About the Service

DCSF is offering personalised and independent support directly to schools through its Consultancy for Schools programme. Our education experts help schools to tackle Value for Money challenges across strategic management, workforce, procurement, collaboration, governance and leadership. The choice is yours.

  • Delivering a wide range of benefits
  • You have the choice of the type of support you receive
  • Our experienced consultants understand the challenges schools face
  • Discuss issues that cut across all aspects of school management
  • A user-friendly process that fits around your busy schedule

Delivering a wide range of benefits

Over 1,000 schools have taken advantage of their entitlement to date, enjoying benefits such as:

  • identifying issues underlying current problems, and finding creative ways to solve the them;
  • working with a former school leader to develop an action plan for change;
  • developing strategies to improve resource planning and prioritisation;
  • identifying opportunities for improving school purchasing and making savings; and
  • increasing staff ownership and engagement in managing the school’s resources.

You have the choice of the type of support you receive

  • A one day visit to your school – one of our education experts will work with your school on two VfM themes nominated by the school. We encourage schools to have more than one participant in the day (e.g. Head, Business Manager, Senior Team, or Chair of Governors).
  • A workshop with a group of schools – if you are part of a group of schools that would prefer to share knowledge and make the most of benchmarking in order to improve, we can organise a tailored workshop. This will include a scoping day in advance to ensure that the workshop will meet your needs.
  • Accessing tools online – we have a range of practical tools that you can access online. You can use them with the support of our consultants during a workshop or visit. Alternatively, you can access them directly online, and each tool has instructions on how and when to use it.
  • Additional procurement support to identify potential savings – if you choose procurement as one of the VfM themes for a visit, there may be an opportunity to request additional research into an area of spend (e.g. reprographics, supply staff). Talk to your consultant before your visit, to make sure this is discussed.

Our experienced consultants understand the challenges schools face

We have over 80 education specialists located across England, offering a unique combination of skills and knowledge to schools.

  • Highly experienced school leaders
    • Our consultants are former school leaders so they understand the challenges facing school leaders today; they spend time getting to know your school’s context and tailoring the support to your needs
  • Local knowledge
    • Consultants are located across the whole country – so you will deal with a consultant who understands your local context
  • Consultancy expertise
    • Our consultants have all worked with schools in an advisory capacity, providing guidance and working collaboratively to achieve sustainable and meaningful change
  • This is what schools have to say about our consultants:
    • "The consultant - a fellow headteacher - had real understanding of the day-to-day challenges faced by schools and had a multitude of solutions to hand."
    • "Cleverly unpicked the issues for us and we've already taken some action! Consultant was incredible; really clear, thorough and gave us a different outlook on the issues. Came along at the right time and was very helpful"
    • "It was great to have a consultant with such a vast amount of relevant experience. He offered impartial advice and very practical suggestions. Well worth it!"
    • "I found it really useful to have the consultancy with an experienced headteacher who understands the difficulties encountered by a small school and the demands of headship."
    • "The consultant was extremely well prepared and understood the context of the school very well. Her questions were pertinent and probing and have given us much 'food for thought'".

Discuss issues that cut across all aspects of school management

Our support is focused around these six Value for Money themes – you select two of them to cover during the visit or workshop:

  • Wider school workforce – how schools plan and manage their staffing
  • Strategic management – how schools approach financial and resource management, including linking the two with school improvement
  • Collaboration and partnership – how schools work together, and with other organisations, to improve outcomes together
  • Leadership – how much time and experience school leaders have to focus on delivering value for money
  • Challenge and Governance – the role of the Governing Body in supporting delivery of value for money
  • Procurement performance – how schools approach procurement

A user-friendly process that fits around your busy schedule

To register for the programme, and to request a visit or workshop, press the "Register Now" button on the left side of your screen. This also enables you to access our tools and resources.

When you register for the support we ask you to identify which of our six themes you are interested in and to provide us with a quick summary of what you are hoping to achieve.

Visit process flow

If you have asked for a visit, the consultant who will be working with you will call to talk through your needs and objectives. It is really important in preparing for the visit, that you make time for the phone call with the consultant prior to the visit. It will take about 30 minutes. This is key to the consultant being able to tailor the visit to your needs and ensuring that you get the most out of the day.

If you have asked for a workshop, the programme team and our consultant will contact you to set up a scoping day with you and the other schools who wish to participate, agree dates, timing and a location for the workshop. The consultant will then work with you during the scoping day to identify key issue and challenges facing all of the schools and to agree an outline agenda for the workshop with all of the schools that will be attending.

On the day, of the visit or workshop the consultant will explore the agreed issues. This might involve reviewing plans and other documents, discussing challenges with relevant members of staff, and identifying immediate actions that the schools could undertake to address their issues. The consultant will introduce you to useful tools that can assist you to take practical steps in improving your VFM.

After a visit, the consultant will develop a report that records the discussions, the advice they provided, and where to get further relevant support.

At the conclusion of the workshop, the consultants will identify and capture priorities for action, and provide information and further resources that all of the participating schools can take away with them