Page | 37 Overview of Strategic Financial Management As a family of schools, our financial strategy seeks to make the best use of the resources at our disposal using the following core principles: ➢ Consistent entitlement – every child should have a consistent entitlement to financial resource in line with their own unique needs regardless of which school they attend. ➢ Efficiency – Headteachers and the shared services team must demonstrably manage the resources under their control as efficiently as possible. ➢ Integration and Collaboration – our aim is to ensure as much resource as possible is directed to the needs of the individual pupil. Whilst this involves focusing on efficiency it also means working together, and to support and share resources as best possible. ➢ Sustainability – the ongoing health of the organisation is based on operating within our income levels over the business cycle. Leadership at all levels, national, regional and within every school must demonstrably committed to this end. ➢ To support this strategy: We monitor key KPIs such as Pupil Teacher Ratios (PTR), Pupil Adult Ratios (PAR), average levels of pay and pupil numbers v School capacity. Headteachers remain accountable for school specific budgets and manage the bulk of our income in delivering front line education. Local Governing Committees are responsible for monitoring the effective impact of ring-fenced funding including Pupil Premium, SEND and Sports Premium and Catch-up Funding. Both groups are charged with ensuring they deliver value for money through adopting efficient structures, collaborating, and continually challenging themselves to improve the impact and cost of the work they do for our children. Budget Setting We are required by the ESFA to submit an overall balanced budget. Every year a finance timetable is constructed detailing the phases of budget (and three-year plan) preparation including: • An initial draft looks at next year’s budget in October/November designed to flush out any future strategic challenges • This is followed by a detailed update in April/May once we have had formal confirmation of income from the ESFA. These budgets are internally signed off by the CFO and the Accounting Officer prior to gaining Board approval. This budget is consolidated in May in order for us to meet the ESFA’s submission deadline of the end of July.
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