The NEW School Financial Benchmarking Report: Making school budget planning easier

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 14:39:57 +0000

With budget deficits affecting more than one in four schools in England this year, it’s especially important to have good visibility over your spending and income. We know every extra minute you have to build next year’s school budget will be crucial, so we’ve built the School’s Financial Benchmarking Report, an all-in-one PDF report, especially for your school.

Using your latest 2020/21 financial data from the DfE, your report gives you a ready-made analysis of your income and expenditure patterns over the last 3 years – so you can see the impact of Covid-19 straight away. It also shows you how your finances compare against schools like you nationally, locally and within your Local Authority.

With colour-coded graphs and expert analysis on each page, it’s ready to share in your next governor or staff meeting. It’s perfectly digestible for everyone in the room, so you’ll have time to explain your next steps in more detail.

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How do I get my report?

Log in to your school’s Arbor Insight portal
If you haven’t yet signed up to Arbor Insight, click here to create your free account

How will my report simply school budget planning?

Your report…

Saves you the time and hassle of exporting your records from the DfE, by bringing all your financial and student information into one place
Compares your costs and expenditure this year to trends over the past three years
Helps you identify past over- and under-spends and where you’re getting most value for money
Benchmarks your financial performance against schools like you, helping you compare your response to the challenges of Covid
Gives you a ready-made report with expert analysis and colour-coded charts that’s perfect for sharing with Governors

Great this term to…

Easily compare your Covid spend with previous years so you can set achievable targets for this year
Instantly see the financial impact of a full disrupted year compared to the past 3 years, and compared to schools nationally, locally, and in your LA
Use in combination with your free ASP performance reports to compare per-student spend with academic achievement
Save time collating your data so you can focus on making the most impactful decisions for next year

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How can I best use the data in my report?

The benchmarking data in your report can help you make better budgeting decisions, especially given the effect of Covid on schools in the past year. Your Governors will be interested to know how and why your financial approach to this disruption differs to similar schools, and how you plan to redirect your resources to support better outcomes for students.

Why not present a benchmarking report to your Governors at the next meeting?

For an even more in-depth review of how to make the most of your report, read our guide to schools’ financial benchmarkin g.

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Want more from your data?

Arbor’s cloud-based Management Information System (MIS) can give you even greater insight over your performance and finance data. With live, role-specific dashboards and classroom management tools, your staff can get the data they need at their fingertips.

Watch a free demo here to see how Arbor can transform the way your school works.

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Next steps

Don’t forget to sign up (for free) to Arbor Insight where you’ll be able to purchase your School’s Financial Benchmarking report, as well as download your school’s free ASP report from 2019.

If you have any questions or would like any help with your report, you can reach the Arbor Insight team at insight@arbor-education.com or by calling us on 0207 043 1830.

If you’d like to find out how Arbor MIS could transform the way you work for the better, we’d love to see you at BETT (taking place 23rd-25th of March 2022)! Register here to meet us over lunch or tea and coffee.

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