pre-opening resource · registered charity no. 1132122 | company registration no. 6953650...
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Registered Charity No. 1132122 |
Company Registration No. 6953650
Pre-Opening
Resource Project management in pre-opening March 2020
1
Introduction
When you are approved to open a school, you will need to ensure that your group is able to
effectively control the many different activities which will need to be undertaken before the school
is ready to open.
You should ensure that you have a clear plan for how you will project manage the opening of your
school, who will be responsible for delivery of the school, and how your group will ensure they are
properly accountable. The approach you take towards project management is important, and can
affect how quickly you progress through pre-opening, or indeed whether your school successfully
opens at all.
What does a project manager do?
A project manager is responsible for the successful delivery of your project: an open school, in a fit-
for-purpose site, with a full complement of staff, a full complement of pupils, a curriculum to teach
and the equipment and resources needed to teach it.
Your project manager will work to a project plan, be aware of the various actions and activities
which need to happen, be aware of who will undertake these actions, and by when. The project
manager will be responsible for co-ordinating activity, ensuring it happens, and ensuring that any
unforeseen events which affect your project plan are mitigated and worked around. The project
manager will also be responsible for monitoring the budget used during pre-opening, and ensuring
that this budget is kept to.
The project manager will also liaise with the various stakeholders your group will need to engage
with during pre-opening, including your DfE External Expert, your FSC contact, the local authority,
and any planning consultants, architects, building contractors, and others.
Your project manager will also have to keep your project steering group, and/or your trust board,
up to date about how the school is progressing through pre-opening, whether there are any risks to
the school opening successfully on schedule, and what they are doing to mitigate those risks.
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Ways of structuring project management
There are various structures which are commonly used to oversee project management.
Some trusts or project steering groups will second an employee to act as an internal project
manager (such as the principal designate of the school, or a senior leader in another open school in
the trust who is seconded), whilst also employing an external project manager in a consultant
capacity.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Trust board
Project steering
group
Project steering
group
Internal PM
(PD or seconded SLT)
External PM
(consultant/contractor/
fixed-term employee) Exis
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Internal PM
(PD or member of
steering group)
External PM
(consultant/contractor/
fixed-term employee)
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As is demonstrated above, many groups nominate an internal person to take on some of the project
management. It is unlikely that this person will have expertise across all of the aspects of pre-
opening – for instance, if you are seconding a member of another school’s SLT, they may have
expertise in curriculum design, and in developing the first terms’ lesson plans, and schemes of work,
but may have less experience in dealing with architects and building contractors. Because (once
you’ve secured a site) you will have a project development grant of £220,000-£300,000 (depending
on the size and phase of the school), you will have some funds which can be spent on external
project management, and allow you to fill any gaps in capacity or expertise which you may have.
If your group is a new single academy trust opening its first school, you won’t have any existing
members of staff to second, and may not yet have recruited or identified your principal designate.
In this instance, you may decide that your project lead will act as the internal project manager
themselves. However, you should then identify a separate person to chair the project steering
group and hold them to account – for instance, your chair of governors-designate. If your project
lead is also likely to become the chair of governors, then you should identify someone else to act as
the internal project manager.
Pre-opening activities
The activities which your project manager will co-ordinate will generally fall into those relating to
the administration of staff, governor and pupil recruitment, marketing, community engagement,
site acquisition, site build/renovation, planning permission co-ordination and preparation,
curriculum design, pre-open budget management, procurement of services, and Ofsted
preparation. If you plan to have more than one person helping with project management tasks,
your project manager may also be responsible for line management.
Your project manager will also have to ensure that the flow of work over time is manageable, and
that there are not periods where there is a surfeit of activity with too little capacity, and periods
where there is little activity. This will require intelligent project management and an ability to
recognise how much time is realistically likely to be required for different tasks.
4
Example project plan (for illustration only)
There will also be regular scheduled meetings with various stakeholders in the DfE, the FSC, and
with the contractors chosen to manage the design and build of the school.
There are some activities which will have to take place before you recruit a project manager, and
you should decide who is best placed in your project steering group to take ownership of these, and
which of these will be passed on to the project manager once they have been recruited. These
include deciding on a budget for the project development grant (which will include spend on
external project management support), school policies (which may be requested by the DfE quite
early in pre-opening), developing a scheme of delegation between your project manager and the
project steering group (which may inform any tenders you draw up for external project
management services), and an initial project plan.
If this is the first free school your group has delivered, you may wish to commission external advice
to help you understand the costs involved in pre-opening. If your budget is unrealistic, you may find
that you’re unable to use your pre-opening grant as effectively as you’d like. Choosing a project
manager who understands the market rates for various services you’ll need to procure, and is able
to effectively manage a budget, will help.
5
Example PDG budget plan (for illustration only)
Choosing a project manager The choice of who you ask to project manage the opening of your school is an important one. Whilst
you will have designed a robust structure to ensure that your project steering team are able to hold
the project manager to account, and set them clear objectives, you will still have to delegate a
significant amount of responsibility to them, because it is impractical to project manage ‘by
committee’.
Because of the wide range of activities, the project manager will be co-ordinating, you will not
necessarily find an individual with deep expertise in all of them (a site and buildings specialist is
unlikely to have an education background, and vice versa). You should therefore aim for a project
manager who shares the central vision of your school and trust, and who is able to be organised and
self-motivated.
You will also need to consider the budget you have available for external project management, and
whether you would prefer to engage your project manager as a contractor, on a consultancy basis,
or as an employee. You should also consider how you find your project manager, and whether you
hold a recruitment process in the same way that you would for an employee, or whether you
publish a tender for project management and invite potential project managers to compete to
deliver the tender.
6
When you are approved to open a school, you will need to ensure that your group is able to
effectively control the many different activities which will need to be undertaken before the school
is ready to open.
You should ensure that you have a clear plan for how you will project manage the opening of your
school, who will be responsible for delivery of the school, and how your group will ensure they are
properly accountable. The approach you take towards project management is important, and can
affect how quickly you progress through pre-opening, or indeed whether your school successfully
opens at all.
NSN Project Management Partnership Service
Based on our vast experience, and developed with the DfE’s Pre-Opening Guidance in mind, the
NSN Project Management Partnership is for groups planning to outsource some or all of the project
management of their free school in pre-opening.
Split into two phases, the NSN Project Management Partnership takes into account the volume,
complexity and timing of tasks in different phases of pre-opening. With additional bolt-on services
available to buy, the NSN Project Management Partnership is the most bespoke service offered as
part of the NSN Delivery Programme.
NSN Project Managers and Associates have worked on over 500 free school projects – ranging from
supporting groups in the pre-opening phase to setting up and working in free schools.
Want to find out more about the NSN Delivery Programme? Contact the Delivery team at
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Support for schools in pre-opening NSN has supported free school groups in pre-opening since 2014. NSN’s unrivalled knowledge and
experience has been informed by our work with over 70% of open and approved free school groups
throughout the application and pre-opening phases. The NSN Delivery Programme has been meticulously designed to address the challenges of the
rigorous pre-opening process. Whilst proposer groups may have a wealth of skills and expertise, the
NSN Delivery Programme will fill gaps in capacity and/or capability, providing a range of support
options to prepare schools for a successful opening. Our exclusive packages of advice, support and project management have been developed to comply
with Department for Education (DfE), and Free Schools Capital (FSC) guidance and focuses on the
areas that our experience shows will provide free schools with the most value in pre-opening.
NSN Delivery Programme
Foundation Advisory Service All approved projects have access to our core advisory service, which is free of charge. This
foundational offer includes:
An invitation to our annual launch event, delivered in partnership with the DfE
A telephone and email service
Key pre-opening resources
Invitations to our Spotlight events at open free schools
An invitation to our events focusing on the final stages of pre-opening
Site Advisory Service
Relevant to both sequential and concurrent groups, the NSN Site Advisory Service helps groups to
navigate the complex process of securing a site and suitable free school building. Developed to
complement the support provided by LocatED and FSC, the service includes:
A named NSN Project Manager
Access to NSN Site Associates
Comprehensive and exclusive guidance resources about free school capital projects
In-depth support meetings with NSN Project Managers and Site Associates
Detailed feedback from support meetings
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Essentials Advisory Service
Developed to support the project management and delivery of the non-site related challenges you
will tackle in pre-opening, the NSN Essentials Advisory Service focuses on areas such as pupil
recruitment and admissions, the section 10 consultation, finance, governance, education planning
and staffing. The NSN Essentials Advisory Service provides:
A named NSN Project Manager
Access to a range of NSN Associates
Bespoke and exclusive networking opportunities with existing free schools
In-depth meetings with NSN Project Managers and Associates
Detailed feedback from support meetings
Comprehensive and exclusive suite of guidance resources about all aspects of pre-opening
Spokesperson training for principal designates
Project Management Partnership Service Based on our vast experience, and developed with the DfE’s Pre-Opening Guidance in mind, the
NSN Project Management Partnership is for groups planning to outsource some or all of the project
management of their free school in pre-opening.
Split into two phases, the NSN Project Management Partnership takes into account the volume,
complexity and timing of tasks in different phases of pre-opening. With additional bolt-on services
available to buy, the NSN Project Management Partnership is the most bespoke service offered as
part of the NSN Delivery Programme.
Find out more at [email protected] or visit our website.