Leodis Academies Trust was established in 2016 to formalise the collaborative working of four high performing schools within close proximity of one another. In September 2018, Blackgates Primary Academy joined the trust, cementing its place at the heart of the Tingley and Ardsley Community. Through its hub model, Leodis offers young people the opportunity to experience consistency, security and excellence in their education, from two to 18; from the start of nursery, to the end of sixth form and into adulthood.
The Challenge: No established model for ICFP
Leodis Academies Trust did not previously have a strategic or cultural approach to Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning (ICFP) and was seeking a more rigorous trust-wide platform for ICFP, initially for its four primary schools.
“Personally, I have used ICFP for curriculum costings in my roles as a School Finance Officer, School Business Manager and latterly Director of Finance and Bursar, albeit previously working off spreadsheets, so I found it hard not having an established model of learning when I first joined the trust in September 2022,” explained the Trust’s CFO Kate Davison.
“Historically different methods and models had been used across different schools in the trust, and manually-intensive processes did not provide a fully accurate picture on curriculum-led staffing in the trust. However, my predecessor was an early adopter of IMP Software and the relationship has been hugely beneficial, so when Will Jordan (IMP Co-Founder) said he was going to launch an ICFP product, honestly, I was as excited as a child at Christmas.”
The Solution: A more collaborative approach to planning through IMP ICFP
In response, Leodis Academies Trust implemented IMP ICFP, which supports trust-led integrated curriculum financial planning, aligning data-driven conversations between financial and curriculum leadership and enabling an integrated staffing model with multi-year ICFP planning, through the 2023-24 academic year.
“Initially the idea of it constantly updating across our schools was most appealing because our main challenge was the many manual processes,” Kate said. “Now, having integrated IMP ICFP across all four primaries, with our secondary to be added, it allows us to see our staffing strategies in a way we could not before.”
She continued: “It has already given us a different way of working and, in turn, a different approach to conversations with Principals. We now start with ICFP and go through class by class, checking that staffing, number of periods and PPA time is right in the model that we are using. Leaders find it far more engaging to have discussions linked to classes and it flows naturally from the more holistic approach we need to have on budgeting. We now have reassurance, including through alignment to IMP Planner, on our approach to ICFP and how people are deployed. I have a much better feel for who is doing what and where.
“ICFP has always been my bible and through it we are able to bring together HR/finance, timetable managers, Principals, and now our CEO. For it to work, ICFP has to be a collaborative process, and whilst it will tell you the answer it is ultimately a crude maths tool and you need to look at the people picture alongside it.”
With IMP ICFP providing more accuracy across its primary schools, Leodis Academies Trust now plans to introduce it to its secondary school.
“We will shortly transfer the secondary from Excel to IMP ICFP and integrate that as part of our planning processes,” Kate revealed. “The IMP team has spent a lot of time with me developing the product to support our needs in secondary and I have to praise them unreservedly. They are the nicest and most responsive company I have ever worked with in a professional capacity. It is the high-quality support that drives it. We also plan to integrate ICFP metrics into our management accounts, and use different benchmarking sources to look at how we are performing across a number of measures, pulling these in using ICFP.”
The Impact: Clarity on resourcing across the trust
Through IMP, ICFP has provided a collaborative framework for planning curriculum resourcing, leading to engaging conversations across multiple roles, and bringing clarity on the effective deployment of teaching and non-teaching staff across the trust.
Since introducing IMP ICFP, Leodis Academies Trust has been able to use the data to inform decisions on strategies for staffing and wider provision. Because it is continually updated, it provides the trust with an accurate picture at all times.
“Live trust-wide comparability was always the biggest appeal of IMP ICFP,” Kate revealed. “For example, we are a hub model and can now see how one school which has higher deprivation and SEND need is very different in terms of its staffing strategy, compared to our other three primaries which are very similar.
“Because we have more transparency across the trust we can now look at staffing across all our primaries. Our approach is always to redeploy and reallocate colleagues where needed to protect employment, and through IMP ICFP we have knowledge of spare capacity at our schools. With non-teaching staff we have developed our understanding of what they are doing and spending their time on. ICFP is also particularly useful when looking at nursery strategies. For example, if you have falling rolls going into reception, you can model numbers and capacity, including managing teaching assistant capacity better during the year, as well as using it to inform the development of inclusion for SEND strategies.”
Kate added: “Overall, the integration with our business planning software, the instant reporting, and having a tool that brings different people functions together as a reference point is so valuable.”
Case study developed: June 2024
