Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning, or ICFP as it is more commonly known, is not something new.
Schools have been using this approach to curriculum financial planning for years within the secondary sector to deliver an optimum, cost-effective curriculum for its pupils.
Principles of ICFP
In order to understand how to implement ICFP within a primary setting we must recognise the principles behind ICFP and what it means to your organisation, first of which begins with understanding what data to review and how to interpret said data to reduce inefficiency, allowing the delivery of a cost-effective affordable curriculum.
Fundamentally the approach is integrated between balancing the curriculum, staffing, and finances to have the maximum impact.
What data should we review?
Both the Institute of School Business Leaders (ISBL) and Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) refer to metrical data in terms of key performance indicators (KPIs). The types of data to measure include:
- the amount of teaching time required to deliver the curriculum
- the proportion of time teachers teach, known as contact ratio
- the ratio between pupils and teachers
- the ratio between pupils and adults
- the average class sizes
- the cost of delivering a lesson or session
- the cost of a schools staffing structure broken down into categories including teachers, senior leaders, management, curriculum support staff, and noncurriculum support staff
The key performance indicators show the school potential areas where efficiency savings can be made.
The first step is to understand the primary timetable cycle and determine how much time teachers are teaching.
Teaching time can be measured in hours and minutes; however, the primary structure lends itself to working on morning and afternoon sessions, which equates to 10 sessions per week.
Some primary settings choose to split the week into hours of teaching per week, similar to a secondary model, however, either model is suitable.
Once the timetable cycle has been determined, all key metrics can be calculated with ease and the use of the schools three-year budget planning.
So, let’s look at some examples of this. While undertaking budget planning last year, in the three-form entry primary school where I worked, in Blackpool, we wanted to take an integrated curriculum financial planning approach to our planning.
Initially we started by reviewing each class structure alongside the commitment that each teacher taught within the school compared to the maximum teaching time available.
When scrutinising the teaching time available and the amount of time teachers taught, we instantly noticed that some part-time members of staff were being given a full session of PPA. This came to light due to applying an integrated financial planning approach by analysing each teachers’ teaching commitment individually.
This type of analysis had not previously been reviewed as the primary approach had always been one teacher per class with a PPA session allocated, or two if the member of staff was a newly qualified teacher.
When the school calculated the cost of the additional PPA that the member of staff had been given, the inefficiency was quantified as £6,000. The impact for this school was that less hours were required for PPA so there was a financial saving to be gained.
Other areas of inefficiency that were instantly discovered were that the contact ratio was lower than a suggested 0.78 – 0.80. As a senior leadership team, we looked to reduce this by reviewing the amount of non-contact time and allocating additional teaching to teachers with available capacity.
Deploying our resources effectively again was a financial saving as fewer hours were needed for PPA. It’s all about finding the right balance and what works for your setting.
Proportioned expenditure
In the main, approximately 75-78 per cent of a school’s income is usually attributed to staffing costs, therefore if a school is spending 90 per cent of its income on staffing then that leaves little funds available to resource the curriculum, maintain the premises and its running costs.
Ultimately, knowing your organisations data is key. Schools need to understand how much of their income is being spent on teaching staff in proportion to support staff.
Is the balance right? How much of income is spent on non-staffing costs? How do these costs fit into the priorities of the school? If you are spending more in one area for a specific reason, remember something else has to give.
Within primary settings, the most common theme is that schools have a high number of teaching assistants to support pupils.
This is where ICFP works at its best and allows the school to calculate this type of staffing cost and measure it against both revenue income and expenditure, with further analysis against national comparators.
The metrics calculated will then allow senior leaders and Trustees to discuss how the school are allocating its resources, for instance if the analysis suggests that the school is spending 25 per cent of its income on teachings assistants, another aspect of the school’s expenditure may be being limited.
It’s ultimately about getting the balance right to have the greatest impact.
Another area which is often scrutinised in primary settings is leadership and management costs. If an acceptable national threshold is between 7-9% then higher than average costs allow thought provoking questions to materialise.
Is the senior leadership team too big? Are there too many teachers with teaching and learning responsibilities (TLRs)? Is the management structure expensive, if so, is it sustainable and what is the impact? If we then triangulate other key metric data, for example contact ratio, with those high management costs, other questions come to mind. Are teachers teaching too little? Is PPA too generous? Is the curriculum planning inefficient? Is management time given in addition to TLR payments? All valid questions.
By adopting an integrated curriculum financial planning approach, schools can link their curriculum and financial planning to achieve educational success, financial sustainability whilst meeting the educational needs of their pupils.
What to do next?
If you want to learn more, the DfE have funded free training on ICFP for school leaders till the end of March 2020. To book a place visit ISBL website.
In addition to the free DfE training there are many tools available for schools to utilise in order to undertake a curriculum financial planning approach which can be found on the gov.uk website.
Sheryl Cardwell is Business and Financial Consultant at Shard Business Services and School Resource Management Advisor.
