Join the Education Policy Institute on Monday 24th November for the third webinar in a series delivered in partnership with Capita – How are schools responding to ever-tightening budgets and what do they need from policy?
One of the key challenges facing UK schools today is constraints on funding. While school budgets have increased in monetary terms, considering the rising costs of the workforce and resources, these are tighter in practice. This is compounded by the looming threat of falling rolls, where funding tied to pupil numbers will fall as pupil populations decrease. National policy conversations can take years to deliver impact, and can eclipse the real disparities in financial difficulty faced by schools in different areas.
How schools respond to that is crucial. EPI’s Effective Schools Group Tool provides some benchmarking in this area, measuring the efficacy of schools’ financial management through three key indicators: in-year balance, self-generated income, and efficiency (measured by inputs vs outcomes). This tool can be used to compare the ways in which school groups are paving the way for more effective financial management by adopting innovative solutions in a challenging fiscal landscape.
This tool is a starting point for answering these questions: How are school groups balancing their financial decisions against other priorities? Are schools which serve disadvantaged cohorts running their finances more or less efficiently than those in more advantaged areas? And, most importantly, how can schools be supported to deliver positive outcomes for their pupils on an ever-tightening budget?
One area increasingly looked to for efficiencies is the use of technological advancements in back-office functions, for example by changing procurement processes. Lightening the burden on schools could allow them to redirect resources towards delivering high-quality teaching and enrichment for their pupils, which would in turn improve outcomes.
This webinar will discuss how schools are managing their finances in a challenging context, with a presentation on EPI’s Effective Schools Group Tool by Director for School Performance, Jon Andrews. Panellists will also consider how policy can better respond to the diverse needs of schools, how funding models and budgetary changes can be adapted to encourage innovation in school spending, and what role technology could play.
To register your attendance, please follow the link here. The full speaker line-up will be announced in due course.
