It is increasingly important that schools have strong strategic business management and administration to ensure they meet their statutory duties regarding finance, procurement, human resources, health and safety and premises management. Most schools now have School Business Managers (SBMs) who oversee these areas.

The Education Business Effectiveness Service provides free support to all maintained schools, including regular WF SBM Network meetings where school business professionals are encouraged to support each other by sharing best practice, supporting schools’ financial management by linking to other council services, provide first line support for finance management software subscriptions and ​​deliver Action Groups to support maintained schools in challenging financial positions, including falling reserves or deficit budgets.  

This free support includes:

Waltham Forest School Business Manager Network:​

• Free membership for all maintained SBMs - both new and experienced – to the Waltham Forest SBM Network, which meets half-termly to discuss key issues and offering the following benefits:​
  • Key updates around policy changes and funding on a timely basis from key local authority services including Education Finance, Health and Safety, Schools HR, Insurance, and Pensions.​​
  • Updates on local and national opportunities from professional bodies and/or government organisations such as Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL), Department of Education (DfE) and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).​
  • Sharing of experiences, best practice and successes between members and the wider school community.​​
  • An on-call community to resolve problems quickly, saving time and money.​​
  • Free continued professional development and training on key processes.

If you are a new School Business Manager and would like to join the WF SBM Network, please email ebe.helpdesk@walthamforest.gov.uk with contact details and we will send an invitation.  

Meeting dates 2025-26

• Autumn 1 – Tuesday 7 October 2025
• Autumn 2 - Tuesday 9 December 2025
• Spring 1 - Tuesday 27 January 2026
• Spring 2 - Tuesday 24 March 2026
• Summer 1 - Tuesday 12 May 2026
• Summer 2 – Tuesday 23 June 2026

SBM Induction

The EBE team ran a SBM Induction session on Thursday 5 December 2024, providing information about a range of council teams, including key functions and contacts. You can find a recording of the session and the slides presented during the session here. 

Access Education Budgets:​

School subscription to ACCESS Education Budgets software, an online school budgeting tool used by all maintained schools within the borough offering the following benefits:​

• 100% cloud-based digital budget setting and monitoring software that tracks spending.​
• five-year forward planning and financial forecasting functionality, allowing schools to plan for success and avoid setting deficits budgets.​
• Scenario planning functionality. allowing schools to model the financial impact of multiple scenarios, such as changes in income or expenditure, staff pay, pupil number changes and more.​
• Real-time reporting capabilities on several budget areas.​

EBE Helpdesk:

Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm access to a school support helpdesk for SBMs, school leaders and other business administration colleagues as the first point of contact and offering the followings benefits:​

• Problem resolution linked to various areas of school business administration and management through internal collaborations between LA services.​​
• Tailored support at an individual school level via telephone and email.​​
• Communication platform for sharing information and guidance on best practice and any CPD training.​​

One to one dedicated EBE School Support Officer:

Every maintained school in the borough has a dedicated EBE School Support Officer allocated to them as a first point of contact to escalate any unresolved business management queries, offering the following benefits:

• ​Tailored support through regular contact to progress school specific queries/ outstanding queries with other Local Authority teams​.
• Platform to identify school specific business management CPD needs

Download the EBE School Support Officer contact sheet.

Strategic training and support for Headteachers and Governors

The EBE Team supports Governing Bodies and Headteachers in leading and managing financial stability providing the following support:

• An annual cycle of financial training for all maintained schools, from budget setting to monitoring and including training on completing Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS)    
• An annual ‘Budget Setting Assumptions’ document sent out in Spring term each year to support SBMs, Heads and Governors during budget setting period.
• A financial risk register template for Governors to capture risks hold details of risks to the school and the management actions to take to mitigate negative impacts on the school.  

Schools Facing Financial Challenge Action Groups:

The EBE Service also manages the Schools Facing Financial Challenge programme which supports maintained schools with falling reserves or deficit budgets. This programme aims to protect the standards of education for all children and young people in Waltham Forest by supporting the school achieve financial stability and viability.  This service offers two tiers of support:

• School Under Monitoring (SUM) Action Group – 1st level of support for schools forecasting an in-year only revenue deficit, therefore working collaboratively to bring the in-year revenue deficit forecast into a balanced position.  
• School Facing Financial Challenge (SFFC) Action Group – 2nd level of support for schools forecasting a cumulative revenue deficit financial position, therefore working collaboratively to bring the revenue deficit forecast into a balanced position.
• Schools who are concerned by their current financial situation are encouraged to contact Gurpreet Kataora – Head of School Business Support as early as possible for support.