New funded training to support school resource management

Overview

During these times of uncertainty, the focus on financial efficiency and sustainability has never been more important. From Monday 7 December 2020, all schools will be able to access expert training and guidance as part of the government’s national priority of keeping education settings open. 

Throughout the pandemic, schools have been rising to the challenges presented by coronavirus, maintaining high-quality education and support for their pupils, but this additional resource will help schools plan for the future and ensure long term sustainability.

The training

Entrust, on behalf of the Department for Education, will be delivering a series of six webinars to help schools meet their teaching and learning ambitions with the financial resources available to them.

The webinars will help schools integrate their curriculum goals and financial resource management into one approach - providing them with a holistic and proactive way of planning and using their resources efficiently, as well as ensuring collaborative decision making across the whole leadership team.

Schools will be provided with the knowledge and tools they need to quantify areas of inefficiency, diagnose the causes and then enable informed decision-making to ensure effective school resource management.

The series of webinars include:

• Introduction to Benchmarking – this webinar includes an introduction to and the benefits of benchmarking, a walkthrough of the DfE Benchmarking website and other free DfE tools. There will be some best practice tips including what makes a good comparison school, and what to do with the information once it has been derived.
• Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning using DFE Tools - this webinar will cover the tools which are available for free on the DfE website. These tools include the primary and secondary school ICFP workbook and the School Resource Management tool. You will explore some ways in which you can use these tools to introduce ICFP in your school.
• Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning Metrics Deep Dive - this webinar will include a review of the key metrics identified by the 'Introduction to ICFP' webinar, before introducing additional metrics. The webinar will outline what these metrics mean and how they can be calculated. Finally, you will find out how these insights can be used to provide practical benefits.
• Introduction to Procurement – this webinar will help you to develop your understanding of compliance with EU & UK procurement law focussing on school procurement and related financial regulations. You will then explore how these should be integrated into your school procedures to mitigate the risks of fraud, theft, bribery, corruption or loss.
• Joined up Leadership for Effective School Resource Management - this webinar will define the roles and responsibilities of key personnel, how they should integrate and collaborate, and the problems faced if School Business Professionals are not fully integrated with the Senior Leadership Team.
• Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning During Times of Uncertainty - This webinar will look at the potential impact on reducing income, staff absences and differences in class sizes. We will explore why having an ICFP structure in place can assist a school in quickly working out the effects of the changes.

Who is the training for?

The training is available to all schools and trust staff across England and Local Authority staff working with schools.

Find out more

Full details of the training and how to book can be found on the brand-new School Resource Management portal.