Specialist app could save Merseyside schools millions in admin each year

Liverpool City Region schools could save more than £2.5m a year, simply by changing the way they communicate with parents.

Both primary and secondary schools across the country are eating into their tight budgets by continuing to send out conventional paper letters to parents, and paying for SMS text messaging.

Figures calculated by Liverpool-based digital venture Parentapps show that by using an app-based communications system, primary and secondary schools could save £4,000 and £8,000, respectively, every year.

Across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton there are 375 primary schools and 126 secondary schools.

Across the UK there 20,925 primary schools and 4,168 secondary schools – adding up to potentials savings of more than £200m.

Backed by former Tesco chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, Parentapps is already providing bespoke apps for 350 schools across the country, and predicts it will have passed the 500 mark over the next six months.

The venture was founded in 2015 by Kevin Clayton, chief executive of the business, along with his wife Hailey Clayton, who is the firm’s sales director.

The couple have two young daughters and were well aware of the haphazard nature by which schools communicate with parents.

Not only are the most currently-used methods of communication between schools and parents costly, they are also inefficient.

Important letters are given to children to pass to their parents, but they can often end up scrunched up and forgotten at the bottom of a school bag.

Cuts to school funding is a huge issue. In the past few weeks more than 2,000 headteachers from across the country attended a rally in London to protest at what they claim is chronic underfunding of the education system.

Mr Clayton said: “There is no doubt we don’t put enough money into our education system, but there are changes schools can make to free-up precious resources.

“Many school staff members are doing the work of more than one staff member, so our goal is to give them the time back to focus on teaching our children, rather than on admin tasks.

“Too many of our schools are spending 30 hours a week on parental communication, between preparing and sending newsletters and texts, to answering and making phone calls regarding specific students.

“Savings can be made by doing away with expensive text messaging services, as well as going paperless. Additionally, the time saved using the app can be reinvested into more important things, such as teaching.”

Sir Terry and a Parentapps staff member

Sir Terry, who transformed Tesco into one of the world’s biggest retailers, was impressed by the Parentapps model and decided to invest into the business, along with fellow experienced investor Bill Curry.

Sir Terry said: “Parentapps operates in a really big area, which is schools and parents, and so it touches upon everybody.

“That is a big idea and if you can make a useful contribution to the day-to-day lives of nearly everybody, then that is something that matters.”