Given that consultants as a species have a pretty dreadful reputation, why should a school even consider using one? There are several reasons you might want to hire an educational ICT consultant:

You need advice on educational computing issues, but the local authority or school district does not employ anyone who could help you...

... and nobody on the staff knows enough about ICT to be able to feel confident in any decisions they take.

You need some extra capacity, but do not have the time to go through a recruitment process, or the budget to be able to afford the on-costs of a full-time employee.

You are faced with a self-enclosed task, such as writing a bid or procuring some hardware, for which you do not have the detailed knowledge or experience required to maximise the likelihood of success.

You may be coming up for some kind of inspection. An independent consultant can come in and tell it how it is, warts and all, without feeling the need to worry about their own long-term prospects career-wise…

…Or you may want to have a discussion about what your ICT provision is like and how it might be made even better.

This is actually a modified version of an article I first wrote in 2006. I was reminded of it because I have just been tweaking the ICT in Education website to make it more clear that I do educational ICT consultancy, and the sorts of things I can offer. I have even started a Testimonials page, because several people have told me I am too self-effacing!