FEATURE: MULTI-ACADEMY TRUSTS
Whilst we are seeing and hearing the benefits that this collaborative approach can bring, we are also seeing a ‘lukewarm’ view on this becoming more widespread due to concerns on how messages around greater collaboration can be balanced with the not insignificant number of schools who see this as a direct trade-off against their autonomy. There is further work to be done to demonstrate how a responsible and collaborative approach to financial management, potentially combined with financial pooling, can provide an overall benefit for schools.
3. Greater MAT accountability and scrutiny In August, the Education and Skills Funding Agency released new guidance stating that academies can expect tougher check on their finances, including “more detailed questioning” from auditors”. Then in November Baroness Barran said that “we want to take a careful look at how we hold Trusts to account and ensure they deliver value for money”. MAT Boards, who under the Academy Trust Handbook guidance must receive monthly management accounts to enable them to scrutinise accordingly, should have these words ringing in their ears.
Guidance on management accounts from the National Governance Association says that “data should be up to date – accounting systems should be able to produce the relevant data automatically” and “if the Trust lacks appropriate software or processes to easily produce adequate accounts, this needs to be addressed”. Our MAT budgeting, financial management and reporting software, IMP Planner, has systemised the entire monthly reporting process, joining the historic finance actuals with the detailed, real-time, forward-looking forecast data automatically,
enabling Trust finance teams to focus on the analysis, not the preparation. This ensures that Trustees and senior executive leaders have high quality, digestible information to understand the financial performance, so that Boards can deliver effective oversight.
4. Planning with continued uncertainty The pandemic has already changed the landscape of financial management for academies and Trusts. While some schools have been able to make some savings on maintenance and supply costs, many have also faced an increase in expenditure from investing heavily in technology to limit disruption to pupils’ education. Additionally, school closures have meant there have been fewer opportunities for income generation, negatively impacting revenue and financial planning. Concerns over
teacher pay following the Autumn Budget, and costs resulting from the forthcoming government white paper setting out the next stage of system reforms, are also creating uncertainty even though the government has allocated an extra £7.1 billion for schools in England through to 2022-23. The ‘mood music’, and expectation around a process for eventually moving to a system where all schools are in a MAT, leads us to want to explore further the appetite for centralisation within Trust finance/operations and whether GAG/financial pooling will be looked at to help maximise the support that growing MATs can offer their schools. Or indeed whether this potential growth, and the need to be an ‘attractive home’ for schools who are looking to join a MAT, is actually impacting the strategies that might have otherwise been employed.
January 2022
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