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How to use financial benchmarking
Get a handle on how to use the DfE's financial benchmarking website, so you can see how your school compares with others and ask your school business manager the right kinds of questions.
Contents
This article is for you if you're on the finance committee/you're the finance or data link governor, and you've been delegated responsibility to look in more detail at your school's finances.
Other governors shouldn't need to look at the financial benchmarking website, but might still find this article helpful to understand how the finance committee/link governor carries out this kind of scrutiny.
What is financial benchmarking?
Financial benchmarking is when you compare your school's finances with other, similar schools.
It's crucial data to ask senior leaders about, to hold them to account and monitor your school's finances.
This article is based on the Department for Education's (DfE's) financial benchmarking website, but:
- The FFT also has a benchmarking service where you can compare things like workforce data and income per pupil
- Academies can also use 'view my financial insights' to compare their data with similar academies
The financial information on the DfE's financial benchmarking
- Academy Trust Handbook: changes from September 2021
- Financial transparency: requirements for maintained schools
- How to interrogate a finance report
- How to monitor and scrutinise the coronavirus catch-up premium
- How to monitor your school's pupil premium report
- Monitoring school finance: an overview
- Pupil premium: ensuring value for money
- Pupil premium spending: report to governors
- Risk registers: summary and guidance
- Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS): summary and questions to ask
- The third core function: overseeing financial performance
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