Attendees will learn from maintained primary schools which are improving financial efficiency through procurement, good governance and strong leadership. In addition, gain insight from schools excelling in outstanding financial management through designing robust systems with clear leadership and oversight. 

Registration, Refreshments and Networking

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09:30

Chairs Welcome Address

Professor Geraint Johnes, Professor of Economics, Lancaster University(invited)

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09:40

Morning Keynote: Supporting Primary Schools to Enhance Their Financial Management

Tanya Arkle, Deputy Director, Academy Programme (South), Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)(CONFIRMED)

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10:00

Special Keynote: Assisting Schools to Deliver High Quality Financial Management

• Evaluating the current landscape of primary school funding and providing advice and guidance regarding how schools can enhance their efficiency given this context
• Evaluating the key considerations for schools seeking to develop and implement an effective financial strategy
• Exploring financial management challenges unique to the primary sector and how these can be overcome
• Sharing best practice as to how to maximise efficiency: including through regular reviews, collaborating to achieve economies of scale and careful consideration of staffing structures

Julia Harnden, Finance Specialist, Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) (CONFIRMED)

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10:20

Sponsored Sessionn

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10:40

Questions and Answers Session

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11:00

Case Study: Sharing Success in Outstanding Financial Management

• Building strong relationships with the governing body that harnesses financial and business expertise and encourages robust challenge and oversight
• Outlining how high needs funding is allocated to maximise its effectiveness and resulted in praise by Ofsted for its positive impact
• Examining the key features of high quality financial management including curriculum led financial planning and a sustainable staff pay policy
• Preparing for the new national school funding formula through ensuring a financial surplus that protects from fluctuations: How was this achieved?

Sue Bladen, Business Manager, Pitmaston Primary School (invited)

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11:20

Case Study: Increasing School Revenue Through Innovative Income Generation

• Reassessing the school’s finances in light of the new national funding formula and seeking to proactively plan for the future by putting together an income generation strategy
• Sharing insights from the decision making process when choosing to lease the school yard to an organisation running a food market
• Supporting local businesses whilst maximising revenue due to the growth potential of the project starting with 28 stalls initially and increasing to 33
• Assessing the income generated by the lease and how this outstrips previous ventures such as renting rooms

Lydia Heath, School Business Manager, Kells Lane Primary School (invited)

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11:40

Case Study: Undertaking a Financial Review to Identify Potential Efficiency Savings

• Undertaking a comprehensive review of the schools finances and audit trail and identifying areas of non-compliance and potential savings: Outlining this process and key barriers and challenges
• Exploring the process of taking property services in-house as opposed to the previous model of paying the local authority: Examining the benefits including increased flexibility
• Achieving financial efficiency through the school finance review by reducing spend from £27,000 to £13,000 per year; Analysing how this was achieved
• Reinvesting savings into measures that enhance teaching and learning including refurbishing classroom space and creating an innovative new eco-pod learning environment

Maria Taylor, School Business Professional, Breck Primary School (invited)

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12:00

Questions and Answers Session

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12:20

Lunch and Networking

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13:20

Afternoon Keynote: The Role of the School Business Profession in Delivering Effective Financial Management in Primary Schools

• Analysing how changes to the National Funding Formula will impact on the role of school business managers (SBM): Exploring common concerns and how to tackle these
• Exploring the positive impact of the role of a school business manager in reducing school spend and enhancing efficiency
• Evaluating how schools can improve their financial management through benchmarking against similar schools to compare data in areas including staffing levels and premise costs
• Considering how SBM’s can think outside the box to support schools to generate income including through expansion and trading services

Stephen Morales, Chief Executive,ISBL(invited)

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13:40

Case Study: Implementing Cost-Effective Procurement Practices in Primary Schools to Deliver Financial Savings

• Outlining how the federation model enables efficiencies in procurement costs: Sharing lessons and challenges
• Enabling financial savings to be reinvested into additional learning experiences such as school trips that enrich children’s development
• Exploring how the role of the school business manager has evolved within the school and works effectively with the SLT: Outlining common barriers to effective joint working and how these can be overcome
• Sharing lessons on how to create effective financial management structures that give individual schools autonomy whilst retaining central oversight

Michael Thomas, School Business Manager, The Jessop Stockwell Federation (invited)

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14:00

Questions and Answers Session

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14:20

Refreshments and Networking

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14:40

Case Study: Supporting Schools to Improve their Financial Management – Lessons from a Local Authority

• Evaluating the potential impact of the new National Funding Formula on local authorities and how they allocate school funding accordingly
• Sharing insights from School Funding UpdateReport published October 2017
• Examining the role of local authorities in implementing robust structures to enable schools to have autonomy whilst ensuring effective oversight and the ability to quickly identify and work with schools to respond to areas of concern
• Sharing examples of effective strategies for schools to enhance their financial management

Hannah Barker, Principal Policy & Projects Officer,London Councils (invited)

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15:00

Case Study: Delivering and Implementing a Curriculum-Led Financial Planning Model

• Examining what is meant by the term ‘curriculum-led financial planning’: Planning the staffing in advance around the ideal curriculum model, conceived by the SLT
• Sharing lessons in finding the optimal balance between affordable costs and the SLTs vision of the ideal curriculum: Examining potential solutions including increasing teacher contact time, discontinuing less popular subjects and increasing class sizes for certain groups
• Undertaking a flexible, responsive approach to changes in staffing and exploring how frequent communication between the headteacher and SLT is key to the success of this approach

Paul Sorby, Director of Curriculum, Outwood Grange Academies Trust(invited)

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15:20

Questions and Answers Session

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15:40

Chairs Closing Remarks

*programme subject to change

Don't forget to quote 'IGEdCentral20' when booking to claim your exclusive 20% discount!

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