Frequently Asked Questions

All maintained schools in England are eligible for the free consultancy support. This includes:

• Special Education Needs schools
• Voluntary Aided or Voluntary Controlled schools
• Nurseries (If you are self-managed, with your own budget)
• Foundation schools
• Academies

Essentially, any school in the state sector with a URN or DCSF number is eligible. Unfortunately the DCSF funding does not extend to non-maintained schools, or those that do not manage their own delegated budgets. Those that are not eligible are:

• Independent schools
• Pupil Referral Units with no delegated budget

We are able to provide the service to these schools, but the costs of this needs to be covered from the schools' own budgets.

Complete the booking form at: www.consultancyforschools.co.uk

You'll need either your postcode, school URN or DCSF number (the full one including the local authority code) to make the booking.

You will also be asked to provide three preferred dates for your visit.

We don't charge schools for this service - our costs are covered by the DCSF. The funding covers one day of consultancy support to an individual school or to a group workshop. Further support is available, however, the costs will need to be covered from your own budget. We aim to provide enough support in one day that schools shouldn't need any extra help to take forward their plan. If you would like to proceed with this please contact us at schools@tribalavail.co.uk .

Yes a bursar can initiate this process, and in some cases it may be the bursar that the Avail consultant works with to address VfM areas. Avail does ask that the headteacher is aware of the booking, reviews the questionnaire, and is briefed by the consultant at the end of the visit if they are not included in the day’s activities.

The consultant will phone the school to discuss its requirements and areas of interest for the visit. A short agenda for the day’s visit will be also agreed. The consultant will spend one day with the school team, exploring the issues which have been identified as most significant. This process will identify immediate actions for the school to address. Finally, the consultant will feed back to the school by providing a written report of the discussions from the consultancy day and further advice will be given to the school on where to find high quality sources of longer term support. It is worth nothing that the use of the consultancy and the results of the day are completely confidential. The sole purpose is to provide support and advice to the school.

We have grouped our value for money initiatives into 6 focus areas:

• Wider school workforce
• Leadership
• Collaboration and Partnership
• Strategic Management
• Challenge and Governance
• Procurement Performance

In order to get the most from the consultancy support, we would aim to focus the discussions during our visit on the two issues of most interest to the school. We expect to spend around two hours with key staff on each topic.

This will really depend on the size of your school and the key issues that are identified. In smaller schools it may just be with the Headteacher and may not need the entire day. Larger schools may be a mixture of Headteacher, Deputy, Bursar or School Business/Finance Manager. You may also want to involve your SMT or Chair of Governors. We only ask that the Headteacher is aware of the visit and the consultant meets with the Headteacher at the end of the day to go though what was discussed.

"Many, many thanks for your support and advice today. Your thoughtful questions and insight have given us a number of key issues to think about and been incredibly helpful. An outside perspective is so reinvigorating!!!"

"I am correct in thinking this consultation is free of charge? It seems too good to be true!!"

The programme is provided and managed by Avail, one of the UK’s leading providers of consultancy services to the public sector. Avail’s consultants are education specialists (many of whom have experience of school leadership) and are distributed across the country so they are familiar with local contexts. Whether a school requires advice on leadership, improving procurement or strategic management, the consultant will tailor the day to the school’s needs.

Our consultants have a draft agenda for the day, running from approximately 9:30am-3:30pm but are more than happy to tailor this to meet your schools needs. You can finalise this when the consultant contacts you to discuss the details of the visit.

Yes, if you login to our site www.consultancyforschools.co.uk using your email address and password, you will be able to see the contact details of your assigned consultant along with a brief pen portrait of their experience.

A password for our site will be sent to your email address. Our assigned consultant will call to discuss the plan for the day and who it is best that they meet with. They may also request some additional information to help them in their preparation.

After the consultancy day, you will be provided with a post-visit feedback form which provides you with a report of the day’s discussions and future recommendations.

If you have heard about this programme from one of our Avail consultants and would like to request them for your visit, enter their name in Section C of the booking form.

We understand that situations can change so if you can no longer make the agreed date please contact us as soon as possible at schools@tribalavail.co.uk. We will notify the consultant and suggest that you both negotiate another suitable date.

There are a three key things that are important in preparing.

• You must make yourself available for a phone call with the consultant prior to the visit – the consultant will want to discuss your needs and drill down into the topics you have chosen. This will enable the consultant to prepare properly for the visit.
• Check the summary information and proposed agenda that the consultant will post on your school’s page so you are clear about the scope of the day.
• Think about who should attend which sessions (i.e. the Head Teacher, the School Business Manager, a senior teacher?) and invite them to the relevant sessions.

This offer is only for one day of free consultancy. If you would like to request additional day(s) from one of our Avail consultants then this will need to be paid for out of your own school budget. We hope that you get good value for money out of this day but if you do want to proceed with additional support we would be more than happy to help. Please contact us at schools@tribalavail.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.

You need to use the same email address as the one that you used when making the booking. For example if you are a headteacher trying to access the site and your bursar made the original booking then this will need to be used to log back in.

If you would like to change this please contact us at schools@tribalavail.co.uk and we can update our system.

Go to www.consultancyforschools.co.uk and select ‘Forgotten your password?’ Enter your email address and select Submit and your password will be sent to you.

Login to our site www.consultancyforschools.co.uk using your email address and password and at the bottom of the screen you will see Event Questionnaires. Click on the blue link to access the form that you require.

You'll need either your postcode, school URN or DCSF number (the full one including the local authority code) to make the booking. If none of these work please contact us at schools@tribalavail.co.uk.