Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many schools the Department for Education team of consultants seeking savings as a result of school budget difficulties have visited.

School Resource Management Advisers (SRMAs) are practising sector experts, such as school business professionals, who work collaboratively with schools and trusts in order to help them make best use of their available resources to deliver the best possible education for pupils. SRMAs work with a range of trusts, not just those reporting a deficit position. SRMAs have so far completed 143 deployments, with a further 161 deployments currently underway. They are available to any state funded school looking to review their resource allocation against their peers.

SMRAs are one of a number of tools that we have made available to the schools system, such as the department’s benchmarking website, which can be found here: https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/.