It’s that time of year again where both schools and academies are preparing their new budgets, so here are our top ten tips for maximising your budget:
- Review staffing structure
Effective deployment is the key to sharing the workload. - Bid-led process for curriculum spending
Encourages your budget holders to really think in advance about what resources they need in order to deliver the curriculum for the next academic year. - Review supplier contracts annually
Time is money, so let others do the leg work for you, use nationally negotiated deals through Crown Commercial Service or Crescent Purchasing Consortium - Benchmark costs locally
Select local comparators, review the results and act on the information shown. - Switch energy suppliers regularly
Use School Switch or an energy monitoring company such as zenergi.co.uk - Realistic rolling programme of premises maintenance built into AMP
Use your condition survey to diarise a programme of necessary works, add estimated costings in order to have realistic information to feed into your forward financial plan. - Generate income from lettings
Consider how your facilities could be used, make sure costs are covered. - Breakfast & After School clubs
Open new or extend opening times to make them more attractive for working parents; review current pricing structure. - Monitor staff absences
Look for regular occurrences and include in your performance management meetings. Negotiate with supply agencies or use: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers - Advertise jobs using free websites
For Essex Schools Jobs online: http://www.essexschoolsjobs.co.uk/ Gov.UK have a free website for schools to advertise for teaching staff – register on teaching.vacancies@education.gov.uk
