Support schools to maximise their resources and budgets

ESFA tender for organisations to supply, manage and accredit Schools Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs)

Over the course of the 2017/18 academic year, the Department for Education, through the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), has piloted using School Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs). We’ve run the pilot with support from the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL).

Since January, SRMAs have provided impartial, expert business advice to schools and academy trusts. This includes how to make best use of their revenue and capital resources to deliver educational outcomes and contribute to whole-school improvement.

ESFA prioritises those schools/trusts that will benefit the most from this support. SRMAs then work through their financial information to identify ways to improve how they deploy staff or make more effective use of non-staff resources.

SRMAs also consider whether the trust or school uses an integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) approach and how they carry this out.

So far, the results have been encouraging and SRMAs have been well received by the schools and trusts in the pilot who can see the real value of this service. Initial findings from the pilot suggest we need to increase the number of SRMAs to meet current and future demand.

We wish to expand this initiative and plan to recruit at least 160 SRMAs so we can roll this service out more widely. To do this, we will be tendering for:

(1) Multiple organisations to recruit and manage the supply of SRMAs where:

• we will accept bids from the school, local government and finance sectors
• successful bidders must be able to recruit a minimum of 10 SRMAs (no maximum)

You can read information about the opportunity to recruit and manage the supply of SRMAs. The closing date for bids is 17 September 2018.

(2) An organisation to develop and deliver induction and an accreditation process where:

• we will accept bids from the school, local government and finance sectors

You can read information about the opportunity to develop and deliver induction and an SRMA accreditation process. The closing date for bids is 28 August 2018.

These exciting opportunities are now live. If you are interested in bidding or want to find out more, please register on the Bravo e-procurement system now.

Published 18 July 2018 
Last updated 15 August 2018 + show all updates

1. 15 August 2018 Updated information and provided links to the tender notices.
2. 18 July 2018 First published.

Topics

• Running and managing a school

Guidance and regulation

1. Schools admissions
   • Guide
2. Schools admissions: applications from overseas children
   • Detailed guide
3. Complain about a school or childminder
   • Guide

News and communications

• 

  Press release – 18 July 2018

  Schools not ‘silver bullet’ to tackling childhood obesity

• 

  News story – 4 July 2018

  Skills boost for the North as maths school to open in Liverpool

• 

  News story – 12 June 2018

  Interim National Schools Commissioner appointed

Transparency

1. New school proposals
   • Transparency
   • 16 August 2018
2. Open academies and academy projects in development
   • Transparency
   • 16 August 2018
3. Common basic data set (CBDS): requests for change (RFC) 2018
   • Transparency
   • 16 August 2018