A common problem is that poorly-aligned, often manual processes, mean school leaders lack the insight they need to make informed, strategic decisions.
It is, of course, difficult to spot early warning signs of a funding shortfall unless you have the most up-to-date and consistent financial data at your fingertips. Equally, it is easy to miss opportunities to invest in staff and other resources if you don’t know how much money is left in the budget.
Curriculum-based financial planning is widely seen as a way to overcome this challenge and is, as many will know, an approach championed by academies minister Lord Agnew. It is about allocating staffing resources to drive up pupil performance, avoid waste and deliver value-for-money.
More precisely, it creates a framework for school leaders to set goals and establish the steps they need to take to achieve them. With accurate insights into available funding, they can ensure appropriate class sizes and pupil-teacher contact time.
Staying on top of costs is essential in any school (or indeed, organisation) – but even more so in newly-formed or growing MATs. While teaching pay scales are broadly consistent, it is not always obvious that an academy is relying too heavily on supply staff to plug a shortfall.
As the trust grows, admin becomes another challenge, especially when finance teams are expected to manually collate more data and cost more complex curriculums. By the time this information reaches the head teacher and governors, it might already be out-of-date. Little surprise, therefore, that growing numbers are choosing education-specific resource planning platforms to streamline the process.
Tools like Access Education Curriculum, allow academies to build a viable curriculum in a matter of minutes and forecast costs to avoid over or under-spending. They can also model the impact of changes and opportunities, allowing senior leaders to make more dynamic – and effective – decisions.
When student numbers or state funding changes, they are able to assess the impact on staff loading to start recruiting in good time and avoid the high cost of bringing in supply staff. With digital systems in place, head teachers and governors could test a number of curriculum options in a meeting and then develop a clear plan to roll out quickly. Contrast this with manual methods of costing alternative curriculums, which could take up to two days to complete.
All schools, including academies, are under increasing pressure to get the most value from its budgets, particularly as staff account for around 80 per cent of revenue expenditure. As long as they have the right tools in place, MATs are well-placed to make good use of their funding to drive up standards.
The DfE is running a programme called the Academies Better Financial Reporting, and as part of its pilot scheme, Access Education will be contributing in an effort to improve the existing process for financial reporting by academy trusts. The programme will encompass the Budget Forecast Return (BFR), Budget Forecast Return Outturn (BFRO) and the Academies Accounts Return (AAR).
The organisation have set up working groups for both MAT’s and suppliers, and Access Education have been instrumental in ensuring a streamlined financial process for all parties.
Find out more about our financial planning software for schools.