The right tool to guide you
Barnett Waddingham and ISBA's sophisticated yet simple tool allows school business teams and governors to analyse business performance in comparison to an absolute standard and with other similar schools.
"Bursars and others with responsibility for school finances can often feel they can’t get the analysis needed from existing paper reports. They can be forced to ‘read between the lines’ and make their own estimates."
Our Data Navigator dashboard provides you with the answers you need to the questions which are asked.
The tool is presented to each school as an individual, online, and interactive dashboard, refreshed annually. It is structured with two distinct levels to ensure that all schools can benefit with access at a point that suits their needs.
The core dashboard
Available free to all participating schools (or £250 annually for non-participating schools). It includes the features below:
Built-in benchmarks
Against similar schools (stages, pupil ages, boarding, region, and more) for relevant comparisons and context.
Summaries of education and finances
With details across marketing, income and expenditure considering both operational and capital activities, supporting all levels of strategy and decision making.
Self-service
Allowing immediate ad-hoc comparisons, deep-dives into the data, and future planning without requiring additional consulting projects.
Comprehensive metrics
Reflecting the varied challenges schools face, with rich summaries and ready-to-use tables and charts for effective communications.
Benchmarks are compiled from surveys across the ISBA membership and presented with a strict regard and a concern for the commercial sensitivity of the information. The surveys are designed to be easy to complete from readily available information, primarily a subset of the ISC Census data for context with HR and accounting data for details.
Enhanced dashboard
Provides additional data and detail to support governors and executive teams in their decisions around capital and other large or long-term projects. It will be priced around £1,250 annually, with a discount in the first year (final pricing to be confirmed), and will include the features detailed below:
Additional
external data
Integrated into the dashboard, including changing demographics in catchment area for improved future planning.
Detailed
benchmarks
Allowing more control over the selection of schools for comparison, including by location, regional affluence and more, giving extra confidence to investment cases.
Alerts with standard and configurable triggers
For metrics that are out of benchmark or out of budget.
Ability to update
school data at any time
Providing confidence in ongoing delivery against targets.
Integrated planning
and risk management
Including impact of policy decisions and external changes, including pupil numbers, fees, changes in salary, pensions, or benefits and more.
Additional
external data
Integrated into the dashboard, including changing demographics in catchment area for improved future planning.
Detailed
benchmarks
Allowing more control over the selection of schools for comparison, including by location, regional affluence and more, giving extra confidence to investment cases.
Alerts with standard and configurable triggers
For metrics that are out of benchmark or out of budget.
Ability to update
school data at any time
Providing confidence in ongoing delivery against targets.
Integrated planning
and risk management
Including impact of policy decisions and external changes, including pupil numbers, fees, changes in salary, pensions, or benefits and more.
The dashboard covers these key performance indicators:
Present operating considerations
- SoFA surplus
- Net and gross fees and income
- Income breakdown by fees, investments, educational, and other
- Concessions
- Total expenditure and breakdown by staff, running costs, capex, marketing, and borrowing
- Borrowing and reserve levels
- Staff across teachers, teaching support, and non-teaching staff
- Cost per teacher and other staff
- Pupil / teacher ratios
- Capacity fill
- Pupils per year, gender, and boarding
Long term indicators
- Capex this year and next four years
- Capex breakdown by buildings, IT, fixtures, and vehicles
- Pension enrolments in TPS and equivalents
The dashboard lets you select your
own benchmark group across:
- National vs your region
- Urban vs rural locations
- Boys / girls / mixed schools
- Boarding vs non-boarding schools
- Affluence of local area
- Number of pupils
- Distance from your school
Our experts
Want to learn more about how Data Navigator can help you? Contact our experts to request a demo.
Allan Engelhardt
Head of Management Decision Analytics
Martin Willis
Head of Independent Schools
BW Risk Portal
Data Navigator helps schools understand the challenges and opportunities facing them - our Risk Portal also supports schools in addressing these. All subscribers to the enhanced Data Navigator dashboard will get free premium access to the Risk Portal that offers access to time-saving content, documents, templates, guidance and training across a host of risk management topics.