The main cost of the school improvement partner programme is the cost to local authorities of deploying school improvement partners to the schools they maintain. This deployment is bound up with local authorities' wider school improvement responsibilities. Since using school improvement partners is generally more expensive than operating local authorities' previous arrangements, the Department provides a subsidy for the school improvement partner function within its funding to local authorities. For 2007-08, the cost of the subsidy is £15,803,938. The school improvement partner function also has a national component, mainly focused on national accreditation of school improvement partners and on quality assurance of local management of the function. For 2007-08, the cost of this national component is £7,651,200. The 2008-09 figure will certainly be lower, because in that year we will no longer have to build up the cadre of accredited school improvement partners; roll-out is due to be completed by April 2008.