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Benefits

Benefits for participants

The diploma is designed to develop knowledge and understanding to enable participants to explore and develop their own management and leadership capabilities, enhancing their professional skills in order to raise the quality of their school's output. The DSBM aims to provide participants with:

• the opportunity to enhance management and leadership capacity in schools
• a framework for you to acquire the knowledge, skill and experience to understand and contribute to the organisational effectiveness of schools
• the opportunity to debate and contribute to the development of the profession in managing the interface between school resource management and teaching and learning
• a programme structure that enables you to tailor the learning to suit your individual needs and development
• a foundation for future advanced professional development
• the opportunity to engage in reflective debate and practice. One medium in which this is undertaken is through our online communities, which are located within an environment called talk2learn. Find out more about our online communities and watch an introduction to the benefits of talk2learn

On successful completion of the DSBM, the participant will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of the complex and dynamic school environment within which senior managers or leaders work
• articulate the strategic significance of recent and continuing government reforms for site-based management
• identify and evaluate emerging trends in institutional management
• demonstrate self-management skills and the ability to work with others to develop an appropriate process for managing change
• assist in the delivery of the school's mission
• demonstrate an understanding of the issue of quality management as a central feature of educational improvement
• demonstrate an understanding of strategic management
• develop an understanding of professionalism in relation to change, strategic management and school improvement

Recent evaluations on the perceptions of bursars who have taken undertaken the DSBM show that on average their understanding has improved as follows:

DSBM element	Bursar's understanding is better (or very much better)
Strategic management	92.3%
School improvement	92.3%
Change management	88.5%

For further details on the benefits to participants please download a copy of our Impact and evaluation report 2007 (1.6mb, 47 pages). Warning: large document.

Benefits for schools

Following the recent and ongoing independent evaluation study on the impact and effectiveness the course is making so far, some interesting statistics are starting to surface giving cause for further debate.

• 93% reported at or above the midpoint (84.6% at or above point 2) that DSBM had had an impact on their personal confidence
• 88% reported a far improved understanding in schools
• 92% reported a positive impact on their personal satisfaction in their role
• 93% reported an improvement in their ability to operate as a leader

It is also evident that the role of the school business manager has developed significantly from a traditional role which was essentially 'administrative' to one that involves leadership to a much greater degree.

Data from the findings of the reports suggests the amount of time bursars have estimated they spend on Leadership, Management and Administration pre- and post-CSBM qualification

	Post-CSBM	Post-DSBM
Leadership	19%	30%
Management	30%	37%
Administration	48%	32%

Data also suggests that SBMs are now making significant savings and bringing in new money:

Money	Average per pupil
Secondary mean saving, £7,000	£7.80
Primary mean saving £3,951	£14.68
Secondary new money £44,450	£49.55
Primary new money £16,097	£59.84

Furthermore, on completion of the course, SBMs are reporting having an increased impact in schools in the three key areas:

CSBM element	Bursars perceived impact in schools (at or above midpoint of the scale)
Strategic management	72.7%
School improvement	63.6%
Change management	72.7%

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