BURSARS
RISK IS ALL
AROUND US 2020 pushed risk to the top of the agenda for school leaders and was a cause of much stress and anxiety but technology continues to ride to the rescue and is playing an ever-more powerful role in its mitigation and management. This is a trend we should all be watching, John Fraser, Head of Education, Marsh explains.
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OVID-19 gave independent schools throughout the country their biggest test yet when it comes to risk management and safety. School leaders adapted at pace in the face of the unexpected to keep their schools, staff, and students safe; and despite the challenges that created, there are some inspiring learnings coming from the pressure to innovate. As we look to build operational resilience for independent schools in the aftermath, many independent school leaders are asking similar questions. ‘How do I continue to make safety and risk management a priority, without increasing my overheads?’ ‘How do I improve efficiency, without compromising on safety?’ ‘How do I continue to adhere to ever-changing government guidance, without adding additional pressure to staff?’ As schools are again challenged to do more with less, we are looking to those already leading the way in risk management and mitigation by leveraging technology in their schools.
36 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Winter 2021
Why is risk management a pain point for today’s schools?
The cost when things go wrong can be catastrophic: not only in terms of incidents that may occur, but the knock-on impact on a school’s reputation too. However, it’s rarely one single action or failure that results in a full-scale incident. In the risk industry, we typically see risk as the sum of many factors: the little things that weren’t seen and weren’t escalated to the right person. Things that many of us simply don’t know to look for. For the SMT, Bursar, COO or even the Head, having eyes on those small parts of their operation – especially in a large ecosystem of multiple sites or even a group of schools – is near-impossible. Real-time visibility continues to be a huge challenge; but at the same time, the demand for data-backed insurance risk profiling is rising. In a hardening insurance market and post-COVID era, information must be leveraged from school sites to protect against rising premiums and reduce risk.
