Senior ICT leadership has never been more important for colleges and academy trusts. The DfE digital and technology standards now expect a member of the senior leadership team to act as the nominated digital lead. Cyber security is a board-level risk, and most major decisions about systems, contracts and infrastructure have long-term cost implications. Yet many organisations can’t justify, or can’t recruit, a full-time Director of IT.
This is where fractional appointments come in. The term is already familiar in finance, where a fractional Finance Director is a common arrangement for smaller organisations. The same model works for ICT, but it isn’t the right answer for everyone. In this piece, we look at what a fractional appointment is, when it makes sense, and when you would be better served by something else.
What do we mean by fractional?
A fractional IT leader is an experienced senior professional who provides ongoing leadership for part of the time. That might be a few hours a month, a day a fortnight, or a pool of time that you draw on as the need arises. The key word is ongoing. A fractional appointment is not a one-off piece of work. It becomes part of how the organisation is led.
It’s worth separating this from a few related options, as they are often confused:
- Interim management is usually full-time or fixed days for a defined period, typically covering a vacancy or seeing a team through change or service improvement activities.
- Consultancy is normally tied to a specific deliverable, such as a review, a strategy document, advice on technical direction or a procurement.
- A managed service is where a supplier runs some or all of the ICT service on your behalf.
- A fractional appointment provides senior leadership and direction, sized to what you actually need on a long term ongoing basis.
These aren’t mutually exclusive. A trust with a managed service provider may well benefit from a fractional leader to set direction and hold that supplier to account.
When it works well
In my experience, a fractional appointment tends to work best in the following situations.
The organisation needs strategic leadership but not a full-time post. A smaller multi-academy trust, a smaller, single-site college or a trust that is still growing will often have enough strategic ICT work to need senior input, but not enough to fill five days a week. Hiring full-time in this position can mean paying a senior salary for a role that drifts into operational work because there isn’t enough strategy to go around. Relying on one-off consultancy for each strategy requirement can lead to fragmentation and competing technical approaches.
There is a capable operational team but no senior voice. Many colleges and trusts have a good network manager or IT manager who keeps things running well. What they often lack is someone who can sit at the SLT table, write the strategy, define and mange risk, translate the technical to senior leaders, report to governors and challenge suppliers on equal terms. A fractional leader can fill that gap and support the digital lead in meeting their responsibilities under the DfE standards, without undermining the existing team.
You have a managed service and need someone on your side. Outsourcing the ICT service doesn’t outsource the accountability. Someone still needs to check that the contract is delivering, that the roadmap reflects your priorities and that renewals are properly planned. That person needs to understand the technology but work for you, not the supplier. They can also help ensure that what was in the contract gets delivered and that the provider doesn’t simply do the minimum to meet KPIs.
Demand comes in peaks. Strategy refreshes, major procurements, mergers and large projects all create short periods of heavy demand. A pool of time that can be drawn down more heavily when needed and less during quieter periods can be far more cost-effective than a fixed arrangement. Once again, the doing may be something the team can handle, the governance, planning and reporting may be a step too far and leadership to balance those responsibilities along with business as usual for the team can have a huge impact.
You want to understand the role before recruiting. If you’re unsure what a permanent senior ICT post should look like, a fractional appointment is a useful way to find out. After six or twelve months you will have a much clearer idea of the scope, the level and the budget needed.
When it isn’t the right answer
A fractional appointment isn’t always the best fit, and it’s better to recognise that early.
The team needs day-to-day management. If the ICT team has no manager at all, it needs someone present regularly to manage workloads, handle staff issues and make operational decisions. A few days a month won’t cover this. An interim manager, or a permanent operational post with fractional strategic support above it, is usually the better route.
The service is in crisis. A significant cyber incident, a failing service or a major project that has gone off the rails needs focused attention for a period. Fractional support can follow once things are stable, but the immediate need is usually for someone on site with enough time to get it resolved. An interim appointment or a focussed project based role will probably fit better.
It’s being used to cut costs on a genuinely full-time role. If the organisation is large and complex enough that the role is full-time, splitting it into a fraction won’t make the work go away. It just means less of it gets done, or it gets done by people who shouldn’t be doing it.
Nobody owns the relationship internally. A fractional leader needs a clear reporting line and a sponsor within the senior team. Without that, their time tends to be spent chasing access and decisions rather than moving things forward.
Comparing the options
| Option | Best suited to | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time permanent post | Larger organisations with continuous strategic and operational demand | Recruitment difficulty and cost; role drift into operational work |
| Interim manager | Covering vacancies, managing change, stabilising a service | Temporary by design; plan for what happens afterwards |
| Fractional appointment | Strategic leadership at a level sized to need | Needs clear scope, sponsorship and agreed availability |
| Consultancy | Specific pieces of work with defined outputs | Knowledge can leave with the consultant if not handed over |
| Managed service | Day-to-day service delivery | Still needs someone on your side to manage the contract |
Making it work
When an organisation decides on a fractional appointment, a few things make a real difference to how well it works.
Agree the priorities up front. With limited time, it matters where it goes. A short list of objectives for the first six months, agreed with the sponsor, keeps the focus on what matters most.
Be clear on reporting and presence. Decide who the fractional leader reports to and which meetings they should attend, whether that’s SLT, the audit and risk committee or the trust board. Being visible at the right points is a large part of the value.
Agree how urgent issues are handled. Things rarely go wrong on the scheduled day. It’s sensible to agree up front what level of availability is expected outside the planned time and how it is accounted for.
Make sure knowledge stays with you. Strategies, policies, risk registers and supplier information should all live in your systems and be owned by your people. A good fractional leader should be building up your organisation’s capability, not making it dependent on them.
Review it regularly. Needs change. A quarterly review of how the time is being used, and whether the level is still right, keeps the arrangement working for you. Sometimes the right outcome is to increase the time, sometimes to reduce it, and sometimes to move to a permanent post.
Questions to ask before deciding
If you are weighing up the options, these questions can help:
- How much strategic ICT work do we genuinely have, compared with operational work?
- Who currently sets direction for ICT, and who reports on it to senior leaders and governors?
- Do we have someone capable of running the service day to day?
- Are there major projects, procurements or changes on the horizon in the next year or two?
- If we recruited full-time tomorrow, could we clearly describe what that person would do all week?
The answers will usually point fairly clearly towards one option or a combination of them.
Final thoughts
Fractional appointments aren’t a replacement for every other model, but for many colleges and trusts they fill a real gap. They bring experienced leadership in at a scale that matches the need and the budget, and they can flex as that need changes.
If you’re considering a fractional appointment, or aren’t sure which option best suits your organisation, please get in touch. We’d be happy to talk it through, and we can deliver most of our services in this way, from a few hours a month to a pool of time you draw on as it suits you.
If you’d like any information on how we can help with the provision of fractional support, or indeed just a discussion on what will work for your requirements, please get in touch.
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