management of learning resources
in a very small school, or an institution operating in a very centralised system, the head or principal may make all the decisions about the purchase of learning resources, or they may be selected, purchased and supplied by an external government agency. where there is delegation of purchasing power, the middle manager often has a devolved budget for the purchase of learning resources appropriate to a subject or to an age group of children. this will probably have been allocated according to one of the models described in chapter 3, and may have involved a certain amount of 'bidding' or micro-political activity by the middle manager in order to secure the share which is felt to be appropriate to the needs of the department. the management if this budget will hopefully follow a pattern similar to that in Figure 3.2 both at whole-institution and departmental level, with the cost-centre holder contributing to the overall assessment of how well the institution is matching resources to learning outcomes through monitoring and evaluating the departmental spending process.