Finance_monitoring_Tile (2)
Learning pathway

Finance 3: monitoring in detail

Read time: 1.0666666666666667 Hours

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What you'll learn

Dig into the details of your school’s or trust’s budget and understand how to scrutinise and monitor your finances.

The pathway is suitable for all governors and trustees, but especially those on the finance committee and/or appointed for their financial expertise.

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

How to interrogate a finance report (11 minutes)

This article will cover:

  • What a finance report is and what it includes
  • 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

Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS): summary and questions to ask (5 minutes)

For maintained school governors only.

This article will cover:

  • What the SFVS is and when it’s due 
  • What your board needs to do with the SFVS
  • How to scrutinise the SFVS, including examples of questions to ask

School resource management self-assessment: summary and questions to ask (5 minutes)

For academy trustees and local governors only.

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 (11 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 (15 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 (4 minutes)

This article will cover:

  • What the role of a finance link 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.