Ed Dorrell’s recent article draws attention to the harsh reality that the education spending pot has shrunk and that however we divide the money - overall education will be the loser.

The decision to re-allocate according to regional needs seems on the surface to be the morally right thing to do - as long as those who have been the losers hitherto, places like coastal regions, are truly on a par with their richer counterparts in London.

This is only one way, however, that we should be considering our deployment of resources. There are a number of ways in which we can compensate for the deficit. 

When I was studying for my professional qualification at the change from personnel to human resources management it was acknowledged that people were the ones to give an organisation the cutting edge over its competitors. 

The ways in which organisations use the collective expertise at their fingertips makes all the difference and it is important to inspire and reward initiative, effort and overall contribution.

Avoid false economy

“Efficiency savings” in the shape of teacher redundancies are a false economy. The biggest resource education has is the one that stands up at the front of the classroom, day after day and puts in one of the highest amounts of unpaid overtime in the country. 

Deployed sensitively and correctly to do the job to which its unique skills are attuned, this human resource can make a huge difference to individuals. Just think how much life coaches are paid - and they only cater for single, privileged clients. Teachers offer a finely-tuned service to address a range of needs and abilities.

Textbooks are expensive and quickly obsolete as specifications change on average every five years - sooner where a school is dissatisfied with the service provided by exam boards. They take lead-in time to produce and are not flexible outside a specific specification.

The materials teachers produce are differentiated and sequenced, some have been sold on-line, videos on YouTube can also be nice little earners. Some teachers are excellent entrepreneurs. 

The trouble is that under the two Michaels human resources have been squandered. The purpose of this article is not to go over yet again all the idiocies of deep marking, excessive data collection and micromanagement of planning. We all know that these practices have alienated teachers, stolen too many hours and the net losers have been the pupils.

Re-balance the workload

However, we live in a different climate. The Department for Education (DfE) has strengthened its advice and is researching into ways of retaining new teachers in particular. The presence of the secretary of state at the latest meeting (6 March 2017) is an indication that teachers can be listened to.   

Inspection is more committed to transparency and increasingly looking at how organisations utilise teachers’ time. Schools are appointing individuals with a particular responsibility for workload issues and being held to account for addressing these. But no single individual alone can do that - it is our collective budget. 

What schools can do is look again at the teacher’s remit: cut the bureaucracy by asking if certain tasks need to be done, adopt a “less is more” approach to data collection and marking; and cut over-surveillance on lesson planning to the mutual benefit of manager and classroom practitioner. 

These measures outlined in the Workload Reports will make it easier for teachers to manage burgeoning class sizes in the secondary sector. Making their work more meaningful, manageable and motivating could retain them in the classroom.

Evaluate and re-allocate funding and time

HR professionals know that differentials in the pay scales are important. Are salaries fairly distributed within the hierarchy and differentials evenly spaced so that the gap between each level is fair?

Where this is not the case, especially right at the top, this might be the time to re-allocate or make austerity savings. 

Or perhaps even more should be demanded of those individuals in charge of trusts to make a more obvious impact on the quality of the education service under their control. Education budgets contain public money; and the public feel strongly about equitable distribution and value for money.

For a variety of reasons schools bring in outsiders, ranging from consultants to supply teachers. Pupils need teachers in front of them. Supply teachers do an excellent job; their flexibility should be highly prized. 

But supply agencies are quite expensive. They perform a valuable role in identifying individuals to fill gaps at a moment’s notice - but would schools also be better contracting supply teachers directly and having a supply list to the mutual benefit of teacher and school budget?

How much should schools use consultants and how carefully do they negotiate a rate? 

School improvement consultants can make a significant difference, if deployed for more strategic matters and using their wider knowledge of education practice that may be more up to date than the institution’s. But is this the time to re-evaluate their services? 

Subject associations often provide more cost-effective, inspiring fare. The best example was the National Association for the Teaching English’s Saturday conference for just £50 on post-16 education in November. 

Build up human resourcefulness from within

Where schools encourage collaboration greater internal individual expertise is built up. The trust I work for is setting up its own college of teacher consultants. The benefit is twofold - at least! 

Firstly it builds up and strengthens expertise within the trust on a more constant and consistent level than one-off training days. 

Secondly it gives ambitious teachers who want to develop subject expertise a role to which they can aspire.

Involvement with university PGCE departments develops mentoring skills and enhances pedagogical knowledge and practice. This costs time for the mentor but the benefits are widely spread within the school and across schools that subsequently employ the new teacher. 

More could be made of these benefits through meetings of mentors within trusts to share good practice.

Reduced budgets deprive the most disadvantaged pupils and no one would argue that cuts are anything but damaging.

We will be increasingly dependent on our human resources. Now is the time to make sure we resource, deploy and develop them most effectively.

Yvonne Williams is a head of English in the South of England. The views expressed here are her own

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