Estimate of IT staffing costs for schools?

[IanIsBaffledAgain]

Hi,

I work for a small independent school and want to make the case to the bursar for some more IT staff hours. The trouble is that I have no idea what, on average, schools are paying for IT provision, in particular staffing costs.

I appreciate that this may be a very difficult, even impossible, thing to calculate due to the many different ways in which schools manage their IT provision. But can we come up with an approximate range, expressed 'per pupil', for IT staffing costs in schools?

Thanks, Ian.

[localzuk]

Well, if I go by what we have here, we pay about £38 per pupil for IT support staff per year. However, we have a very much 'under control' IT system, with only day to day maintenance and bugs as an issue - nothing major.

If your systems are more problematic, then support costs will be higher.

For IT provision itself, we're in a stage of change having moved from a managed service to in house, and I'm currently bidding for around £170 per pupil in IT budget for replacement of equipment.

So, all in (not including internet connection or printing), about £210 for IT provision per pupil per year.

[Pete10141748]

I currently work as ICT/Network Manager and support around 1200 pupils and 150 staff, on a term-time only salary of £20k (before tax).

So that works out around £14 per person per year for me to support them each year. I think that a lot of people on this forum (particularly other IT / Network Managers) earn a fair bit more than I currently do though, and probably have less pupils/staff as my school is very large for a primary!

My budget is usually around the same as my salary, so I guess that makes it around £28 per person per year to keep IT going.


It's not just about the numbers of heads though, you've also go to take into consideration the amount of equipment that IT person will be responsible for - you could have 1350 people to support but if the school only has 50 computers it would be a breeze to do it - if like me you have over 600 to take care of, it's a full-on rush to keep everyhing and everyone happy.

[witch]

Hi,

I work for a small independent school and want to make the case to the bursar for some more IT staff hours. The trouble is that I have no idea what, on average, schools are paying for IT provision, in particular staffing costs.

I appreciate that this may be a very difficult, even impossible, thing to calculate due to the many different ways in which schools manage their IT provision. But can we come up with an approximate range, expressed 'per pupil', for IT staffing costs in schools?

Thanks, Ian.

TBH I dont think you can do a 'per pupil' cost as the variation on here is enormous - some very large schools only have one or maybe two techs, and some much smaller ones seem to have quite a few!
How small is your school?

[IanIsBaffledAgain]

Hi,

Thanks for all the replies.

We're very small, about 350 pupils, of which about 80 are boarders. The fact that there are boarders creates quite a lot of extra work. Also, we have a wide age range of pupils, from nursery right through to sixth-form and, once again, this seems to make for more work as there's a wide range of software needed.

I appreciate that the range of costs between schools is likely to be high but am interested in what the range might be.

Cheers, Ian.

Cheers, Ian.

[localzuk]

The other thing is that people include different things in their budget numbers. For example, if you're just including maintenance costs compared to someone else who is including full ICT replacement costs etc...

Our costs are quite different as its actually covering 3 schools at the moment - but with 2 in our IT team. Provision is quite considerable, with 550+ machines and this is increasing.

Also, you'll get a wide range of differences with different types of school too - primaries have a much lower computerupil ratio than secondaries etc...

[GrumbleDook]

A few of us did try to put together a cost calculator based on number and type of devices supported, range of software, type of network infrastructure, use of middleware, etc ... and decided that we might as well get the the D20 out and roll a few random figures.

Per pupil is just not an accurate measure to use either, due to the factors already mentioned.

To some extent you need to look at the required skill set, what tasks you expect them to do, the amount of hours you think that they are likely to be needed for and then take a look at some of the JDs out there (many LAs have published their JDs and the appropriate scale where they sit as part of single status of Pay & Benefit reviews).

Or ... you might want to look at the funds available and see what you can get with it ... or do what most places do and compromise between what is needed and what you can afford.

[Danp]

Ian, if you still need some more info, I work in an independent boarding school with about 400 pupils, drop me PM if you require any more information.

[dave.81]

We are a boarding school very smiliar size to you, if you want any info send me a pm and will get in touch. Can say that i am the only member of IT and work all year.