Approving the budget: questions to ask (full board)

Our associate education experts Brendan Hollyer, Martin Owen and David New helped us to write this article.

Why you're supposed to ask questions

You shouldn't treat budget approval as a 'rubber-stamping' exercise.  

By asking the right questions, you can make sure that your finance committee:

• Has thoroughly scrutinised the budget
• Hasn't missed anything 

Remember that your role is strategic, so you shouldn’t:

• Ask detailed questions about the operational side of spending
• Check the detail of the budget and whether things are accurate (your finance committee has already done this) 

You're not expected to ask all of the questions. 

General questions

Who has been consulted? What assumptions have been made when compiling the budget (e.g. in terms of pupil and staff numbers) and what are they based on?  Does the budget take into consideration any lessons learned from previous years and the coronavirus pandemic? How is this budget affected by