The Diocesan Board of Education has been working together with other DBEs in the North West and has established a joint company to provide a more extensive support for our schools in the region. The new company is called ‘‘DBE Services".

Initially it will involve joint working in a number of areas with Blackburn, Carlisle, Liverpool and Manchester DBEs.  The company is wholly owned by the relevant diocesan organisations and its Board of Directors is composed of the Chairman of each DBE and the Diocesan Director of Education of each diocese.

In these dioceses are over 400 aided schools and over 600 Church schools in total. By working together, we will have the ability to enhance provision for these schools. Schools will still maintain their link with their own Diocesan Boards of Education.

Most aided schools will already have seen changes in that we are able to provide independent consultants alongside the administrative and financial support we have previously provided for building work.

As far as schools in this Diocese are concerned, the only thing you will really notice is that we will be able to offer a wider range of services and occasionally personnel from other DBE’s will be involved because they have the relevant expertise. A major part of working together is to save us all ‘‘re-inventing the wheel’’ and therefore provide more time for new developments.

Any surplus made by the company will be returned to the Diocesan Boards of Education and used to further support Church schools.

Much of the documentation sent out in future from Church House will include the heading ‘DBE Services’ as the way in which we identify our collective work across the region. This development is to support the work of each DBE rather than replace it and you will know that we have already worked together successfully in a number of areas on an informal basis.

Further information will be provided at regular intervals.

Total Property Management

Following a two year pilot in Blackburn Diocese this new scheme is available through DBE Services Ltd to a limited number of schools across the north-west dioceses from April 2005.

This scheme, available for aided and controlled schools, removes some of the burden which falls on headteachers and all involved in maintenance, building work and the regular cycle of necessary testing.

The pilot has shown that schools in the scheme:

· save money on repairs and maintenance;

· have the relevant legal and Health and Safety documentation in the right place at the right time;

· obtain the greatest benefit from all the different “pots” provided to repair, maintain and improve schools;

· are supported in managing every aspect of the building with decisions as to the level of support made by the individual school.

To ensure that a high standard of support is maintained, a maximum of 100 schools across the five dioceses can be supported from April 2005, but it is hoped to make the service more widely available in following years.