1. The New Market Place for Schools, Colleges and Services
Claire Dorer – CEO NASS

2. In today’s session Have we got a ‘market’?
Where are there new opportunities to schools and colleges?
How can we capitalise on these? Where are the threats?

3. What’s all this talk about ‘markets’?

4. Change in language From: Talk about schools, colleges and services
Thinking in terms of school places and sufficiency
To:
Talk about ‘providers’
Thinking in terms of ‘shaping’ and ‘stimulating’ the market

5. How does one ‘stimulate a market’?!

6. Change in focus in how SEND services are purchased by some LAs
Move away from ‘spot purchasing’ of individual placements according to need
Move away from local authorities being the main providers of services
Move away from placements being determined by LA SEND officers and towards commissioners/procurement officers playing greatest role
Move towards procurement focus, i.e. how the service is bought
Move towards tenders and frameworks and ‘market forces’ approach?

7. Are the market forces strong within the SI Sector?

8. Imperfect Markets
A relatively small number of schools and colleges nationally
A poor geographical spread across the country
Resulting in little choice for families and LAs – not easy to ‘shop around’
Highly regulated sector
Not quick for new schools to be created
Very constrained LA budgets

9. Possible responses a) Create lots of new SI schools and colleges
b) Create lots of new resourced units
c) Develop SI expertise in existing specialist and mainstream provision to meet demand/need – either as in-house or outreach
d) Tightly control existing schools and colleges through fees and contracts
e) Keep fingers crossed that things will just sort themselves out

10. Opportunities for SI schools, colleges and services

11. You should be in best position to:
Hold expertise – particularly in more ‘niche’ areas such as SI and autism or mental health
Develop new knowledge about ‘what works’
Sponsor academies
Set up or sponsor free schools
Link to multi-academy trusts
Run resourced units

12. But be aware of …
Need to keep moving – what’s ‘cutting edge’ today quickly becomes routine practice
Competition – where there is opportunity others will respond to it
Not being modest about what you do – promotion and marketing have increasingly important roles
In many cases, it means immersing yourself in the culture of commissioning and procurement – possibly not what you went into teaching for!

13. Competing in tenders
Only bid if the opportunity is right for you, not out of fear of what might happen if you don’t
Look for open frameworks that give you the choice of joining mid way through – watch and wait if needed
Don’t bid if you know the opportunity won’t cover costs – if you say you can provide at a given cost for the life of a framework, that’s what you are signing up to
Allow lots of time – there’s always lots of paperwork
Try to get in early with LAs when they are planning frameworks – schools can often shape them

14. But above all …
Relationships matter!

15. Keeping in touch
Read anything you can find about placing authorities and schools that you might work with – student numbers and profiles, JSNA, what parents say on Twitter and other forums
Go to them with suggestions of things you think they might need rather than just asking them what they need
If you want them to visit, put on an event that might be useful to entice them in e.g. training session, discussion of relevant research
Retain the human element – it’s usually the main difference between good and bad experiences