Funding
The governing body, in concert with the headteacher, is responsible for determining the strategic priorities for the school’s revenue budget. This means that the governing body is responsible for setting spending levels within the school, including the overall staffing level.
The NGA is represented on DCSF working groups considering revenue funding. We will continue to campaign to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to enable schools to provide the best educational opportunities for all their pupils.
A fundamental principle for the NGA is that all revenue funding should be objectively and equitably distributed.
The NGA is broadly supportive of measures taken since 1992 to increase financial delegation to schools. Despite good progress towards clarity and accountability at a local level, the NGA believes that the national procedures for resource allocation can be further improved and we will continue to seek an improved national system to distribute money to schools. We do not believe that direct funding for individual schools from central government is the correct solution to this problem.
While accepting that there may be legitimate projects that require governing bodies to hold reserve funds; the NGA believes that such reserves should be clearly identified and that the holding of excessive uncommitted reserves is not good practice.
The NGA’s members have reported very widely that the imposition of the FMSiS [Financial Management Systems in Schools] standard has added completely unnecessary burdens to schools and done nothing for competence or accountability. The NGA wants FMSiS to be urgently reviewed.
Capital funding
Current capital funding systems appear to overlap and the rationale for allocating funds to different projects is not always clear. This can make it very difficult for schools to know where to go to access the most appropriate programme for their needs.
The NGA will continue to campaign for an open and transparent system of capital funding that allows governing bodies to plan for the future needs of their school.