EDS Profiles
Adele Clarkson
Title and Responsibilities
Aspect Leader for Business Management
Responsible for
- Management of PR, marketing, events management and finance including the
management of budgets and financial targets
- Create, promote and deliver ‘best value’ for EDS and external customer base
- Day to day management and quality assurance of business practices
- Collation and analysis of all data related to impact, customer care and benchmarking
- Bid Responses and sourcing income streams
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Currently, what are customers most frequently requesting you to work with them on? Currently schools are asking for value for money, high quality CPD opportunities linked to school improvement. In being responsive to their needs, a new subscription model has been devised to help meet their needs to provide greater flexibility and choice. Schools are also asking for CPD opportunities to be in the context of Every Child Matters and to help them with the extended school agenda.
What do you consider to be the most innovative areas of your work? Developing and implementing a Marketing Plan is key to my work. It includes market research, information about our customers, our competition, positioning, the services we sell, our pricing and how we promote ourselves. Effective marketing, planning and promotion begins with current information about the marketplace which means understanding our customers by going out to schools and working with other Local Authorities to gain insights and share “Best Practice”. |
What are you most proud of in the work that you do?
I am really proud to feel that I can make a tangible difference to schools by helping to define and promote a set of services that offer true value for money and that can be linked to school improvement.
What is your learning agenda for the next 12 months?
- Getting to grips with the implications of the White Paper in terms of what it means to EDS and our schools.
- Building and identifying a bigger picture of the wider market opportunities for our traded services.
- Assessing new opportunities for new services that will provide value for money.
- Gaining and sharing “Best Practice” from other Local Authorities and collaborating with them to offer a brokerage service to schools.
- Assessing how we can work with the new Childrens and Young People Service to ensure we deliver services that help meet the requirements of Every Child Matters.