What are steps in organising school Bank
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At some point, every teacher will be responsible for part of their school’s finances – from handling petty cash for a trip to explaining why you’ve overspent the departmental budget for a second term running.
But, if you aspire to join your school’s senior leadership team (SLT), you’re likely to be asked to take on an even greater role in monitoring school finances. We’ve put together a beginner’s guide to budgeting, getting value for money, and explaining financial accountability.
1 Make your budget work for your school improvement plan
When taking over your school’s budget, it’s easy to get bogged down by the numbers, but don’t just be driven by how your school has budgeted in the past. Think about what you would like to do if you had unlimited money, then look at how much you’ve actually got to spend and what you can achieve with it.
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Your school budget should reflect your school improvement plan – set on a five-year basis, showing two years in retrospect, the current year, and the next two years’ forecast.
Before setting up any new budget, you’ll want to have handy:
Old budgets to look at past performance, so you can learn from under- and over-spends.
Pupil numbers (census, local authority and feeder school lists). Be aware that neighbouring schools changing their admissions policies could also impact your numbers.
Exam results, so you can identify which parts of the curriculum could benefit from more money, and which have previously.
Staffing requirements, including updated pay scales.
Other resource requirements – money needed for insurance, maintenance etc.
2 Understand the basic principles of school budgeting
The first thing you need to understand is the different funding streams by which the school receives its resources.
Delegated funding (eg the dedicated schools grant) usually has no strings attached to it.
Devolved funding comes with conditions on how the money can be spent. For example, you must be able to demonstrate how pupil premium money is benefiting target students and that devolved formula capital funding is only being spent on long-term assets.
Capital funding can only be used to improve a long-term asset (eg upgrading buildings or the school’s technology network).
Revenue funding should be used within a year (on salaries, heating, stationery and routine repairs etc).
Look at what proportion of funding in last year’s budget came from delegated funding, pupil premium, devolved formula capital funding and other sources. You need an idea of how school funding is affecting your budgeting, particularly as certain funds (eg pupil premium) are vulnerable to change.
Accountability is also crucial in budgeting. You must be able to demonstrate how state funds have helped student attainment. Any private funding you get, however – such as charitable donations, renting out the school hall etc – can be kept in a separate account although it’s still good to be transparent with this.