embedded into the fabric of the school from the start and the benefits are reaped quickly.”

So in these changing times, what advice can be given to schools? I will start by summarising BESA’s views. Schools must continue to invest in learning support. Our 21st century students are motivated by technology. It is also going to be an inevitable part of their future life and career.

Schools who are keeping back some budget for the new curriculum announcements in 2014 should remember that to date, every prouncement made by Rt Hon Michael Gove has been based on the foundations of ‘freedom’ for schools to do what they see is best for their individual students. It is therefore highly unlikely that the curriculum review will introduce any highly prescriptive changes.

Phil Neal, Capita offers schools his advice; “Check what you already have within your existing systems before purchasing anything new. You may just need additional training on existing software to achieve what you need to.”

Geoff Jones, ParentMail adds some words of warning: “In the current climate make sure you carry out sufficient ‘due diligence’ when selecting a supplier so you can be confident they will be there and will be able to support systems in the future.”   

Ian Curtis, Promethean continues: “Schools should always source technology from authorised suppliers. An on-going relationship with a properly trained supplier is vital for initial installation and, most crucially, future support. Regardless of strained budgets, it is essential not to make sacrifices when choosing a suitably qualified provider. I see no benefit to schools in delaying upgrades to existing classroom technologies. Advances in technology development will continue to accelerate into the future and many technology solutions can be future-proofed, ensuring they will provide many years of service.”

Trusted Brands
Rachel Jones, head of education at Steljes adds another consideration to this advice: “Procuring from brands that schools trust and who offer a good level of support with warranties is vital. It is so tempting to go down the cheaper route, but in our experience is that schools are becoming increasingly astute investors. Schools may also want to re look at procurement through leasing, which is not the ogre we originally thought it was, especially when it includes upgrades, training and a warranty; it can be a financially viable way of upgrading six classes rather than just three!”

So the future certainly looks bright. Both the Government and we at BESA stress the importance of schools continuing to invest in learning support, but spending wisely, and this is certainly what we are once again starting to see.

Further information
www.besa.org.uk