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Funding & Finances

Different Trusts set different ways to pay for services, which reflect how much the centre pays for and how much schools are required to fund themselves. Some trusts take a smaller percentage but then charge for additional services or licences on top of that or require schools to fund certain things, like the MIS system, from their budget.   Approximately two-thirds of our schools' contributions are returned to them through jointly procured services, which they would have to purchase at a higher rate if they were not part of our MAT. The rest primarily covers salaries for the central team, who provide daily support to schools and pupils. Not only does this streamline processes, but it also means we can procure things centrally (taking advantage of reduced costs) and keep our approaches unified to share and support each other more efficiently across our schools. The central team and services aim to provide services to schools that they cannot afford alone. The next step will be to look at local services with long waiting lists and provide these for our children centrally (e.g., school nurses, mental health support, Ed Psych support, etc.).

We operate a defined contribution system that ensures financial clarity and fairness for all our schools. Heads and trust leaders collaboratively agree on which services and systems will be centrally funded, and costs are then split proportionally across schools. This approach means that any additional income generated by individual schools remains theirs to invest, while the central trust only requests what it genuinely needs to deliver agreed-upon support and pay for agreed upon joint costs/ products, rather than taking an arbitrary percentage of school budgets (at present this is about £1,000 per pupil). By pooling resources for essential services, we maximise efficiency, reduce costs through collective procurement, and ensure every school benefits from high-quality, centrally coordinated expertise, without compromising their financial autonomy.

Our system has ensured that all our schools all now have balanced budgets, in a climate where schools nationally are often in deficit. Meaning our schools can then spend more money on staffing, pupils and what heads and LSBs decide. 

Being part of our trust financially benefits schools because we produce high savings through joint procurement. 

 

This is what we currently pay for: 

  • We use a health shield for staff health care (including video GP, 24/7 counselling support, private fees, stress prevention, etc.). 
  • Health care for staff's children 
  • Coaching all SLT and DSL staff from a qualified coach 
  • DSL supervision and support group 
  • Supervision for all heads from our counsellor (Tiff) 
  • Access to the counsellor as needed from staff or following school events (bereavement, etc.) 
  • Central Mental health first-aider who runs drop-ins for school staff and has bookable slots 
  • Multiple CPD conferences a year (2 for HTS, 1 for all staff) 
  • Full days of SIP support (approx half termly) 
  • HTPMR and review meetings, including the paperwork prep and writing up etc 
  • Systems: (Access payroll, HR, Budgets, finances) (MIS - Arbor) (Risk, CPD and H+S: Every) (Smoothwall safeguarding)  
  • CPD system (safer recruitment, etc.) through Every by Iris 
  • Data Systems from FFT and Perspective
  • Subscriptions: The Key, NGA, Juniper HR and contracts portals, Juniper templates, Essex Pensions, Toolkit, Actuarial report, etc
  • H+S services from Judicium 
  • DPO, iCO, etc., registration 
  • Lawyer and HR support from Brownejacobson, one account per school is paid for centrally and can be accessed directly by schools as required. 
  • Named HR advisor and HR support 
  • Trust accountant on hand to support 
  • Internal and external audit fees (e.g. reviews, fire checks, etc.) 
  • Social media and comms support to ensure that parents get the information they need in a manageable way. 
  • Marketing support to ensure schools' key messages are communicated well 
  • Whole Trust bids for grants.   

 

Plus, the central team staff:

  • Five cross-trust facilitators (English, maths, CPD, Welfare and ECTS/RQTs) 
  • Mental health lead (MHFA) (with bookable sessions) 
  • Central AHT (Heads access for support or cover) 
  • Attendance and admissions administrator  
  • Payroll manager
  • Finance manager 
  • Risk and Projects officer (including RPA link and risk register management) 
  • EA (Centrally managed policies) 
  • Estate and H+S lead 
  • CFOO 
  • CEO 
  • Central competent person to sign off risk assessments 

 

As a Trust, we also procure and pay for the following for all of our schools through group bargaining: 

Sats monitoring fees 

LSB clerking 

Admissions Appeals 

Health shield cover 

Counselling 

Essex school jobs & DBSs 

SIP visits 

HTPMRs

Sonar MIS 

FFT  MIS 

Perspective/Nova MIS 

Evolve 

Access MIS 

Microsoft licenses 

Sophos antivirus 

Ipads MDM 

printer/ copier rentals 

Every 

Arbor 

Essex H&S 

cleapps 

The key 

Inventry Entry system 

TeachmateAI 

DPO-SBM

Smoothwall

SBM finance toolkit 

Pensions Actuary  

NGA

Phones 

Broadband 

Cleaning 

Rates 

Insurance & Cyber clan 

Water

Gas

Electric 

IT support 

Backup service 

Corporate banking fees 

Audits- MWS- Essex H&S- ICE- cyber- GDPR -  Fire- Tree surveys

Brown Jacobson Lawyers

Juniper HR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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