Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP)
Overview
Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) is a management process that helps schools plan the best curriculum for their pupils with the funding they have available. It can be used at any phase or type of school.
ICFP involves measuring your current curriculum, staffing structure and finances, and using the data to create a 3- to 5-year plan.
ICFP is not new
The idea of linking curriculum and financial planning is not new. Most schools probably use some ICFP processes already when reviewing their curriculum or financial strategy.
The benefits of ICFP
Linking curriculum and financial planning can help you:
achieve educational success and financial sustainability
deliver the best curriculum your school can afford that meets the needs of your pupils
Getting started with ICFP
There is no one way to do ICFP, but it should include analysing your:
teacher deployment
use of support staff
non-staffing costs
balance of income and costs
The more variables you measure, the more accurately you’ll be able to predict the resources you can afford in the future.
You’ll need to make some assumptions about how things might change over the next few years. Starting before you begin planning for the next academic year will give you time to recruit any new teachers you need.
ICFP is most effective when it is a normal part of your planning activity and involves your senior team, including your business manager and governors.
Use the 7-step guide to ICFP (PDF, 135 KB, 7 pages) to help you get started.
Common ICFP steps
Most approaches to ICFP follow common steps.
Prepare
To begin, you should:
get the right people involved – curriculum and financial planners need to work together
create an educational vision statement for your school
conduct a thorough assessment of your current financial situation
conduct a thorough assessment of your teaching resources
choose an ICFP tool to help you know what to measure
make sure school leaders, academy trustees and governors understand common ICFP terms (PDF, 202 KB, 9 pages)
See the basic principles of ICFP (PDF, 179 KB, 10 pages) to help you prepare.
Analyse
Then start to:
look at the curriculum you wish to provide
link curriculum costs to budget planning
measure and benchmark key metrics
establish common assumptions about what will change over 3 to 5 years, including pupil numbers and needs, funding, costs, staffing or educational policy
Plan
Finally, you should:
reconcile staffing and curriculum plans with what can be delivered in a balanced budget
write a strategic plan for 3 to 5 years
set regular reviews and update the plan as things change
What to measure
ICFP balances the relationships between:
the amount of teaching time required to run the timetable
the amount of support staff time required (outside of mainstream secondary settings)
the proportion of time teachers spend teaching
class sizes
the cost of employing teachers
available revenue
non-staffing costs of running the school
the budget available for teaching costs
Some schools and trusts use additional metrics, such as ‘curriculum bonus’.
Using an equation (Association of School and College Leaders website) shows the relationship between what you measure and how changing one figure can affect other variables.
The fundamental equations (PDF, 172 KB, 8 pages) and supporting workbook (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 32.7 KB) explain the link between metrics without too much maths.
Analysing these metrics shows where you can create savings to invest in areas that will make the greatest difference to pupils.
You can do a simple analysis using the School resource management self-assessment tool (academies) or the Schools financial value standard (maintained).
Reconciliation
Your analysis will give you the number of teachers you can afford, based on estimated cost pressures, income and pupil roll numbers, and the number of teachers you need to deliver your ideal curriculum.
If these numbers are different, you will need to reconcile them.
Do this by changing other metrics to close the gap between these numbers. This could mean adjusting class size, pupil to teacher ratio or the number of teachers.
What you change will depend on the priorities set out in your educational vision statement. Reconciliation should be done openly with all relevant staff until you reach an agreement.
You will need to consider what can be delivered by school staff and the impact any changes may have on teacher workload and the work-life balance of staff. See the Workload reduction toolkit.
ICFP training
This training will help head teachers, governors and school business professionals.
Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL)
ISBL has published an ICFP training presentation which covers:
an overview of ICFP
metrics and calculating metrics
what metrics can tell you about about your organisation
Entrust
Entrust have created school resource management webinars which cover:
benchmarking
ICFP using DfE tools
ICFP deep dive
ICFP during uncertainty
procurement
joined up leadership
ICFP tools
You can use an Excel workbook tool to input and analyse your figures. There are a variety of free and paid for tools available for different school types and situations.
The following tools are free to use.
Tools for primary schools
Primary schools can use the primary school workbook (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 79.6 KB) and technical guide (PDF, 349 KB, 13 pages).
The Pioneer Academy Trust (primary) have developed their own set of tools and guidance including:
Watch The Pioneer Academy Trust’s approach to ICFP in primary schools:
The Pioneer Academy Trust’s approach to ICFP in primary schools
Tools for secondary schools
Secondary schools can use the secondary school workbook (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 89.9 KB) and technical guide (PDF, 492 KB, 18 pages).
Watch Outwood Grange Academy Trust’s approach to ICFP and curriculum bonus:
Outwood Grange’s approach to ICFP
Support
See Get financial advice for schools for a list of paid providers of ICFP advice. Services include recommending or supplying an ICFP tool, analysing your current processes and supporting you to make an ICFP action plan.
Responses