Another view on the spending review

What might the public sector cuts mean for education technology sales?

Curtis: Increased scrutiny into public spending is on the cards

The long-awaited announcement of the Comprehensive Spending Review has put an end to uncertainty and, to the surprise of many, seen the government outline plan to largely protect spending in compulsory education at the expense of deeper cuts elsewhere in the public budget.

So what does this mean for resellers that work with educational institutions?

Education only cut by one per cent
The education budget will be cut by just one per cent over the four years covered by the spending review, and schools will actually see a rise in their budgets of 0.1 per cent each year up to 2015, taking funding up to £39 billion. Much of the required saving has come from the previously announced cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future programme and education quangos such as Becta.

While the budget saw the government commit £15.8bn of capital funding to a ongoing programme of school construction, modernisation and refurbishment, this will represent a 60 per cent decline in capital expenditure on education during the period of review.

The cuts in the government-sponsored BSF programme may have come as an initial shock to those providers and resellers whose focus and main installations came from the scheme. However, in real terms, at least 700 schools are still undergoing construction. So the providers who have already committed to implementing their technology will still see this investment
bear fruit in the future.

The demise of BSF also means that any schools that have ringfenced money for the sometimes inevitable building and ICT improvements may now see an increase on the money that they actually have to spend on updating and enhancing the technology they provide to their students. What is more, without the long decision process involved in BSF, this may mean quicker decisions and sales for resellers in the short term.

Managing and maintaining relationships
The abolition of Becta and the inevitable reduction in ICT advice available to schools from their local authorities is likely to see them turn to other sources of advice as they make investment decisions on ICT. Therefore, managing and maintaining relationships with schools will be critical for resellers and solution providers, as will ensuring that as a provider you have the flexibility to loan and demo equipment.

Schools will be looking for genuine consultancy advice on which solutions will be best for their needs and specific school requirements. This differs little from what we are seeing in other areas of ICT provision.

It's also important that providers and resellers continue to invest in their relationships with the organisations I believe will inevitably emerge to fill the gaps left following the cuts by Becta and the local authorities.

For schools looking to make best use out of their current provision, resellers will need complete understanding of the additional solutions available to enable schools to maximise use of their existing equipment, such as handheld devices and visualisers.

It will clearly take some time for the dust to settle, but it should not be long before we see a return of confidence to schools that have been deferring buying decisions pending the review.

I believe there will certainly be significantly increased scrutiny into all public spending over the years ahead. This will require resellers to be absolutely specific about the returns that schools will see from any investments. It is also important, of course, that manufacturers produce effective solutions and can show the teaching and learning value that technology brings.

Ian Curtis is head of UK and Ireland at interactive learning technology manufacturer Promethean