It is very important for schools to get the best out of their finite resources.  Benchmarking expenditure is a way for schools to take control of their budgets by learning from others and implementing changes to spending patterns to help them deliver their education priorities.

10 Tips for Successful Benchmarking

* Use benchmarking as part of a strategic financial plan linked to your school development plan.
* Make sure school managers and governors are committed to benchmarking.
* Select a small number of key areas of expenditure likely to bring early success or large improvements in standards or costs.
* Compare your spending in these areas with similar schools to your own - (the new Benchmarking website will offer a number of criteria).
* Take time to analyse results carefully - involve the whole team.
* Agree a plan for making changes with management and stakeholders and set targets.
* Monitor outcomes and ensure the whole team is aware of successes.
* DON'T benchmark just to seek reassurance. The aim is to improve.
* DON'T waste time on areas where there is little scope for improvement.
* DON'T lose sight of your objective. It is tempting to try to benchmark too much at once.

The Schools Website from the Audit Commission can be used to access tools to help with benchmarking and budgeting:

• Comparing school finances: Comparative tool
• Controlling school finances: A self-evaluation tool
• Managing school resources: A self-evaluation tool

NB.  The Benchmarking Website and Revised School Finance Pack - The newly developed benchmarking website will be officially launched on 18 November (although the official launch day remains as the 18th November, the new Schools Financial Benchmarking website is now live and available to be viewed at https://sfb.teachernet.gov.uk/login.aspx for those of you eager to start benchmarking).  The database containing information about the income and expenditure of over 20,000 schools will provide school managers and governors with the tools to benchmark their finances and help them to manage finite resources effectively. 

The revised School Finance Pack will also be available from 18 November 2003.  It provides the latest guidance about the Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) framework. The revised benchmarking section of the pack provides practical advice to help schools to analyse and compare expenditure data with other similar schools to achieve higher levels of efficiency and world-class educational standards.

You can download the School Finance Pack from the Value for Money website.  A limited number of printed copies will be available.  Your school can order from Prolog - please quote order number DfES/0786/2003.