AI Opportunity Discovery — Executive Sponsor view | Lancing College

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Date of completion

Section A — Strategic intent

Q1What's prompted Lancing to look at AI now?

Governor mandate or board interest Peer school activity in this space Cost or budget pressure Specific operational pain in one or more functions Personal interest or conviction at SLT level Feedback from staff about administrative burden Other (please specify in comments)

Comments (optional):

Q2In 12 months, what would a successful AI engagement have delivered for Lancing?

Q3How will Lancing measure success from this work?

Time freed up across back-office roles Cost reduction Capacity increase (more work at same headcount) Error reduction or quality uplift Staff satisfaction Improved pupil or parent experience Capability uplift across staff Other (please specify in comments)

Comments (optional):

Section B — Scope

Q4Which back-office functions are in scope, and which are your top three priorities?

Functions in scope (tick all that apply):

Top three priorities (in order — #1, #2, #3):

#1 priority

#2 priority

#3 priority

Comments (optional):

Q5Any functions explicitly out of scope at this stage?

Comments (optional):

Section C — Headcount and cost baseline

Q6Approximate total non-teaching headcount across the back office

Comments (optional):

Q7Approximate average cost-to-company per non-teaching employee

Currency

Cost-to-company band

Comments (optional — e.g. material variation across departments):

Q8Approximate annual external spend on outsourced operational services in scope (excluding catering)

Currency

Approximate annual amount (thousands K) — optional

Or pick a band:

Comments (optional — what's included):

Section D — Sponsorship and governance

Q9Who has final sign-off authority for this engagement, and does it need Governor visibility?

Name and role of decision maker:

Governor visibility:

Not required At outcome only (when findings are shared) At design stage (before survey distribution) Throughout the engagement

Comments (optional):

Q10Who in your team will coordinate job descriptions, organisational structure and team-member survey distribution?

Name

Role

Email

Comments (optional):

Q11Which in-scope functions report to other members of the Senior Leadership Team, and what's the route to securing their endorsement to participate?

e.g. Marketing, Admissions, Foundation, Academic Admin — who owns each, and how does their participation get unlocked?

Section E — Timeframe

Q12Target timeframe for the discovery phase, and when impact must be visible

Discovery timeframe:

When impact needs to be visible:

Within this academic year (by July 2026) Autumn term 2026 Spring term 2027 Summer term 2027 or later

Comments (optional):

Section F — Data sensitivity, governance and constraints

Q13Which categories of data are most sensitive, and what restrictions apply to each?

e.g. staff records, pupil data, parent data, financial, safeguarding, alumni, commercial. Tick all that are highly sensitive.

Any specific restrictions or handling rules for these categories (e.g. data residency, who can access, retention windows):

Q14Current data governance posture at Lancing

Do you have a Data Protection Officer (DPO) or equivalent? Name and contact:

Which data governance policies are currently in place? (Tick all that apply.)

Formal data protection / GDPR policy Data classification scheme Data retention schedule Acceptable use / IT policy AI / generative AI usage policy Incident / breach response policy Third-party / processor due diligence ISI / DfE compliance framework None of the above

Any recent GDPR incidents, ICO interactions or audit findings we should be aware of? Anything else on governance worth noting:

Q15Any other non-negotiable constraints or prior AI experience we should know about?

Things that have worked well, things that have fallen flat, anything we'd be wise to design around.

Section G — Systems and decisions in flight

Q16Any major system migrations, vendor decisions or change initiatives currently in play or planned in the next 12 months?

We'll work around live decisions rather than cut across them. Anything in-flight or imminent is useful to flag.

Section H — Communication and rollout

Q17Staff communication framing

What are the specific concerns you'd expect non-teaching staff to raise about AI? (Tick all likely.)

Any prior change initiatives at Lancing that worked well — or fell flat — that should shape how this is communicated:

How would you like the Vision Statement to land — tone, framing, what to lead with:

Section I — Supporting documents

Files upload directly to a CogniScale-controlled storage location, accessible only to the Lancing engagement team. Multiple files supported on each field. If you'd prefer to email any of these instead, send to tim@cogniscale.com after submitting.

Q18Back-office organisational structure (departments, headcount per department, line managers)

Describe in the box below, or attach a file, or both.

Attach files (optional — PDF, DOCX, PNG, JPG):

Q19Functions delivered in-house vs outsourced — list outsourced functions with vendor names

Q20Job descriptions for back-office roles

Used to design tailored team-member surveys per role.

Q21Back-office staff list with email addresses (for survey distribution)

Q22Other reference documents

For example: most recent ISI inspection (operational sections), strategic / development plan, internal reviews of any back-office function.