When there are government cuts in the market in which you operate, there is always the temptation to look for an alternative market.

This time around in the expansion/cut cycle there seems to be only one market that looks as if it might remain buoyant, and that is schools.   Not, I hasten to emphasise, universities, which appear to have suffered very heavy cuts, but schools.

To show what I mean about schools I am copying in at the foot of this piece an article that my office sent to school heads and deputy heads who subscribe to the school equivalent of this newsletter.  It gives the basics on what happened to school budgets in the Chancellor’s recent statement.

But the question is, is it really viable to move from selling to consumers and business, over to selling to schools?

The answer is undoubtedly yes, and we have helped many companies do this – but it has to be done with care and understanding.

The problem with selling to schools is that all of us have been to school, and have memories of schools.  But in the last 15 years schools have been utterly transformed, their budgets have increased 50%, and they have become much more sophisticated in their purchasing.  So our memories of how schools work may not only be misleading because they are the memories from the point of view of a teenager, but also because schools have changed greatly in recent years.

But the simple fact is that they do, of course, buy carpets, computers, office equipment, signs, telephones, filing cabinets, books, pens, CCTV equipment, software, services to make sure the water system does not have legionnaires disease and the walls don’t contain asbestos, and everything else you might think of.

However they have their own language, and their own way of doing business.

If you are interested in contemplating this market, I’m always very happy to talk.  You might like to have a look also at www.educationmarketing.org.uk and you might like to subscribe to our education news service (just email education-marketing-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)

Here’s the article that schools received from HHM after the chancellor’s statement…

Schools in England are to get a real-terms increase in funding, as a result of the funding review.  The funding until next April has already been fixed of course, and the government has made it clear that unspent money will be clawed back from schools where, on occasion in the past, schools have been given the benefit of the doubt over money held back.

But leaving that single issue aside, the schools budget will rise from £35bn to £39bn for the next four years while universities in England will face a 40% cut to their teaching budgets and colleges a 25% cut.

Educational Maintenance Allowances – paid to encourage 16-to-18 year-olds to stay in education – are being scrapped.

The teaching budget for England’s universities will fall from £7.1bn to £4.2bn per year, and the cuts will fall largely on the humanities because the government had already promised to protect science, technology and maths.

Other Department for Education cuts include areas such as youth services, early years, teenage pregnancy services and drugs awareness services allowing the DfE to save 3% in real terms by 2014-15.  As expected the abolition of the Building Schools for the Future programme has been confirmed, although officials at the Department are saying the government will rebuild or refurbish over 600 schools from the BSF and Academies programme.

The Sure Start scheme, which provides centres and services to families of young children, will continue and will be protected “in cash terms”.

Funds given to councils for schools will continue to be ring-fenced and this “relative protection” will be passed on to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Chancellor also announced there would be “personalised budgets” for “special educational needs” although details were not given.  He also announced a big increase in apprenticeships – a rise of 50% on previous government’s target, creating 75,000 new apprenticeships a year by the end of the review period, he said.

The cuts to further education include the axing of the “Train to Gain” programme, under which at least a million employees have received training to develop their workplace skills.

Adult learners aged over 25 who have never passed a GCSE or equivalent will no longer be able to study for these qualifications free of charge, and students aged 24 and over studying for A-level equivalents will also have to pay fees.

Tony Attwood

01536 399 013