This tool can be used to reassure trusts that they are managing resources effectively and to identify any adjustments they need to make.

Documents

School resource management self-assessment tool: checklist and dashboard

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Checklist support notes

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Dashboard support notes

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Details

The tool helps assure governing bodies and trust boards that they are meeting the right standards to achieve a good level of financial health and resource management.

It can be used to identify areas for change to make sure resources are used to support high-quality teaching and the best education outcomes for pupils.

The tool consists of a checklist and a dashboard.

The checklist asks questions of governing bodies and trust boards in 6 areas of resource management.

The dashboard shows how a school’s data compares to thresholds on a range of statistics that have been identified by the Department for Education (DfE) as indicators of good resource management and outcomes

Completing and submitting your checklist

It is compulsory for all academy trusts to complete and submit the self-assessment tool.

You will need to submit your self-assessment tool for 2020 to 2021 no later than 15 April 2021 using our online form. We will update this guidance when the form is available.

We have also provided an excel version of the tool as you may find it useful to complete the tool at other times, for example, to compare your spending plans for next year to similar schools.

Send feedback on the tool and guidance to [email protected].

If you’d like to receive occasional updates from the DfE on topics and products related to school resource management, sign up to our schools business professionals contact list.

Local authority maintained schools should use the schools financial value standard.

The ‘School resource management self-assessment tool: checklist and dashboard’ is not accessible because it has tables with complex structures, hard to read text contrast and some links do not contain context in the link text. This means it doesn’t meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines success criteria 1.3.2 meaningful sequence, 1.4.3 contrast and 2.4.4 link purpose. Our teams are working with user researchers to understand the best way to meet users’ needs and aim to fix it by May 2021.

Published 12 September 2018
Last updated 15 February 2021 + show all updates

  1. Updated the page details to confirm you will need to submit your self-assessment tool for 2020 to 2021 no later than 15 April 2021.

  2. Updated the data that underpins the ‘School resource management self-assessment tool’ and updated the checklist questions.

  3. Updated the school resource management self-assessment tool checklist support notes.

  4. Updated the tool dashboard to include additional RAG ratings for average teacher cost and spend on teaching staff as a percentage of total expenditure, so that schools can benchmark different years of data. Also updated the dashboard support notes to reflect these changes.

  5. Added a link to free training on ICFP for school leaders.

  6. The school resource management self-assessment tool checklist for 2019 is available and must be submitted by 14 November.

  7. In ‘C. Reserves / balances as a percentage of total income’ of the Dashboard support notes document, we added a correction to ‘Calculating your data’.

  8. Updated to the 2019 to 2020 version.

  9. Updated ‘School resource management self-assessment tool: checklist and dashboard’.

  10. Updated documents ‘School resource management self-assessment tool: checklist and dashboard’ and ‘Dashboard support notes’.

  11. Updated document ‘School resource management self-assessment tool: checklist and dashboard’.

  12. First published.