MANAGEMENT
S A D D L E U P, S B L S
The Budget Bonanza
As we stroll down Main Street, Springtime, Education, our attention is drawn to an all-important activity. Here, CLARE SKINNER explains how SBLs can saddle up and hit that budgeting bullseye
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or those on the maintained side, you will be about to submit figures to the local authority. For those academies on the other side, your General Annual Grant (GAG) statement will have settled on your desk. Whether you are about to complete that gun slinging event of setting budgets, or you are just starting to think about it, here are some thoughts that may prove useful. DON’T GO IN ALL GUNS BLAZING Rather than just pointing and shooting the same way you did last year, take some time to reflect; what have you learnt this year that could make your budgeting more accurate and deliver better value for your setting? What were the findings from external audit, did you action all points from your internal audits, have you investigated the findings from your benchmarking exercise and what did your School Resource Management Self-Assessment Checklist (SRMSAC) tell you? These activities are not just about meeting regulatory requirements, they can really help us to be better in our roles so be informed by them, scenario plan and/or implement the things that they have shown you, don’t ignore them.
30 Spring Term 2025: Issue 2
Go into this with your eyes open; the numbers on your funding statement are indeed what you will be receiving whether you like them or not, but are they the right numbers? Check the information on those statements and cross reference them back to source documents such as your October pupil census to ensure that numbers on roll are correct, pupils per key stage are accurate and free school meal information is right. Be confident that the £ on the statement convert to numbers in your school at the snapshot points. If there are queries and you don’t think that things add up, then flag them up with the DfE or your LA as even they can make mistakes and the sooner you can raise concerns, the sooner answers and clarity can be obtained.