FAQs

Most LAs have teams providing finance support to schools – often on a buy-back basis – who can provide assistance on budgetary matters. Alternatively, there are a number of accountancy firms and other organisations specialising in providing financial services to schools.

You may find that you have the relevant skills amongst your staff or on your board of governors. Make use of the DCSF Financial Management Competencies Matrix for School Staff to help identify relevant competencies amongst your staff. This is available in the reference library in the preparing and delivering to a budget section of this website. Similarly, the DCSF Financial Management Competencies Framework for Governors will help identify relevant competencies on your board. This is available in the governance and accountability section of this website in the reference library.

In the long term, you should think about employing a bursar. If you are a small school you may be able to get together with other schools in your area to share the services of a bursar.

This website has a range of resources that you may find useful including good practice guides in the workshop materials section.

NAHT and SHA both run courses on budgeting and financial management for heads and school finance officers.

You may find it useful to talk to another headteacher who has faced similar issues: the Financial Management in Schools community in talk2learn has been set up as a specific forum to discuss financial management issues with colleagues.

The school development plan (SDP) should be the starting point. This will identify the priorities of the whole school now, rather than simply the historic cost. The next step is to decide what is needed to deliver the SDP. Staffing, premises, occupancy costs, supplies and services follow on from there.

You should make sure that you plan for more than one year – at least three years – and that you try to anticipate any external and internal changes that will affect your budgets, such as changes to funding or pupil numbers. You should set up a spreadsheet of your finances in such a way that, by changing different assumptions about the future, you can model their financial impact.

To do this, you can either use Microsoft Excel – although you will need to programme it yourself – or software such as that endorsed by the National Bursars Association. This is very user friendly, comes pre-loaded with your LA’s funding formula and is available for just £250 (updates are £100 annually).

This website has a range of resources that you may find useful including good practice guides in the workshop materials section.

It can be helpful to talk to another headteacher who has faced similar issues: the Financial Management in Schools community in talk2learn has been set up as a specific forum to discuss financial management issues with colleagues.

Don’t try to do it all on your own. Involve other people in the process, such as the senior leadership team and governors, and possibly even an experienced headteacher.

You may find that you have the relevant skills amongst your staff or on your board of governors. Make use of the DfES Financial Management Competencies Matrix for School Staff to help identify relevant competencies amongst your staff. This is available in the reference library in the preparing and delivering to a budget section of this website. Similarly, the DfES Financial Management Competencies Framework for Governors will help identify relevant competencies on your board. This is available in the governance and accountability section of this website in the reference library.

Seek whatever help is available from the LA finance team and use appropriately qualified staff in your own school. If you don’t have a bursar, could you buy in some time from a local school that has?

This website has a range of resources that you may find useful including materials on preparing and delivering to a budget in the reference library and income and expenditure check-lists and good practice guides in the workshop materials section.

It can be helpful to talk to another headteacher who has faced similar issues: the Financial Management in Schools community in talk2learn has been set up as a specific forum to discuss financial management issues with colleagues.

Thinking short term, ie one year at a time. Always consider the longer term, say three years ahead or the period covered by your school development plan (SDP). Not only does linking the budgeting process to the SDP ensure that spending is focused on the agreed priorities of the school, it also makes it easier to track spending.

Be aware of the danger of allocating short-term funding to long-term commitments. For example, using Standards Fund grants to prop up the budget. These grants may disappear but the commitments remain.

Microsoft Excel or a similar spreadsheet tool is invaluable. Even if you don’t use it to its full capacity, it will enable you to forecast and calculate different scenarios quickly and easily.

In order to model your projected finances, you can either use Microsoft Excel – although you will need to programme it yourself – or software such as that endorsed by the National Bursars Association. This is very user friendly, comes pre-loaded with your LEA’s funding formula and is available for just £250 (updates are £100 annually).

The DCSF benchmarking website will enable to compare your income and costs with similar schools.

As well as annual salaries for all employees, provision needs to be made for on costs – employer’s contribution to National Insurance and pensions – annual increments, progression on UPS, performance management, recruitment and retention incentives and any management allowance. Account also needs to be taken of the number of hours people work and whether any of the support staff work during term time only.

Software, such as that endorsed by the National Bursars Association, has these lines already set up and will do most of the calculations for you. This is very user friendly, comes pre-loaded with your LA’s funding formula and is available for just £250 (updates are £100 annually).

Ensure that when projecting the ongoing costs of new staff that you include the cost of a full year of employment. It’s a common mistake, when taking on new staff part way through the year, to then budget for the same costs the following year.

It’s good practice to keep aside a small staffing contingency to cover increased salary costs, which might result from staff turnover.

Monitor the situation closely and make sure that anyone else with delegated budgetary responsibility does the same. Set aside some dedicated time, say one day a month, on a regular basis, and involve your bursar, finance officer or school administrator.

Ensure that staff with delegated budgets get regular, up-to-date monitoring information. This is important not only to monitor costs and income against budget and to ensure that inconsistencies and discrepancies are investigated, but also to ensure that planned projects and priorities are taking place.