Education consultancy and management

We help schools develop successful, well-motivated and dynamic teams focused on high quality teaching and learningOur specialist consultancy Cambridge Education – registered by the UK’s Department for Education and Skills (DfES) as a service provider – is one of England’s largest school inspection contractors.

Our specialists are also project managing Academies through a framework with the DfES and working with Local Education Authorities (LEAs) nationwide, providing interim management, consultancy and training. Overall we’re able to call on the skills and experience of over 7500 professional associates.

We help schools develop successful, well-motivated and dynamic teams focused on high quality teaching and learning through services such as:

• school improvement solutions including self-evaluation programmes
• school leadership and management development
• provision of interim managers and permanent recruitment solutions
• support for workforce reform
• Information Communications Technology services and training

Through our associate network and experience in working for and managing LEAs we’re at the forefront of:

• recruiting specialists to lead and manage LEAs in today’s demanding education environment,
• auditing LEA performance to secure better outcomes
• diagnosing ways in which scant resources can be deployed differently to secure greater impact
• introducing innovation and best practice in areas such as SEN inclusion, performance management and school organisation and admissions

Our dedicated LEA team provides consultancy services including:

• planning and preparing best value reviews
• leading on school organisation and administration reviews
• improving the capacity and equality of asset management planning
• helping prepare for OfSTED inspections
• undertaking fair funding reviews to improve an LEA’s strategic resource allocation
• supporting Private Finance Initiative (PFI) bids, providing technical advice and advising private sector consortia on the formulation of PFI bids with LEAs
• offering advice for schools on external funding and how to secure it.

In China’s Gansu province we’re leading a six-year project that's helping improve the access and quality of basic education by reforming teaching methods and introducing school development plans to involve local communities in the areaBeyond the UK, Cambridge Education’s consultancy work ranges from managing basic education programmes in China, Nigeria and Ukraine to advising both the Gates Foundation and Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) in the USA on school improvement.

We provide education and training services at both micro and macro levels, delivering technical and management support to customers ranging from individual schools to national govern-ments to major funding agencies such as the Department for International Development, the World Bank, the Asian and African Development Banks and the European Union. The scope of our services for world-wide education development includes:

• sector wide plans – taking part in joint donor missions to assist in macro educational policy analysis, development and planning
• finance and human resource management planning – assisting at national and provincial levels
• curriculum development and teacher training – in the UK and throughout Asia, Africa and eastern Europe
• social development – providing in-house expertise to ensure equity issues are properly addressed
• institutional development – including needs assessment, facilitating of visioning workshops and development of action plans plus training programmes
• project development – advising donor agencies on the feasibility of project based support as well as the most effective delivery route
• project management – including deployment of consultants, financial management and budgeting, quality control and project monitoring and evaluation
• project/programme evaluation – appraising and evaluating donor funded initiatives in developing countries
• educational research – through extensive in-house expertise in this field
• university/higher education space/equipment needs – from enrolment forecasting and equipment procurement to space planning advice and low-cost building programmes