The Department for Education has unveiled a new strategy to help schools cut spending in areas such as photocopying, insurance and water bills.

News of the department’s new School Resource Management Strategy came as education secretary Damian Hinds failed to offer schools hope of new funding in an exclusive Tes interview.

The department said that better procurement and government-approved deals on energy bills had helped schools to save £106 million in 2016-17.

How schools ‘can cut costs’

It said a nationwide network of 41 government-backed schools resource management advisers had already helped schools make savings, including:

• £200,000 for one school by reviewing contracts for utilities and maintenance costs;
• £55,000 in an academy trust that aligned the timings of the school day in all of its schools;
• Identifying £40,000 of unused equipment in one school, which they have recommended selling;
• £52,000 for a school by advising it close a serviced head office and move staff to an existing school site.
• 68 schools in the south-west of England set to save a combined £254,000 by finding a water supplier in one round of procurement, rather than individually;
• Shoeburyness High School, in Southend, which saved £31,000 by switching to a better printing and photocopying deal.
• 20 schools in Croydon saved £40,000 by bringing data collection in-house, rather than each school individually outsourcing services to a supplier.
   

Asked by Tes about the financial squeeze on schools and the government’s upcoming comprehensive spending review, Mr Hinds failed to give schools any hope that they will see a funding boost.

Instead, he highlighted the DfE’s cost-cutting advice.

He said: “We always want to finds ways of helping and doing what at a Department for Education level it is possible to do, and an example of that is the school resource management approach.

“Some costs have come down in schools - for example, partly to do with change, partly to do with some purchasing deals.

“We want more schools to be able to avail themselves of those better deals on insurance, for example. Some schools have been able to save money there.

“We have seen some pretty substantial savings on things like printing costs and so on.

“We will be announcing very shortly some new deals on software and books and so on.”

You can read the full exclusive interview with education secretary Damian Hinds in tomorrow’s Tes magazine, available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here