More than six in 10 schools will have to make savings and it’s the staffing budget that is expected to take the biggest hit. In addition, almost half (48 per cent) of school leaders are not confident that their school can cover their staffing costs over the next 12-24 months, according to figures in a recent report by The Key. 

Here are the six things to consider when reviewing your staffing expenditure:

1. Look at a five-year projection to future-proof decisions. Rising pupil numbers, proposed developments in the local area, trends in subject take-up and plans to join a multi-academy trust can all impact hugely on your staffing needs.
    
2. Streamline your senior leadership team (SLT). Benchmarking your SLT against similar schools can help you decide what is needed, and present you with options you may not have considered. For example, you could have a flexible SLT where middle leaders are involved in SLT meetings and decisions on an ad-hoc basis. This can contribute to staff members’ professional development, as they are being exposed to higher-level issues and decision-making.
    
3. Share staff with nearby schools. Where one school has more staff than it needs but another school locally has fewer, collaborating to “buy” and “sell” hours between you may help you both make efficient use of the resource. Secondary schools with sixth forms could also join a collegiate system to deliver A-levels, which can avoid duplication of teaching effort across a local area.
    
4. Consider how you are using supply teachers. If you are mostly employing supply teachers to cover staff absence, you should create an action plan to improve staff attendance and reduce this expenditure. First, review the reasons for staff absence and then create a series of objectives based on your findings. For example, if you have lots of stress-related absences you could audit staff workload to see where the most pressure is or perhaps dedicate an INSET day to staff wellbeing.
    
5. Some schools are considering making voluntary or compulsory redundancies to roles. On a purely financial basis, you should bear in mind that you will have to pay redundancy to staff who meet the criteria, and safeguard a teacher’s pay for three years if their post is revised or reduced. This may mean that savings are not immediate or are cancelled out entirely, so you should weigh up these costs when deciding whether this is something you want to do.
    
6. Flexible working should be considered more as an investment in retaining the right teachers in the correct roles. Retaining experienced, excellent staff who want to work flexibly and are a great fit for the school and their roles will nearly always be better than hiring a new staff member who is cheaper but may not be the best fit. While this is often viewed as a more expensive option, flexible working could aid staff retention and therefore save you money on recruitment later on. 

Beth Walton is a researcher at The Key