The Educator Magazine U.K. Sept-Dec 2026 issue - Magazine - Page 40
Schools are measuring
workload, but they
are overlooking
administration
By: James Rowell, Founder and Managing Director, Capture Expense
familiarity can create a false sense of
efficiency. A process that has existed for
years begins to feel inevitable rather than
optional.
School workload has become one of the
defining discussions in education. Debate
typically focuses on teaching hours, marking,
lesson preparation, inspections and
reporting obligations. While these pressures
are undoubtedly significant, they have
also created a tendency to view workload
through a relatively narrow lens.
What often receives less attention is the
administrative burden that exists alongside
those responsibilities. Not because it is
unimportant, but because it is rarely
measured in the same way. Administrative
work is fragmented, it is spread across
individuals, departments and processes,
making it harder to quantify despite being
deeply embedded in day-to-day operations.
This distinction matters because workload is
not created solely by large responsibilities.
In many organisations it accumulates
through small, repetitive tasks that feel in
significant in isolation but become
substantial when repeated across hundreds
of employees and thousands of interactions.
For schools and academy trusts, expense
management provides a useful example.
Most organisations would struggle to
identify expense claims as a major
operational issue. They are typically viewed
as routine administrative processes. Staff
submit receipts, mileage is approved, claims
are reimbursed and records are retained
for audit purposes. The process functions
and, because it functions, it rarely attracts
scrutiny.
However, that same logic can mask
inefficiency. Administrative processes tend
to be judged according to whether they
eventually reach an outcome rather than
how much organisational effort is required
to get there. As a result, activities that
consume large amounts of collective time,
such as chasing receipts or processing
mileage claims, often remain untouched
because no individual step appears
problematic enough to justify change.
The problem with familiar processes
This is particularly common in schools.
Digital transformation has accelerated across
many areas over the last decade, yet backoffice processes frequently remain reliant on
spreadsheets, email workflows, paper
documentation and manual intervention.
These approaches are familiar, and
The challenge is not usually a lack of
capability. Most schools understand the
importance of financial control, transparency
and governance. The challenge is that compliance frequently becomes associated with
additional administration. More forms, more
approvals and more checks are introduced
with the intention of strengthening
oversight. Over time, the process grows
increasingly complex despite the desired
outcome remaining unchanged.
Expense management is particularly
vulnerable to this. Unlike payroll or
budgeting, it is rarely viewed as a
strategic priority. Claims are processed, staff
are reimbursed and finance teams move on
to the next task. Yet beneath the surface, a
surprising amount of time can be consumed
collecting receipts, correcting errors,
checking policy compliance and chasing
missing information. As these tasks are
dispersed across different individuals,
departments and sites, their cumulative
impact is easy to underestimate.
The hidden cost of administrative
friction
The consequence is that administrative
workload becomes distributed throughout
the organisation. Finance teams spend time
chasing information while managers review
claims alongside their existing responsibilities. Meanwhile, employees hold onto
receipts, revisit submissions and respond to
requests for clarification.
This is often where schools and educational
institutions lose efficiency. Rather than the
result of major operational failures, this
efficiency is lost through processes that
require small amounts of effort from large
numbers of people. Every manual step
introduces another opportunity for delay,
duplication or inconsistency. Every
approval that sits in an inbox waiting for
action creates additional administration
elsewhere in the process.
The challenge here is not that these activities
are difficult, rather, it is that they are
constant. For multi-academy trusts, this can
become even more pronounced. Processes
that may be manageable within a single
school often becomes more complex
when spread across multiple sites, multiple
approval structures and larger members of
staff. Visibility becomes harder, reporting
requirements increase and administrative
effort grows accordingly. A simple milage
claim, for example, may need approval from
a line manager, a school business manager
and a central finance function before
reimbursement can be processed. Equally,
receipts for training courses, educational
visits or classroom resources can become
delayed or misplaced as they move
between individual schools and centralised
trust finance teams. The result? Additional
follow-up work for everyone involved.
Compliance should not come at the
expense of efficiency
This is why administrative processes deserve
greater scrutiny than they often receive.
The objective should not be to remove
governance or weaken controls. Schools
operate within a highly accountable
nvironment, and robust financial procedures
remain essential.
However, there is an important distinction
between effective control and administrative
complexity. All too often, organisations
assume the two are inseparable but in
reality, the strongest controls are
frequently those that are easiest to follow.
When processes are straightforward, staff
are more likely to complete them correctly
and consistently. When information is
captured at the point is generated,
compliance becomes part of the workflow
rather than an additional burden layered
on top of it.
As schools continue to look for efficiencies,
attention is understandably focused on
large-scale initiatives and transformational
projects. Yet some of the most meaningful
improvements may come from examining
everyday processes that have simply been
accepted over time. Whether it is a teacher
waiting to be reimbursed for classroom
resources, a finance officer chasing missing
receipts, or a manager approving claims
through multiple email exchanges, these
routine administrative tasks often consume
far more collective time than organisations
realise.
The conversation around workload is
unlikely to disappear any time soon and nor
should it. But if schools are serious about
understanding where time is being lost, the
focus cannot be confined solely to teaching
responsibilities. Administrative workload
forms part of the same picture. The most
significant operational challenges are not
always the most visible, sometimes they are
the processes that have become so familiar
that nobody thinks to question them.
