At The First Federation in Devon, four primary schools have formed a hard federation in order to improve standards across the board. This allows them to cut costs across the board, by making savings on staffing, procurement, service level agreements, and contracts. Business Manager Carol Chapman has an acute attention to detail, scrutinising every contract as it comes in and querying every quote that she is given across the Federation. She finds that, by renegotiating existing contracts, she was able to make her workload easier by working with fewer contractors, and save money in the process. Carol also highlights the benefits of teamwork in the Federation: she works closely with a team of administrators who are based in each school, and through them the running of each primary can be assured while making sure that the shared values of the Federation are applied to every classroom.

Video Series: Save Money
Release Date 2010