Finance 3: monitoring in detail for trusts
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What you'll learn
The pathway is suitable for all trustees, but especially those on the finance committee and/or appointed for their financial expertise.
Local governing bodies: check your scheme of delegation to see what your role is. Lots of the finance functions are likely to sit with your trust board, so completing finance 1 and 2 may be enough to give you the knowledge you need. See our article on the LGB's roles in school finance to get more information on what your role could look like.
Read the articles below and then complete the assessment to test your understanding. If you feel confident in this topic already, you can skip straight to the assessment at any time.
Pathway overview
Top-slicing vs GAG pooling: financial models in multi-academy trusts (MATs) (13 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What it means to top-slice or GAG pool your budget
- The rules around these models
- The trustee's role
- Questions to ask
How to interrogate trust management accounts (12 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What management accounts are and what they include
- What to look for
- How to interrogate the report
How to monitor and scrutinise the budget in finance committee meetings (13 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What you need to know before looking at the budget
- What you should look for in a budget
- Examples of questions to ask on different aspects of the budget
School resource management self-assessment: summary and questions to ask (5 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What the self-assessment is and what your trust's responsibility is
- How your board is involved
- How to scrutinise the self-assessment, including examples of questions to ask
Approving the budget: questions to ask (12 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What to look out for when approving the budget
- Questions to ask on the different areas the budget covers
How to use financial benchmarking (16 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What financial benchmarking is and when to use it
- How to conduct a comparison
- Questions to consider and ask about benchmarking
Finance: role of the link governor/trustee (5 minutes)
This article will cover:
- What the role of a finance link trustee involves
- How to monitor finance, including resources on questions to ask your senior leaders
Assessment
Pass the short assessment to earn a certificate in this pathway.
Your certificate will automatically appear on your GovernorHub training record, where you can download it at any time.