MY APPROACH

The Way I Work

The Effervesce approach to Education-centred Strategic Financial Planning (ESFP) places pupils at the heart.

This method is for those who are passionate about delivering the best possible education from a limited pot of money.

It is for those who want to build financial plans that resource the education journey rather than frustrate it. My approach leads towards educational success and financial viability.

The approach leads towards educational success and financial viability and is a variation on a theme of integrated curriculum and financial planning, but with more heart.

A simple seven-step approach

I have been supporting schools with Education-Centred Strategic Financial Planning for many years now, developing a simple seven-step approach for senior leaders. We have worked with the DfE on their guidance for Integrated Curriculum and Financial Planning, with our resources now available on their website.

You can download a copy of our seven-step guide here.

CORE OFFER

Resource the Plan

The core of our school finance offer is the Resource the Plan day.  It is designed for the educational leader who wants to be sure that their financial strategy will resource their educational dream.  It is for the leader who wants to tame the uncertainty, manage the risks, shift the balance or simply build rock solid business foundations.  It is for the CEO in a MAT that is growing or where the current balance between central and local is not quite right.  It is for the team where curriculum and finance leaders just don’t quite speak the same language.

The day has a clear and standard framework, because you are busy, your time is precious, and you need certainty over the timings and structure.  But the content will be totally unique to your organisation because context should never be ignored.

At the end of just one day, you will have a fresh insight into the three or four simple steps that will make the most difference.

WORKSHOP DAY

What to expect

Before the day

  • A phone call to clarify your objectives, any time constraints you need to work around and who needs to be involved

  • You share any existing documentation and data that you think would be helpful for me to understand your vision and your reality

  • I collate some Effervesce resources and information I think could be useful

On the day

  • I need to start my day with you, the senior executive, the Head, CEO, Principal, whatever the title, I need to start with the boss

  • Some structured and individual conversations with key people, as well as some time in a group

  • I then need some time to reflect and pull my ideas and suggestions together into three simple steps

  • At the end of the day, we reconvene, just the two of us or the whole executive team, for feedback and discussion

What else

  • Venue? It will come to you. It won’t work on zoom.

  • Written report? I would rather not, it takes me ages, costs you a lot more, and yet the key nuggets were shared on the day, ready for you to act on whilst it is fresh in your mind.

  • Will I try to sell you more consultancy? My personal preference is for a team to develop strength from within, with a careful sprinkling of external support, challenge and expertise. My recommendations will not include buying me in as a consultant. But we might, as we work together, find that there is more to do. If so, we can follow that up afterwards. We might stay in touch, but this day is intended to provide a stimulus, a nudge, a refocus, a spotlight, a mirror.