How to Transition to a New School Business Manager

As the school business professional role has evolved significantly over the past decade, so has the need to ensure that schools are equipped with confident, competent professionals able to manage role’s various demands. But what happens if an SBM is suddenly absent for a long period of time, or if they decide to leave unexpectedly? Will your school be able to step in and carry on?

Here, I’ll explain what existing SBMs themselves can do to ensure their school is able carry on as normal, should they not be around to take care of its various business operations.

Three steps

There are three things all SBMs can and should do to minimise the impact of a protracted absence:

1. Identify a team member for succession planning

2. Prepare a detailed manual outlining the role and how to do specific tasks

3. Create a handover checklist summarising key regular tasks

The first of these should be standard practice in all schools. Headteachers will already have put some form of succession planning in place concerning themselves, so that the school community can be confident in knowing that there are sufficiently competent senior leaders ready take the reins should the need arise. But how many schools have similar arrangements in place with respect to their business management teams?

Take time to help your team member(s) understand the role of the SBM and get them fully trained. You might be able to access the apprenticeship levy to fund a Level 4 Diploma in School Business Management qualification, which will give them a greater understanding of what your role involves.

As an SBM, it’s down to you to ensure that the school’s detailed manual is kept current and up to date, so that your team members can carry out some of the more complex tasks you do by following a series of instructions.

The manual can then help form the basis of a handover checklist, which should list all the tasks needing to be undertaken annually, termly, monthly, weekly and daily, along with basic instructions on how to do the tasks in question. Keeping the checklist electronically will let you add hyperlinks that lead through to the relevant area of the manual for more detailed information.

The checklist should be kept in a central area, with your team and the headteacher made aware of where it is and how to access it.

Task management

So, where do you start? You need to think about what tasks you do, how often you do them and how those tasks are done. You might want to start by grabbing a piece of paper and creating an evolving mind map. Set yourself a deadline for completing the mind map and then spend a little time each day working on it.

As you complete a task, jot it down on the map. There will be some tasks that you conduct infrequently and might therefore be forgotten about at first. Keeping your developing mind map close to hand will allow you to add to it as and when those forgotten tasks are remembered.

Once the mind map is complete, you can then decide how you want to set out your handover checklist. The simplest way is to create a document that sets out the tasks that need to be done annually, termly, monthly, weekly and daily. Within each of those timeframes you can then place tasks in categories, such as ‘finance’, ‘HR’ and so on. If a task is especially complex and will require a more detailed explanation, hyperlink the entry to a separate document that clearly lays out the instructions.

Of course, your handover checklist is only ever going to be useful if it’s reasonably concise, clearly presented and regularly updated. Make sure the approach you’ve opted for is something that others can understand and follow, and that the information it contains is fully up-to-date. Be sure to check it regularly and ensure that the instructions it contains are still relevant.

You should also think about which tasks will require the entering of a unique password. Are you willing to share your password with other staff members? Could you perhaps tell one colleague where the password is kept, should it be needed? If a task will require entering a main password that grants access to school’s web-based information system, look into creating a separate or generic login so that your password security isn’t put at risk.

As the leader of your school’s administrative and site support services, you might decide that a support services instruction manual would be useful to have. You could create a handover checklist document for each of the roles that you lead on, and then combine them all into one comprehensive document. That way, if anyone’s absent their colleagues can pick up their tasks quickly and easily, and demonstrate just how efficient the school’s support team is.

Caroline Collins is head of school business strategy and resources at Miles Coverdale Primary School