The new regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will include commissioning support for schools on finance and resource management.
Speaking at a conference for school business professionals, the schools minister Catherine McKinnell said the RISE teams would work “in close collaboration to make sure that schools can progress and learn from one another”, and that this would “include supporting schools to achieve high standards on finance and resource management”.
She added that the school business professionals team is working with the RISE policy team to “consider how our capability-building initiatives can be part of that RISE offer” to support school financial management.
Financial management a ‘cornerstone’ for raising standards
John Edwards, the Department for Education’s regions director general, said that the effective financial management of schools would be a “cornerstone” of raising standards for every child.
The new RISE teams will work with schools based on the new Ofsted report cards. The cards will be used to identify whether a school can benefit from a “universal support” offer if it has minimal issues, or needs more targeted support or structural intervention.
Universal support will include access to financial support, the DfE said this morning.
Schools requiring more targeted help will be assigned an organisation commissioned by the RISE teams, which will create a “bespoke package of support”.
This arrangement will be funded where needed, but Mr Edwards said it “may well not need to be funded in all situations”. The package of support is “intended to last for 12, maybe even 18 or up to 24 months”.
Support can come from a multi-academy trust, local authority partnership or other organisation.
Mr Edwards added that school resource management advisers (SRMAs) will, in some cases, play a role in providing targeted support.
SRMAs - often experienced school business leaders - go into schools and provide advice on how best to use revenue and capital resources.
Some concerns have been raised about the programme in the past. Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, said in April that it had been “uneven in delivery”. While some trusts had received useful advice, others reported “receiving unrealistic recommendations”.
SRMAs have often been recommended to trusts by regional advisory boards when discussing school conversions and sponsorships.
Improvement, support and oversight brought together
It was announced earlier this year that the Education and Skills Funding Agency would close and its functions would move into the DfE. This included the Schools Financial Support and Oversight team, which now reports to the regions group.
“What that enables us to do is to bring together improvement, support and oversight for the school system,” Mr Edwards said today.
He added that financial and operational management is “really critical to the change we’ve made structurally”.
Ms McKinnell added that the RISE teams would work to complement the DfE’s ongoing offer to school business professionals.
The DfE will also provide in-person training for finance leadership through a local support offer and a mentoring programme.
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