MANAGEMENT
THE SBL NETWORK
The Role of an SBL Network
Driven by the aspiration to create a supportive and helpful environment for SBLs to find solutions, gain support, and feel less isolated, LISA BOWER embarked on a mission to establish a network. Here’s how she took it from concept to conference rooms
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n 2017, frustrated at the lack of support for school business managers in our area, an SBM friend and I started to talk about setting up a networking group. The Local Authority seemed to be scaling back their support, and there were no opportunities for us to meet and take part in Continuous Professional Development (CPD). We were very conscious that we didn’t want to work against the LA, and so had meetings and approval in order to set up, and in 2018 SASBM was born. It has been a very steep and not always easy learning curve, understanding the range of needs for our members across a wide range of schools - nursery, primary, secondary, special and pupil referral unit - has been difficult, and we haven’t always got it right. What we have learnt is to listen to our members, to adapt and not beat ourselves up too much when things don’t go as planned. A CONSTANT COMPANION SASBM has around 90 members and operates in two very distinctive ways. We have a website with a closed forum, which is incredibly popular. It works as a safe space where anyone can ask anything, no one passes judgment on anyone else’s question, the old adage 'There’s no such thing as a silly question' applies. In our experience, someone else was normally wanting to ask the question but didn’t want to! We are incredibly proud of how active our network is and there are regularly over ten members active at any one time. For me it is like having a constant companion that you can use as a sounding board, and I have noticed that a number of people log on in the morning
30 September/October 2024
and stay online all day. Over the years we have had several companies request access to our network and have offered to sponsor it. We have always declined. For us, it is an environment where people can talk openly and honestly, they can ask for feedback about companies, issues and for support. We believe that having a supplier (or potential supplier) on there will limit that discussion and change the way our members interact. EVENT NETWORKING Alongside our online network we hold two conferences a year. This is the part of running a network group that has been the trickiest. Finding a balance of speakers, interactive discussions and opportunities to network is difficult, and we have learnt not to expect to please everyone all the time. At one of earlier conferences, held in a lovely hotel, halfway through the first speaker there was a power cut. The room went into darkness, we couldn’t use the screen and it was difficult to communicate. I’ll be honest, we panicked. But in hindsight, it was one of the best things that happened to us. Our members absolutely loved the time to talk to each other, they moved around the tables, shared stories and built networks outside of their usual groups. It was so successful that we now build in much more time than we previously did to allow our members to do just this. For most SBL’s taking a day out of school is difficult, it is normally a sacrifice and is laden with problems and concerns. However, it is very necessary, and no one should be so important that the school can’t operate without them for a