turner butler are delighted to be appointed as sole selling agents for this exciting business opportunity which has never been brought to the market for sale before. Over the past decade, the principal, a former comprehensive school headteacher, has built a nationwide business that brings him into regular contact with over two thousand school leaders each year - advising them principally on pay and conditions issues directly linked to the performance of individual teachers. Training events have built a brand loyalty that will enable the purchaser to find a ready market for a wider range of products and services. As a result of his decision to move in to new areas of educational standards development, there exists a shining opportunity for both commercial and private investor sources, perhaps already linked to the educational sector, to take on and develop what can easily be seen as a highly profitable business. The company has fully developed performance management software which enables schools to set performance objectives for teachers and support staff using the same basic procedures and paperwork. It sells at £225 plus vat for a lifetime site licence, with free updates available on request as national regulations change. To ensure the materials are properly used, they can only be purchased at one of the company’s training events. Much of the company's income derives from the fact that, once they have bought in, schools pay to attend the company’s updating courses and to commission tailor-made training events for performance management reviewers. Nationally, some 2500 schools - or 10% of all maintained and independent schools in the uk - have bought the software. Included in this number are those in six local authorities (kensington & chelsea, sefton, slough, thurrock, wandsworth and windsor & maidenhead) that have purchased licences for all their educational establishments to use it. 1600 schools are listed on the database that will pass to the purchasers; the remaining 900 subscriptions were taken out before the company started its database in 2003. As a result of the company’s policy of only selling the software at our training events, these 2500 schools are clustered in only 45 of the country's 152 local authorities. It has as yet advertised no events in the remaining 107 areas, and this obviously offers considerable growth potential to the purchaser. Key opportunities: other than in the years 2004-07, when three additional consultants were employed to deliver the training events, the company’s turnover has been almost exclusively generated by the company’s managing director. The time he now has to devote to the activities of the company is limited to a maximum of 3.5 days per week by the fact that he also works part-time as chief executive of a national educational charity and has recently started another company offering hr and finance services to school networks. This company will not seek to compete with the purchaser in the performance management field, though the obvious possibilities of working in partnership to mutual advantage can be explored if desired. The company’s programme for the current period has been developed to make potential purchasers aware of the levels of turnover that can still be achieved with a concerted effort to broaden membership. Accounts for the period up to sale will be prepared as part of the sale process; accounts for the 9 months to december 31 2009 are also available. National standards for teachers were introduced in september 2007. Although they were broadly welcomed by schools, the vast majority did not use them either to identify professional development needs or to make pay decisions. The change to the threshold application procedures that came into force in september 2009 has brought fundamental change. It has effectively forced schools to pre-assess teachers against the standards and turn any that are not met into performance management objectives. This sounds simple to do in theory, but can obviously be very contentious in reality, as not all teachers are willing to accept the head's assessment. No nationally recommended procedure has been provided, and the one contained on this company’s programme has proved realistic and workable. This fact alone explains this year's excellent early sales. If the government's current plans to introduce 5 year "mot's" for teachers survive the general election, these will further emphasise the importance of making judgements on whether or not national standards are met - but now for all teachers rather than just those passing through the threshold. Once again, heads see this company’s programme as the answer. The final piece of good news is that there is about to be an explosion of new standards for schools to embrace. There are already teaching assistant and hlta standards; these are shortly to be joined by new standards for middle leaders, for deputy and assistant heads and for school-based finance and administrative staff. As these emerge, the only change that needs to be made to the company’s software is to introduce another audit sheet - all of the other paperwork will remain the same. Schools face challenging financial circumstances in the medium-term but, in headteachers' minds, their accountability for standards of staff performance is paramount. All of the evidence so far this year suggests that they will continue to attend updating courses that show them how they can undertake their new tasks simply and effectively - and to pay £225 plus vat for updatable software that enables them to produce the paperwork they need.
