The third core function: overseeing financial performance

Last reviewed on 2 November 2021
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 36409

All governors have a part to play in monitoring school finance. Get a concise overview of what your role is and what you're monitoring, so you can make sure money's well spent.

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Contents

  1. Get a handle on the basics
  2. The board's role
  3. How you'll monitor
  4. What you'll monitor

Our associate education experts, Graeme Hornsby and Matt Miller, helped us to write this article.

Get a handle on the basics

Familiarise yourself with how your school is funded (with our articles for maintained schools and academies) so you can understand the budget and ask better questions.

You also need to know what responsibilities have been delegated to your board. If you’re:

  • A maintained school, read your local authority's scheme of financial delegation
  • An academy, read your scheme of delegation 
  • On a local governing board (LGB), find out more about your role in finance here

The board's role

All governors have financial responsibility. However, you don't need to be an expert, and you won't be involved in everything.

Your job is to make sure that:

The way you'll monitor this will depend on what structures your school has in place,

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