Finance

The Trust created a centralised finance function in June 2021 to allow the Trust to gain better control over its finance functions and ensure compliance and financial governance. The development of a Central Team has allowed the Trust to align processes and improve accuracy in the coding of transactions, enhancing reporting and allowing for improved benchmarking. Benchmarking is a key tool for the Trust and is also widely used by the DfE to compare KPIs and view a Trust's financial position and performance by comparing them with other most similar schools and Trusts. 

The centralised Finance Team provides a supportive environment in which staff can share expertise, best practice and work collaboratively. The team are well resourced to respond to issues and offer consistent levels of support to all schools within the Trust. The non-educational distractions including administrative tasks and transactional functions have been removed from senior leaders and Principals within schools, allowing them to focus on the education of our pupils.

In addition to the central services that are funded through the MAT contribution, the Trust centrally appoint staff to meet the operational needs of the schools within the Trust. These include support staff for the centralised IT and Finance departments, a Catering Manager responsible for the catering functions across all Trust schools and the Attendance and Welfare Teams which provide additional support and guidance to the teams in schools.

Our Financial Policies can be found here.