A Different Approach to Cost Cutting

Like it or not, schools are going to need to cut coats significantly to make ends meet of the next few years.

I was recently reading a business book called Cut Costs, Grow Stronger which offers an interesting perspective on how this delicate task can be approached in schools.

It explains that many businesses take the view that an across the board cut is fairer, but that this ends up damaging more critical areas that need the extra cash.

Rather it argues for a capability based approach where you try to establish what your key capabilities are that give you a ‘right to win’. Resource those, then work out what the bare minimum is for non key capabilities.

This is trickier in education since government and Ofsted explicitly encourage you to be a jack of all trades, but it’s a useful exercise and may just help get a bit of clarity in this difficult area.

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