Local governing bodies: your role in school finance and budgets

Last reviewed on 7 February 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 36809

Get an idea of how you might be involved in school finance, like the budget setting process, regardless of how much delegated power you have.

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Contents

  1. Find out if you can attend trustee finance meetings
  2. High delegation
  3. Medium delegation
  4. Low delegation

Our associate education expert, Angela Browne, helped us to write this article.

Find out if you can attend trustee finance meetings

Check your articles of association, but the Department for Education's (DfE's) model articles don't set any restrictions on who can attend meetings.

So if you're allowed to attend, you should feel free to do so – trustees will want to hear your view.

Why attend

Regardless of how much delegated responsibility your LGB has, it could be a good idea to attend finance-related board meetings. This is so you can:

  • Keep up to date on what’s happening in your trust
  • Ask questions from your perspective as an LGB
  • Get an idea of what decisions will affect you as an LGB, and what’s happening with other schools in the trust
  • Raise relevant issues regarding your school, like if there's any unforeseen circumstances which require additional spending

It might be good for your LGB

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