School Admin News

 The Secretary of State for Education has announced a new Masters qualification: the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL), and further steps to strengthen Diplomas and raise school standards.

Now I’ve no problem with that – except that the group of people who really deserve the option to take further courses and qualifications are school administrators.   At the moment, while teachers have a whole raft of qualifications available to them, there is but one major programme for admin staff – the National Certificate in Educational Administration.  

Plans are afoot to launch a diploma course which follows on from the Cert Ed Admin, but it is some way from completion.

While administrators have just their one course, the secretary of state has recently launched.

• new Extended Diplomas to enrich options for young people and make the new qualifications even stronger;

• an extension of the National Leaders of Education scheme, where strong Heads help other schools, from 120 today to 500 in the next five years;

• a new Transition to Teaching programme backed by top businesses which could recruit hundreds of extra teachers a year with valuable science, technology and engineering experience gained from industry.

• A new Masters qualification specially designed for teachers – the Masters in Teaching and Learning which will roll out the programme mainly to teachers in the first five years of their careers to build on their initial teacher training and induction.

• More experienced teachers will be trained and act as in-school coaches to teachers on the programme.

What is even more of a slap in the face is the fact that the administrators QCA recognised programme is not automatically funded by the TDA, whereas the new courses will be.

The Cert Ed Admin course, which is validated by the Institute of Administrative Management and recognised by the Council for Administration, focusses to a large degree on efficiency in schools, and is indeed the only course that brings the notion of efficiency into education.   There’s details on www.admin.org.uk

The SEA which runs the course for administrators is planning to protest to the government about the way administrators are ignored each time such announcements are made.

The Guardian this week carried a story about a simple but brilliant piece of hospital research.  The researchers wanted to know if an incredibly simple modification to what people in hospitals do when working with intravenous drips could cut infection rates.

Please don’t give up on me at this point – there is a real educational issue here – and this is not about some complex medical procedure.  All the researchers instituted was a tick list.  The research set out to prove whether there were less infections when the medical team had a tick list covering all the basics - such as wash your hands, put on the gloves, and so on.

The result of the research was amazing – in a period of 18 months the level of infections dropped by 75%, 1500 people lived who (by the results being obtained before) would have died, and over £100 million was saved in terms of further medical intervention.

All from a simple tick list reminding people to do the obvious.

Now in schools we don’t deal with saving people’s lives, but we do have to deal with public (or in the case of private schools) parents’ money.  Just imagine what impacts we could all make through such tiny changes as this.  

There is just one problem.  While, in the medical sphere, there is a tradition going back hundreds of years of experiment and  research on the job, this is not the case in schools.  Of course I can’t talk about your school, and I’ll be delighted to receive your comments telling me I am wrong, but my experience in general is that very few teachers, administrators and managers actually do any research in schools at all.   The only exception I know about are those people working on M Phils and PhD degrees.

Maybe its because “research” sounds too grand.  But as the tick box story (which is quite real – page 16 Guardian, Feb 23) shows simple ideas can be tried out to see what effect they have as long as the results are measured.  My personal view is that we could all make a huge difference to school administration if we just said to ourselves – I wonder if things would work better if we did this….  Let’s try it for a week, and measure the result.

If you ever do feel moved to try this – or indeed if you have done so – I’ll be delighted to write up the details so that everyone can benefit.

 Slowly, very slowly, the concept of efficiency is creeping into education.   Three years ago a new course for school administrators (the Certificate in Educational Administration) was launched, which focussed very much on efficiency in the school office.   Then the government set up the Financial Management in Schools programme, and the Value for Money Unit.

Back in the world of administration, the School of Educational Administration launched a service through which administrators can write in and ask questions about anything to do with educational administration.

And now they are speaking of the great success they are having with Use the Key.

The project is run by the TDA, and the aim is this – if you have a question and you don’t know how to get the answer, you search The Key’s site for answers to all the previous questions people have asked, and if the answer is not there, you email the project and one of their ten researchers will send you back the answer.

According to a report in the Guardian the sort of questions coming up are  “How can I engage hard-to-reach parents?”, “Can I use Wi-Fi in my school safely?”, and “How can I raise achievement in boys’ writing?”.   You can’t ask legal questions, but anything else educational is ok.

Apparently all questions are answered within 72 hours and the service is thought to be saving users 5 hours a week.

An independent report shows that school leaders believe the service is saving them on average five hours per question asked.

To access the Key you need to be a senior manager in a school in England.  You can log on at http://www.usethekey.org.uk/createMember

For school administrators the SEA’s service takes the form of a weekly newsletter, with subscribers able to email in questions (email ad.admin@schools.co.uk with the word Subscribe in the subject line).  This service is open to all schools in the UK.

The value for money unit is at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/valueformoney/ 

Details of the Certificate in Educational Administration can be accessed from www.admin.org.uk

The topic of VAT and schools was debated recently by the School Administrators’ News group, and during this it became clear that on the issue of selling products and services on to parents there were a lot of alternative views on what was correct procedure.  Some schools seem to ignore the issue, some said parents were charged VAT, and some said there were special exclusions.

I have been looking into this and my understanding is below.   Now I don’t suggest you take my word for it, but if you do feel there is a contradiction here between that which you do and my notes below, you might like to get a local authority ruling, just to be on the safe side.

My comments only apply to schools which either themselves or via their local authority are registered for VAT.

In EU legislation, the sale by an educational institution of goods and services closely related to education that is being supplied (i.e. taught for payment) is exempt from VAT. Thus the VAT treatment of the goods mirrors the VAT treatment of the education. The policy has been to provide comparable treatment for any goods sold in local authority schools that are closely related to a subject being taught to pupils in those schools. The sale of these goods is a non-business activity, mirroring the treatment of the education, provided there is no intention to make any profit from the sale proceeds. Otherwise, the goods are subject to VAT.

Let me emphasise that last part – if the sale of the goods results in the school making something for its school funds, then VAT must be charged.  Now if the goods are zero rated, such as books, there is no VAT.  But almost all other items would be charged at 17.5%.  
To prevent VAT from falling as a burden on local taxation authorities can benefit from refunds of the VAT incurred on their non-business activities. In England and Wales this is done under section 33 of the VAT Act 1994. For Departments of the government in Northern Ireland recovery would be by section 99.

As I looked further into the situation I came up with these areas where according to local authorities problems can arise.

 

School Trips

 Where the trip is part of the curriculum all income and expenditure must go through official funds. Full VAT recovery is available on all admission fees etc (e.g. theatre tickets and Alton Towers) provided that the school holds a valid VAT receipt. Coach travel is zero-rated so there is no VAT to recover but this should still be accounted for through official funds. School UniformIf schools receive a commission from a retailer then this has to be treated as official income and is subject to VAT.  There will be no loss of income to schools. An invoice needs to be raised by the school for the amount agreed with VAT added. The supplier will not lose out, as they will be able to recover the VAT charged. Freely given donations, not based on sales, should be processed through official funds but treated as outside the scope of VAT. Those schools that purchase items of uniform direct from the manufacturer or supplier and sell them on to pupils should process all income and expenditure through official school funds. These transactions will generally be zero-rated so the VAT implications are negligible even if the items are sold at a profit.  Schools may only process uniform transactions through unofficial funds if there is absolutely no involvement from staff. This would mean that only volunteers or representatives of the PTA collect money, collate orders and distribute the uniform. School Plays and Performances

This is the problematic area – and local agreements seem to be in force.  But be careful – local agreements with Customs can fall apart!

Primary Schools

In Primary Schools, typically there are Christmas and end of year performances. Tickets are usually limited to parents and relatives and cost a couple of pounds. Ticket money should be processed through official funds and can be treated as outside the scope of VAT. This is on the basis the plays are all part of the children’s learning experience and further to the course of their education.

If schools do not make a charge for tickets but merely seek donations at the end of the play this money can be treated as a true donation and is thus treated as outside the scope of VAT. This money should still be processed through official funds.

Secondary Schools

In Secondary Schools, performances tend to be on a larger scale and they are generally outside of school hours. Typically there will be some significant amounts of expenditure incurred in putting on the performances. Income and expenditure should be processed through official funds with VAT recovery available on expenditure but also VAT has to be declared on ticket sales. Only if the performance is totally promoted by the PTA or other fund raising body can funds raised be processed through unofficial funds. If that is the case then all expenditure must be processed through unofficial funds and no VAT recovery is available. Schools should be aware that they might need to register their unofficial funds for VAT purposes if they exercise this practice. 

Sports Lettings

There appears to be a misconception that the VAT liability of a letting is dependent on whether it is an adult let or a junior let. This is not the case, and the whole issue centres on how many lets are involved.  Under 10 lets and it will almost certainly be taxable. 

General Room Hire

The hire of a classroom or multi purpose hall with no equipment is exempt from VAT. If there is a separately identifiable charge for the use of equipment then this element becomes taxable e.g. projectors or computer equipment. 

Before and After School Clubs

If the room is let to a private operator then the charge is exempt from VAT. If the school itself runs the club then the income can be treated as being non-business and thus outside the scope of VAT. Income should be processed through official funds. Full VAT recovery is available on all expenditure.

Sale of Tea TowelsThis is typically in Primary Schools where the children design tea towels with all their names on them. All income should be processed through official funds. VAT recovery is available on the purchase from the supplier but VAT does not need to be declared on the income from their sale as it is deemed incidental to the provision of education. Car Mileage ClaimsSchools can currently reclaim a small amount of VAT back in respect of the petrol element of car mileage claims. However, due to a change in UK legislation, with effect from 1 April 2006, in order to continue to be able to reclaim VAT, a VAT receipt must support all mileage claims. VAT receipts are readily available from petrol stations on request. I hope that might help – but I do appreciate this is a very confusing area.

 Tony Attwood

  

The aim of the School of Educational Administration is to respond to the needs, wishes and interests of school administrators throughout the UK.   Sometimes we ask school administrators what they feel, but other times we understand their feelings by their actions.

One such case arose in January 2008 when Samantha Bates, the Director of Admissions for the SEA brought me the details of the number of students who had applied for a place on the National Certificate in Educational Administration course starting in January.

We did not have a problem – we were certainly able to accommodate everyone on the course – but we realised that with the number of applicants rising every term, there was every chance that with the next intake we would have to turn people away.

 We had started with one intake a year.  Then we went to an intake each term.  And now we are moving across to five intakes a year – with a priviso of a sixth if the level of applications rises even further.

The closing date for the National Certificate course’s next intake is January 28, with further intakes closing on March 10, May 6, June 23 and September 26. There are full details of the course on our main web site www.admin.org.uk

We also hope to increase the starting dates for our other courses, and details will be released shortly.

Tony Attwood C.Ed., B.A., M.Phil, F.Inst.A.M. FRSA

Director, School of Educational Administration