A Reliable Finance Solution

Our comprehensive reviews focus on the key areas of resource management to evaluate their effectiveness and give expert recommendations to keep your trust improving.

Our reviews focus on:

• Financial planning and sustainability: considering the robustness of medium-term financial plans, levels of reserves, and links to growth plans and vision, advice on budget assumptions and options for support to produce your medium-term financial plan.
• Financial management and accountability: considering financial management and budgeting systems and procedures, scheme of delegation, any top-slice or GAG pooling arrangements, financial information available to leaders and trustees, with a focus on support to ensure compliance and best practice.
• Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) and benchmarking: considering the integration of strategic planning, KPIs and benchmarking activities, and accountability for schools to set a balanced budget. Where the trust is not using ICFP, we can provide our tool and support you to populate it to review the current curriculum provision, identify opportunities and develop longer-term affordable models.
• Procurement and estates management: considering the trust approach through policy, plans and procedures, degree of centralisation and the achievement of value for money and economies of scale, with advice and support on compliance and good contract management.
• Financial governance and internal capability: consideration of financial governance arrangements, including skills and experience of trustees as well as finance staff structure, skills, resilience, and capacity, with recommendations for training which we can tailor to suit.