According to The Guardian, schools have faced serious budget cuts forcing them to make teachers redundant, cut subjects from the curriculum, and spend less on books and equipment.
More than 80% of teachers surveyed by the Guardian Teacher Network said their school has made cutbacks or is planning to, says The Guardian.
READ MORE (source: The Guardian)
As headteachers are struggling to cope with funding cuts, per-pupil funding not rising in line with inflation, reduced supply staff budgets, and increased workloads, they are at the same time facing several extra costs: for example, higher contributions to national insurance and teachers’ pensions and the apprenticeship levy.
READ MORE (source: National Education Union)
Understanding the energy markets can be time-consuming, and it’s often difficult to know exactly what the best deal is, or in which areas you can save the most money. in. Schools have tight budgets to stick to and procuring energy at rates to match that is a tricky business. At ESS, we can tender for the most competitive prices to ensure that you never overpay for your energy. This will save you time, benefit your bank balance, and allow you to invest more in other important resources.
We offer our clients in the education sector a range of utility management services. These stretch from historical bill validation and cost analysis, to sustainable energy use and waste disposal cost management. We not only focus on saving you money in the future but investigate how you may have been overcharged in the past and work to fully recover these costs. We continuously monitor the energy markets and renew your contracts as early as possible to optimise savings and take full advantage of market trends. We provide a complete utilities management service to meet all your energy, water and waste needs.
At ESS, we have assisted over 60 schools and colleges in both the public and private sector, and have supported a number of education-specific trade shows, including ISBA and academy events.
We work with a range of education institutions, from small state primary schools to large independent secondary schools, many with more than one site. Often with extended campuses, schools can present particular problems in terms of the variety of supplies and the physical disposition of water and waste refuse services.
We help you target specific areas of your energy and waste management, providing detailed easily-accessible reports online that you can access through our customer zone, or even by conducting face-to-face training for your staff members. We help you develop behavioural change across your school to achieve cost reductions, which is paramount given tight budgets across the education sector.
We recognise that bursars and business managers have many calls on their time, and that energy and waste management costs may not be a priority. We are a reliable partner overseeing these important areas of the budget, freeing up your time for more urgent matters.
All aspects of energy cost management and purchasing are administered by ESS, from auditing the supplier invoices to negotiating our energy and waste refuse contracts. ESS is on hand to assist with all aspects of energy, water and waste management and have consistently produced valuable cost savings for the school.
Oliver Whitman, Site Manager, Broadwater School
I have been absolutely delighted with the service provided to the school by ESS. They have done a super job in the negotiations and ultimately the reduction in costs for waste refuse. ESS proactively brought the issues to our attention and then proceeded to market test and negotiate with potential suppliers, ensuring that we got best value for money.
Nicholas Winther, Bursar and Clerk to the Governors, Dover College
ESS provide a valuable service on our energy and waste disposal costs across all of our sites. It is important that we engage the right partner to manage and procure these contracts and we are very pleased with the results ESS achieve for us.
Stuart Ingrey, Estates Manager, Brook Learning Trust
We have been delighted with the service provided by ESS, who have managed our energy procurement in a professional and timely manner. They have also restructured our waste refuse operation, providing sizable savings. ESS successfully Implemented a smart metering service, which has helped the school to better understand and therefore reduce its energy consumption. We are pleased that ESS are partnering the school to reduce our utility costs.
Jay Barnes, Head of Estates & Facilities, Lingfield College
As a School with a roll in excess of 1,900 pupils on two large sites, it is important to us that all costs are regularly reviewed to ensure competitiveness and value for money. The expertise of ESS has identified financial savings on our energy invoices in areas that fall outside the scope of our local authority tendering process, as well as identifying and eliminating financial losses on our main water supply. We are delighted with the results they have achieved to date.
Kimberley Brown, Finance and Facilities Manager, Hall Cross Academy