Financial management in schools

Schools Financial Benchmarking tool

This tool enables you to prepare charts that compare your school's income and expenditure profile with that of similar schools.

Full guidance on using the Schools Financial Benchmarking tool can be obtained by clicking the 'Help' link at the top of the benchmarking home page..

Financial Management Standard & Toolkit

This website contains a self-assessment tool designed to enable schools to evaluate their own performance against a nationally recognised statement of good practice as well as identify areas for development.

FMSiS guidance (external assessment)

For each element of the Standard, this tool shows the evidence that governors and senior managers in schools should expect to see to confirm compliance with the Standard.

Other useful sites

The Educational Procurement Centre funded by the DCSF promotes better procurement across the education, skills, children and families system. The aim of the Educational Procurement Centre (EPC) is to provide schools with the skills, tools and support to help them buy better.
Online Procurement for Educational Needs (OPEN) is an online marketplace which has been designed specifically for schools to make the process of buying goods and services faster, easier and simpler. Schools can easily and securely access local and national contracts and e-catalogues that can offer increased value for money and help school budgets go further.
The DCSF Value for Money website explains how to get the most economic, efficient and effective services. It contains useful information on school expenditure, good practice guides for head teachers on different aspects of school management and value-added performance data.
The role of the Audit Commission in school accounting is outlined on TeacherNet's school accounts page. On the Audit Commission site there are also self-evaluation tools that allow schools to test their financial management arrangements against standards set jointly by Ofsted and the Audit Commission. Candidates registered for the National Professional Qualification for Headship can set up a dummy school so that they can explore the principles of good resource management.