Support for schools

Our advisers work closely with schools to ensure that finance staff understand and implement appropriate operational financial policies and procedures. We support the interpretation of reports and advise on correct accounting practice. We ensure school leaders, governors and finance staff are aware of their specific responsibilities in relation to the financial management of the school. We work with schools to facilitate the meeting of statutory deadlines.

We work with school leaders to ensure that medium and long term planning in school is accurate and effective. We offer advice and support on benchmarking, efficiency analysis and sensitivity analysis. Where appropriate we link with other local authority agencies to support schools. Our understanding of your individual school means that we are able to offer bespoke advice and support as required.

Schools will be offered up to 12 hours support each financial year, including up to two on-site visits. Support will be tailored to meet the school’s requirements and may vary from school to school. Visits are carried out by your named EFS adviser to ensure consistency and school specific knowledge. Our customers tell us regularly that this personalised and face to face support is one of the features of our service that they value the most.

Through the EFS support package, schools are given access to financial planning software which enables schools to plan effective medium term budgets. From this software the approved budgets can be uploaded to the accounting software which enables accurate budget monitoring and control.

In the absence of school administration staff with financial responsibilities, we offer 12 hours support each financial year with transactional finance and budgetary support. Additional support is available on a chargeable basis.

There are a range of training opportunities for governors, school leaders and finance staff. Training takes the form of formal group training sessions, networking opportunities and 1-to-1 training in school.

Within the support package purchased schools are entitled to up to 10 hours of support with recruitment of finance staff which may include support with shortlisting, provision of finance tasks and questions; and sitting on the interview panel.

We have a comprehensive website giving policy and guidance on financial aspects of school management. We provide easy to use work instructions for a range of tasks which finance staff need to complete in school and detailed guidance on more complex areas such as the Schools Financial Value Standard.