Guidance

The school resource management advisers (SRMA) programme

Updated 6 February 2024

Applies to England

1. About School Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs)

SRMAs are independent advisers, not employed directly by the Department for Education (DfE), who have significant experience in managing resources in the education sector.

All SRMAs have been through an accreditation process, currently run by Education Performance Improvement Limited. SRMAs are trained to look at the resources available to schools and trusts and recommend more efficient ways to deliver the best possible educational outcomes for pupils.

SRMAs may be:

• practicing school business managers and school leaders
• currently working in schools or academy trusts
• consultants working for themselves or for an education consultancy organisation

SRMAs offer peer-to-peer support and challenge to school leaders as a critical friend and an empathetic ear. They are not auditors or inspectors. All SRMAs are linked with one of the SRMA suppliers: North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) or The Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL).

Each SRMA supplier and the SRMAs working with them are legally bound to maintain confidentiality and comply with data protection rules while carrying out deployments. You can view information about the School Resource Management Adviser contracts the department has in place with the suppliers on the Contracts Finder website.

SRMA visits are free for all schools and trusts. They are funded by DfE. Local authorities must confirm approval for all visits to local authority maintained schools before a deployment can start.

2. Purpose and overview of an SRMA visit

The SRMA offer is open to all schools. The objective of most SRMA deployments is to support schools to make best use of available resource to provide an outstanding education for pupils.

In all cases, a named case lead in the department will commission the visit and act as a point of contact for the academy trust and the SRMA. Local authority deployments will usually involve more than one school, but the SRMA will visit and work with each school individually.

There are a couple of different options for an SRMA visit and various ways an SRMA could support a trust, school, or local authority. Your case lead can talk through which option will be most suitable for your setting.

2.1 Standard visit

A standard, comprehensive SRMA review is suggested for schools and trusts that have not previously had an SRMA visit, where the adviser will look at all the school or trust’s:

• financial data
• key metrics
• overall approach to resource management, including whether the school or trust practices integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP)

Standard visits will still be tailored to individual needs and can also include specific areas of focus, agreed at the outset. The adviser will arrange a series of meetings with key individuals to understand the school or trust’s context and priorities and its approach to financial governance. They will prepare a report for the leadership team, setting out their analysis and a range of recommendations to consider. The SRMA will also ask for feedback at this stage.

2.2 Bespoke visit

A bespoke visit is where the SRMA can work with a school or trust on one or two specific areas. This is available to all settings at any time although it may be more suitable for those that have already had a standard review and now want to focus on a specific issue.

The visit will be related to finance or resource management and examples could include:

• support to revise a budget plan
• advice and support with choosing a new finance system
• advice on building a central team to support trust growth
• support introducing integrated curriculum
• financial planning (ICFP) to trustees

At the end of the deployments, the SRMA will discuss their findings with the trust or school, and the local authority where appropriate. They will present recommendations for the school or trust to consider. It is up to each trust and each local authority maintained school in collaboration with their local authority, to decide which recommendations they want to take forward.

SRMAs produce a report for each deployment. Comprehensive deployment reports follow a standard format and will include key efficiency metrics, the SRMA’s analysis and their recommendations based on their review. The content and format of bespoke deployment reports will vary depending on the focus of the visit. All reports will be tailored to each school or trust’s context.

For deployments involving local authority maintained schools, the local authority has the option of a summary report. This is a separate report, written specifically for the local authority, which may identify good practice and can include local authority level recommendations. It could also include opportunities for the local authority to consider. In preparing to write this report, the SRMA will schedule separate meetings with the local authority to consider how the team approaches budget monitoring with its schools, and the extent to which the local authority uses ICFP.

All reports are quality assured to ensure they are clear and factually accurate. Once finalised, the case lead will send the report to the chair of trustees and the accounting officer (for academy trusts) or to the local authority to send on to the school (for local authority maintained schools). We aim to share reports within 3 to 4 weeks of the final meeting with the SRMA.

All deployments include a follow-up meeting with an SRMA, 6 months after the local authority or academy trust receives the SRMA’s report. This is an opportunity to:

• discuss progress and next steps
• ask any questions
• consider whether any further support would be helpful

At the same time, we will send out an evaluation workbook for each school or trust to complete, which gathers feedback and helps measure the impact of the programme to ensure it continues to meet the needs of schools, local authorities, and academy trusts.

You can discuss this with your case lead or email us at ESFA.SRMA@education.gov.uk if you have not been allocated a case lead.

3. Before the deployment starts

Once a deployment has been agreed, the department will commission an SRMA from one of two suppliers: the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) or North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC). For deployments to local authority maintained schools, the school(s) will be asked to complete a data information sheet in collaboration with the local authority, which will help us commission the most suitable SRMA.

The case lead will contact the academy trust or local authority to confirm the allocated SRMA’s name and check there are no conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest are rare. Examples include situations where a trust or school employs a close relative of the SRMA, or that the SRMA was previously employed at the school or trust.

We encourage SRMAs to use the view my financial insights (VMFI) tool to complete their initial review of a school or trust’s finances. The tool compares a setting’s data with 30 similar settings and allows users to filter custom characteristics to create segmentation across a variety of datasets. The department will ask leadership teams to grant the allocated SRMA access to this information through the VMFI portal for the duration of the deployment. The case lead will provide instructions on how to do this.

Through access to a broader range of data and insights, the tool supports school finance teams in 3 ways:

• increasing efficiency by reducing the need for desk based research regarding financial insights and data
• providing up-to-date and customisable data insights to help identify areas for further investigation
• offering access to commercial resources including government contracts, frameworks and guidance

If you are not already familiar with the tool guidance on navigating the view my financial insights tool is available.

The case lead will brief the SRMA on the background of each trust or school and highlight any key areas of possible focus for the visit.

3.1 Academy trust deployments

For academy trust deployments, the case lead will also provide some additional financial data, including a copy of the trust’s latest budget forecast return, recent budget plan and management accounts (if the trust has previously provided these documents to the ESFA).

Academy trusts should speak to their case lead if they have any questions about the documents to be shared with the SRMA.

The SRMA will then contact the academy trust to arrange dates for their visit. This initial call is also an opportunity for leadership teams to tell the SRMA about any specific areas of concern and for the SRMA to ask initial questions to better understand the trust’s context. During this call the SRMA will confirm any additional information they need from an academy trust in advance, as well as the things they will want to look at when they visit.

3.2 Local authority deployments

For local authority deployments, the case lead will first arrange a virtual conversation with the local authority and the SRMA, to ensure all parties are clear on what is expected, and by when. During this meeting, the SRMA will confirm whether they need any additional information ahead of their meetings with the local authority and school(s), as well as things they will want to see when they visit. The SRMA will then contact the school(s) to arrange dates for visits.

Documents the SRMA may ask to see, before or during meetings, may include:

• latest budget and financial plan, to include at least one previous year and the starting balances for the current year
• pupil numbers, actual and forecast
• staff list and staffing structure, ideally including total teaching staff FTE (full time equivalent) and support staff FTE, teaching, support, and non-curriculum staff costs, senior leadership team (SLT) and teaching and learning responsibility (TLR) costs
• curriculum planning documents
• completed school resource management self-assessment checklist for academy trusts or completed schools financial value standard (SFVS) for local authority maintained schools
• contracts and SLA register
• management accounts
• minutes and reports from recent governance meetings (for example, governing body or trust board meetings, Interim Executive Board meetings, finance committees)
• internal audit reports or local authority audit reports
• any recent relevant Schools Forum decisions

For local authority maintained schools, information on the level of finance support provided by the local authority, either as part of its statutory duties or via a traded service may be useful as well as any local authority school place planning issues which may impact on school organisation, for example:

• pupil numbers
• potential federation options
• moves from 3 to 2 tier

The SRMA will use this information to develop a deeper understanding of each trust or school’s financial health and its approach to school resource management. The SRMA will also make comparisons against benchmarks to consider areas of focus for the meetings. We encourage SRMAs to use their own ICFP diagnostic tools, as well as the department’s:

• Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) resources
• financial benchmarking
• workforce benchmarking
• other self-assessment tools

4.  The SRMA’s meetings and visits

Where possible, the department suggests the SRMA should visit schools or trusts in-person, as this helps them to get a full picture of each setting’s context and build rapport with the leadership team. However, our COVID-19 experience has shown that entirely virtual deployments, conducted though Zoom or Teams calls, can be effective and may be more appropriate in some cases. The case lead will discuss this with the local authority or trust when organising the deployment. During all meetings, we expect all parties to conduct themselves in accordance with the Nolan Principles.

The SRMA is likely to spend a total of 1 to 3 days visiting each trust or local authority maintained school, depending on the complexity and scope of the deployment. These may be consecutive days or individual days or half days, spread over a longer period. The SRMA has 6 weeks from their first substantive meeting with a trust and 8 weeks from an initial meeting with an local authority maintained school (or 10 days after their last meeting, whichever is shorter) to submit their report.

The SRMA will hold an initial meeting with each leadership team at the beginning of their visit. It is up to the school or trust to agree with the SRMA who should represent them at this meeting, but it might reasonably include the:

• head teacher
• finance director
• school business manager
• chair of governors or trustees

The equivalent senior leaders in a multi-academy trust (MAT) might include the:

• chief executive
• chair of trustees
• chief financial officer

The SRMA will discuss their initial analysis of the school or trust’s data and agree with the leadership team where they will focus the rest of their time. They will also agree a schedule of meetings with the appropriate people.

For a standard comprehensive review, SRMAs will consider a series of questions about:

• financial governance
• resource allocation
• benchmarking
• integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP)

SRMAs will make a series of recommendations for using resources to best effect, which may include:

• suggesting ways to streamline and improve existing plans and practices
• embedding ICFP
• minimising burdens on staff and removing unnecessary workload

They should also discuss and signposting academy trusts to the range of national deals, tools, and resources available.

For bespoke visits, the SRMA will agree with the leadership team what data they will need to see and what meetings may be appropriate.

At the end of each deployment, the SRMA will hold a final meeting with the academy trust or school to present their findings and discuss the recommendations. Where relevant, these will include costed savings for the school or trust to consider. As part of this meeting, the SRMA will ask for feedback and initial thoughts about their recommendations.

4.1 SRMA meetings with the local authority

As part of each local authority deployment the SRMA will usually also meet with them. This is an opportunity for the local authority to identify any specific points of concern and to ask initial questions, to better understand the local authorities’ perspective of an individual school’s context and to confirm specific areas for consideration.

A meeting with the local authority also gives the SRMA an opportunity to consider the extent to which the local authority takes an integrated approach to curriculum and financial planning across all its schools. The SRMA may ask questions about the local authority budget monitoring systems and talk about other school resource management tools and resources, especially if they are producing a local authority budget summary report as part of their deployment.

5. After the SRMA’s visit

The SRMA will share their findings and draft reports with the department. They will prepare a single report for each trust deployment. For local authority budget deployments there will be separate reports for each individual school, plus a local authority summary report where applicable.

All reports are quality assured to ensure clarity and factual accuracy. The case lead will raise any questions with the SRMA, but it is for the SRMA to make any changes to their report. For trust deployments, the case lead will share the final report with the trust’s Chair and Accounting Officer. For local authority deployments, the case lead will share the final school report(s) with the local authority and ask for these to be sent on to each individual school.

It is up to academy trusts, or schools in collaboration with the local authority, to decide which of the SRMA’s recommendations they will take forward, based on their individual circumstances. They may not agree with every recommendation the SRMA suggests.

The department expects schools and trusts to implement recommendations that will help improve resource management and target funding to areas that have the greatest impact on pupil outcomes. If settings decide not to take any of the recommendations forward they should be able to explain why that is the right decision for their context.

When the department delivers the SRMA’s report to the academy trust or local authority, the email will include a link to a feedback survey. Your views are important, and we use this feedback to understand what has worked well and what more we can do to improve the programme to best support school and trusts.

6. Follow up and evaluation

Six months after sending out the SRMA’s report, the department will contact the academy trust or local authority to arrange a follow-up. This will usually be virtual and should take no more than half a day for a trust or school. This conversation is an opportunity to discuss progress over the last 6 months and possible next steps. The SRMA can offer further advice on implementing recommendations where appropriate. For continuity, the department will try to commission the same SRMA that conducted the original visit.

As part of this follow-up, we ask academy trusts and schools to complete a simple evaluation workbook that sets out the SRMA’s original costed recommendations and asks for actual and planned savings against each one. The SRMA can help the trust to complete this return. Where trusts are not planning to take recommendations forward, or where they have not yet finalised their plans, they will be asked to provide a brief narrative explaining their reasoning. The workbook is not intended to question the school or trust’s progress on delivering their plans as it is up to them to decide whether the SRMA recommendations are appropriate for their context.

The process is intended to help the department measure the impact of the SRMA programme and better understand its value for the sector. This feedback also helps the department to further tailor the programme to meet school and trusts’ needs in future.

The department may contact the trust or local authority to discuss potential case studies (like these ones from Hackney London Borough Council and The Minerva Learning Trust) to support the department’s understanding of where the SRMA programme has added value and where it may benefit from improvement.

The department’s Schools Commercial Team may also offer targeted support through the Get help buying for schools service and may contact a trust or local authority to discuss procurement support and approved frameworks in more detail.

In some instances, a school, trust or local authority may want further advice or support following a deployment and may ask an SRMA or their supplier organisation to provide this.

While the department is clear that the purpose of a deployment is not for SRMAs to promote their own independent consultancy offer, the department is supportive of SRMAs continuing to provide support where this is requested, needed, and represents good value for money. Any ongoing support must be agreed independently between the school, trust or local authority and the SRMA, after the end of the deployment, taking account of relevant procurement processes and SRMA’s own contractual obligations and other commitments. Schools or trusts would need to fund any such work themselves.