The New Market Place for Schools, Colleges and Services Claire Dorer – CEO NASS

In today’s session Have we got a ‘market’? Where are there new opportunities to schools and colleges? How can we capitalise on these? Where are the threats?

What’s all this talk about ‘markets’?

Change in language From: Talk about schools, colleges and services Thinking in terms of school places and sufficiency To: Talk about ‘providers’ Thinking in terms of ‘shaping’ and ‘stimulating’ the market

How does one ‘stimulate a market’?!

Change in focus in how SEND services are purchased by some LAs Move away from ‘spot purchasing’ of individual placements according to need Move away from local authorities being the main providers of services Move away from placements being determined by LA SEND officers and towards commissioners/procurement officers playing greatest role Move towards procurement focus, i.e. how the service is bought Move towards tenders and frameworks and ‘market forces’ approach?

Are the market forces strong within the SI Sector?

Imperfect Markets A relatively small number of schools and colleges nationally A poor geographical spread across the country Resulting in little choice for families and LAs – not easy to ‘shop around’ Highly regulated sector Not quick for new schools to be created Very constrained LA budgets

Possible responses a) Create lots of new SI schools and colleges b) Create lots of new resourced units c) Develop SI expertise in existing specialist and mainstream provision to meet demand/need – either as in-house or outreach d) Tightly control existing schools and colleges through fees and contracts e) Keep fingers crossed that things will just sort themselves out

Opportunities for SI schools, colleges and services

You should be in best position to: Hold expertise – particularly in more ‘niche’ areas such as SI and autism or mental health Develop new knowledge about ‘what works’ Sponsor academies Set up or sponsor free schools Link to multi-academy trusts Run resourced units

But be aware of … Need to keep moving – what’s ‘cutting edge’ today quickly becomes routine practice Competition – where there is opportunity others will respond to it Not being modest about what you do – promotion and marketing have increasingly important roles In many cases, it means immersing yourself in the culture of commissioning and procurement – possibly not what you went into teaching for!

Competing in tenders Only bid if the opportunity is right for you, not out of fear of what might happen if you don’t Look for open frameworks that give you the choice of joining mid way through – watch and wait if needed Don’t bid if you know the opportunity won’t cover costs – if you say you can provide at a given cost for the life of a framework, that’s what you are signing up to Allow lots of time – there’s always lots of paperwork Try to get in early with LAs when they are planning frameworks – schools can often shape them

But above all … Relationships matter!

Keeping in touch Read anything you can find about placing authorities and schools that you might work with – student numbers and profiles, JSNA, what parents say on Twitter and other forums Go to them with suggestions of things you think they might need rather than just asking them what they need If you want them to visit, put on an event that might be useful to entice them in e.g. training session, discussion of relevant research Retain the human element – it’s usually the main difference between good and bad experiences