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Diocese of Ely Service Level Agreements
Frequently Asked Questions
Service Level Agreement (pdf)
(a) All Schools
Question: Why are you introducing these Service Level Agreements?
We wish to protect and continue to develop the services we offer to our schools. We also want to be more transparent with schools about exactly what we do provide and what you can expect from us. We wish to avoid being overly prescriptive or to avoid a very complex menu of charges for individual services. It is our hope that all church schools will wish to subscribe to our services via these Service Level Agreements rather than opt for a pay-as-you-go approach but understand some may prefer this option.
Question: Isn’t a lot of this free at present? Why can’t it continue to be free?
Nothing is free and we have resisted subscription charges to schools for longer than most dioceses of the Church of England. Some VA Buildings Services are already charged for. Recent legislation has created new responsibilities and opportunities for schools service providers to support their schools. We are determined to develop school improvement by developing rather than contracting the services we offer, but must do so on a realistic and financially sound basis.
Question: Are you the first diocese to do this?
By no means. A substantial number of diocese have operated similar agreements for some time and more are introducing them in response to current circumstances.
Question: How are the Services you deliver currently funded?
We have been fortunately blessed with significant investment income. In addition we received charitable donations. However, it costs more to run the Schools Service for our 82 schools than our income and we have been using our reserves for some time. This in turn depresses future income. Large annual deficits cannot continue and the Service Level Agreements are one part of a strategy to close the gap.
Question: Will you improve the current level of service?
We are committed to continuing improvement. For example, in 2005 we launched one of the best church school websites in the Church of England for which we have received widespread appreciation. In 2006 we made internal reorganizations to increase our overall support capacity to schools without increasing our overall staffing costs. By moving to a Service Level Agreement our income will increase as the number of subscribing schools increases. This in turn will help to make possible further improvements to our service level and capacity.
Question: What will happen to the money the Service Level Agreements Generates?
100% of it will be used to support or develop the Schools Service we provide.
Question: Why is there a Band B in the Basic Service Level Agreement?
We think there are some schools – not church schools – that may wish to receive some of the services we are able to offer or which may in some ways wish to ‘affiliate’ to the values and ethos of the work we do. The 2006 Education & Inspections Act also paves the way for schools which are not church schools, to affiliate to a Trust which can offer services for school improvement and ethos. In time, we wish to make this possibility available to community and foundation schools in our diocese and the creation of a Service Level Agreement for such schools is a timely beginning.
Question: How are we expected to pay for these services
We are constantly reminded of the financial pressures on schools in our region and have priced our Service Level Agreements as keenly as we can. For example, the Basic Service Level Agreement could cost less than £1 per pupil in a larger school. The Basic Agreement will generally cost less than £3 per pupil per year. The SLA for the VA Buildings Service will in many cases cost less than the extra income VA schools gain by investing their Devolved Formula Capital through the diocesan scheme.
Question: Do they represent value for money? How did you determine the charges?
The charges have not been randomly chosen! Comparisons have been made with charges made by Local Authorities and other dioceses for similar services. We believe our charges, even on a pay-as-you-go basis are competitive and the Service Level Agreement subscriptions represent outstanding value for money. We will continue to subsidise the service through investment income and to seek to increase trust income in order to further support school improvement.
Question: How long will a subscription last and when must we decide?
We wish to introduce the scheme at the beginning of April. A school can join at any time, but the fee will be the same as for a whole year. Since this is the first year of the scheme and Governing Bodies may wish time to consider subscribing, charges for schools which decide not to subscribe will not be levied until after the half –term (i.e. early June 2007).
Question: What remains free as part of the "core service"?
Dioceses have core legal responsibilities for their schools and these will continue to be available free on demand. It is hard to provide an exhaustive list but advice and support on statutory and school organisation matters (including Admissions in VA schools) falls into this category. The administration of foundation governor appointments and the support of a Bishop’s School Visitor will also continue to be free (although schools which do not subscribe cannot be guaranteed a Visitor). We will also continue to support schools through the recruitment process for headteachers and deputy headteachers and provide the resources on the website free of charge. Diocesan officers attend a wide variety of local and national bodies at which they represent the interests of church schools in the diocese and influence policy.
(b) VA Schools (Buildings)
Question: Why is there a change to the Buildings Service Level Agreement for VA Schools?
1. Property Management Service
The Buildings Service is complex. Most VA schools now subscribe to the Property Management Service that, until September 2006, was run in-house. We wished to maximize continuity by entering into a Partnering Agreement with Cath Conlon Property Management, which now acts with Peter Smith Associates as our delivery agents for this discrete service. The Property Management Service is accessed through a direct subscription and this has been held at current rates.
2. Devolved Formula Capital
Capital projects are funded on a different basis. Devolved Formula Capital – to cover smaller projects and ICT capital projects – is now fully delegated and we have created a system for its administration and accountability to the DfES which also lets schools benefit from the higher interest rates we can secure. It is also now possible, by ‘pooling’ these allocations for some schools to spend three years worth of DFC before the third year’s allocation has been released by the DfES. To make this possible we need to remain as ‘banker’ for all or nearly all of the VA schools.
3. Project Management
For all capital projects, ‘project management’ continues to be available via ourselves – delivered ‘in-house’ or through the Partnering Agreement. The cost for this is borne via a small proportion of the professional fee element funded within the total project budget. It is therefore NOT an extra charge to schools.
4. Cashflow and Administration
However, the cost of bearing the cashflow of a project is substantial. There is a time lapse between paying contractors and receiving all the various contributions from the different funding bodies that are contributing. In some projects there may be several contributing funding bodies. Also, there are sometimes costs that cannot be recouped as well as routine administration and accountancy costs. We do not believe it realistic to expect any individual VA school’s Governing Body to bear such costs and responsibility unsupported. Although it is often temporary, the capital required can be very substantial and way beyond the means of a Governing Body. A GB is also forbidden to use its delegated budget for this purpose. The diocesan Schools Fund Capital is able to support this burden – but only if it is freed from bearing the day-to-day running and staff costs of running the Building Service. The Buildings Service deficits must be addressed if we are to continue to be able to bear the cashflow of future capital projects in VA schools.
5. New Schools; New Challenges
Much of the accumulated capital which generates income for the Schools Fund and Schools Service has been derived from the sale of proceeds of church schools which have now been closed. The period of wholesale rural primary schools closures is now happily over in our region and we face the opposite challenge of creating new schools to serve the most rapidly growing population in England. We wish to seize opportunities for new church schools to be built where they arise and must preserve sufficient capital to enable this.
6. Capital help for Building Projects
Finally, the less investment income we spend on the day-to-day running of the Buildings Service, the greater will be our chances of providing capital advances or, in some cases, grants to support VA Governing Bodies with their obligation to find 10% of capital building costs. We wish to move to a situation in which a greater proportion of Schools Fund capital investment income can be used to help support projects that may otherwise not be possible due to a shortfall in available funding.