School financial self-assessment checklists

The self-assessment checklist and Schools Financial Value Standards (SFVS) checklist helps academies and maintained schools check they are managing resources effectively and identify any adjustments they need to make.

Academies:

All academies are required to use the online form which is now live to submit their checklist, referring to the 2023 to 2024 checklist support notes to provide guidance on the questions. The deadline for academy trusts to submit their 2023-24 checklist is 15 March 2024.

As well as helping trusts to identify areas for potential improvement in their resource management, the checklist provides assurance to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) that trusts have the right processes, systems and structures in place to help them to achieve a good level of financial health and resource management.

Maintained Schools:

The document ‘Schools financial value standard checklist’ is for maintained schools. It asks questions of governing bodies in six areas of resource management. schools should submit their SFVS to their local authority no later than 31 March 2024.

The SFVS checklist guidance and additional resource documents are appropriate for the 2023 to 2024 reporting year.

The self-assessment dashboard helps academies and maintained schools complete their checklists. To find their self-assessment dashboard schools should search for their school on the schools financial benchmarking website. Guidance on completing the self-assessment dashboard is available.

The dashboard provides red, amber or green (RAG) ratings against a school’s data. This indicates how its spending and characteristics compare with those of similar schools or nationally recognised bandings and includes possible follow-up actions.