The Head of IT your firm doesn't need full-time.

A senior person who does the Head of IT job for your business on a part-time, retained basis: owning the IT strategy, budget, security posture and suppliers, reporting to the partners or directors, without being a full-time employee. Some firms call the same thing a fractional IT director, a part-time IT director or a virtual CIO.

Published UK prices for small and mid-sized firms run from about £1,000 to £2,500 a month for one to two days, and £750 to £1,100 a day in the North West. My tiers are £650, £1,100 and £1,950 a month for half a day, one day and two days respectively, with a 10 percent reduction on that line when I also run your managed IT.

For a firm of 30 to 50 people, one day a month of Head of IT plus managed IT for the whole team typically lands around £3,000 a month, excluding VAT, with the Head of IT line 10 percent lower in the bundle. The exact figure is scoped on the free IT review call, because the managed IT side depends on how many people and systems you have: the £300 managed IT starting point is for the smallest firms. For comparison, an employed Head of IT costs roughly £85,000 a year and still needs a support desk behind them.

The UK median salary for a Head of IT is around £72,500, roughly £85,000 a year with employer National Insurance and pension before recruitment fees and cover. Most firms under 100 people need that level of judgement a couple of days a month, not five days a week. When you outgrow the fractional model I will tell you, and help you hire.

It does not have to. The Head of IT role sits above the day-to-day support: setting the plan, owning the budget, holding the supplier to account. I work with your current provider if they are good, or take the support on myself if you would rather have one person for both. Either way the roadmap and the documentation are yours.

It is a fair question and the answer is in the invoicing. The Head of IT retainer is priced and contracted on its own line, licences and hardware are itemised at their own price rather than hidden in a markup, and the plan and documentation belong to you and would go with you to another supplier. The advice is not steering you towards something I earn a margin on.

Committed days per month, written into the agreement as days and named outputs, not hours to be rationed. Half a day, one day or two days a month depending on the tier, plus a same-working-day answer on decisions that cannot wait for the next session.

Leadership work is scheduled, not emergency work, so leave is planned around the monthly rhythm. Within the first 90 days your whole setup is documented in a portal you own: suppliers, contracts, credentials, decisions and the roadmap. If I were unavailable for longer, another engineer would inherit a record, not a rumour. Significant planned absences are flagged in advance, and urgent day-to-day issues during leave are handled on a best-efforts basis.

Usually within two weeks of a first call. The first 30 days are about understanding and inventory, and most firms see the first quick wins, typically closed MFA gaps, licence savings and a tested backup, inside that first month. The first quarterly report lands by day 90.

Yes. Law firms, accountants and financial advisers are a large part of my work. SRA, ICAEW and FCA expectations on data handling, plus Cyber Essentials and client security questionnaires, are exactly the things a named IT owner exists to answer.

A simple written agreement: committed days per month, named outputs, a 90-day initial period, then rolling monthly with 30 days' notice. Initiate IT trades as a limited company serving many clients, on outputs rather than hours, which is the shape that sits outside IR35. Your accountant can review it.