The Primitas Central Offer

 

Central Financial Management Services

The Trust’s Central Finance Service provides a strategic, efficient and robust approach to financial management across

all academies. Operating a single, centralised finance system, it combines academy‑level financial knowledge with specialist central oversight to ensure the right balance between local accountability and trust‑wide strategic control.

Academy leaders actively contribute to financial planning and priority setting, ensuring that budgets reflect the differing sizes, phases, pupil cohorts and staffing models of individual schools. This integrated approach supports consistent budgeting, forecasting and reporting aligned to educational priorities, while maintaining strong financial governance, transparency and value for money.

The model enables school leaders to retain informed ownership of their budgets, supported by central expertise that ensures sustainability, compliance and effective stewardship of public funds.

The Trust’s central finance function operates with a capacity of 2.5 FTE, and is therefore deliberately focused on strategic oversight, compliance, systems and assurance, alongside targeted operational support. This model reflects a shared responsibility approach, where academy‑based finance and administrative staff play a key role in managing and inputting day‑to‑day financial transactions and local processing activities. Central finance provides the framework, controls, expertise and monitoring to ensure consistency and compliance, while academies maintain responsibility for timely and accurate processing at source, enabling an efficient, proportionate and sustainable financial model across the Trust.

Financial Leadership and Governance

• Strategic financial leadership provided by the Chief Finance and Operations Officer (CFOO) and central finance team.

• Delivery in line with the Academy Trust Handbook and DfE guidance, ensuring full compliance.

• Clear Financial Scheme of Delegation, preserving academy responsibility for budget management within a strong governance framework.

• Support for trustees, governors and headteachers in financial oversight, risk management and decision‑making.

Budget Planning and Financial Management

• Collaborative annual budget setting and medium‑term financial planning

• Ongoing financial monitoring, forecasting and scenario planning, including salary costing and use of the Access HCSS budgeting system to produce budgets, scenarios and centrally aligned assumption updates

• Regular liaison with Headteachers and academy business/finance leads

• Production of monthly management accounts, providing clear and timely financial insight

• Support with budget variances, efficiency planning and financial sustainability

• Access to built‑in and customisable reporting tools across finance and budgeting systems, enabling detailed analysis (e.g. by supplier, income source, spend category, project and cost centre across multiple years)

Financial Operations and Systems

• Operation of a central finance system (Hoge 100 Finance Portal) to ensure consistency, efficiency and auditability. Hoge works closely with the DfE and was one of the first financial management systems to support electronic submission of the Academy Accounts Return

• A blended delivery model, where many processing tasks remain at academy level alongside targeted central support. Central processing and shared responsibilities include:

• Purchase ledger and expenditure processing

  • Purchase orders, invoices, charge card transactions and expenses are input and approved at academy level through a fully automated, paperless workflow system. The system also links to vendor websites from within the purchasing system for direct order processing e.g. Amazon

  • Supplier and expenses payments are processed bi‑weekly by the central finance team, Creditors are paid promptly once invoices are approved, and the consistency and speed of payments help ensure favourable settlement terms with suppliers and more importantly staff

• Sales ledger and income processing
  • Primarily managed at academy level, with central input for core grant income (e.g. GAG and other DfE funding)
  • Banking updated daily during term time and at regular intervals during holidays, providing near real‑time income visibility
  • Bank reconciliations across the single MAT current account reduces the need for individual Academy bank reconciliations
• Banking and corporate card management
  • Charge cards allocated to approved academy staff, number dependent on school size and need
  • Additional banking arrangements available (e.g. foreign currency)
  • Option for school funds to operate through the same banking structure, reducing administrative burden
  • VAT returns, enabling academies to benefit from VAT recovery and reduced net costs

Compliance, Audit and Assurance

• Coordination of the annual external audit and preparation of statutory accounts

• Delivery of internal scrutiny and compliance monitoring through independent auditors

• Maintenance of robust financial controls, audit trails and reporting processes

• Support for academies in demonstrating value for money and effective use of public funds

Procurement and Value for Money

• Support with procurement processes, contract review and supplier selection

• Review of service level agreements (SLAs) to secure best value and multi‑academy efficiencies

• Use of approved suppliers and frameworks, including credit checks for new suppliers where contracts are material

• Identification of opportunities for collaborative purchasing and economies of scale

Funding and Income Generation

• Proactive identification and coordination of external funding opportunities, including:

• Grants and funding from awarding bodies and foundations

• Support for academies in maximising income streams and financial resilience

Payroll and Staffing Financial Support

• Monthly payroll checking and reconciliation alongside academy leaders

• Posting of payroll costs to academy budgets and cost centres

• Support with staffing models, cost analysis and financial planning

Partnership with Academies

The finance model is built on collaboration between the central team ad the school and proportionality:

• Academies retain control of their budgets and day‑to‑day financial decisions.

• Central finance provides strategic oversight, systems, compliance and specialist expertise.

• Support is responsive to individual academy context, while maintaining trust‑wide consistency.

This approach ensures clarity, accountability and sustainability, enabling leaders to focus resources on delivering high‑quality education.

• Academies manage their staff locally, maintaining day‑to‑day responsibility

• Central HR provides expertise, consistency, compliance and strategic oversight

• Support is flexible and responsive, reflecting individual academy context

Future Development of HR Systems

• Ongoing current operational functionality implementation features being phased over the next 6 months include:

  • Absence management

  • Additional hours and staffing workflow management

  • Improved visibility and efficiency in workforce administration

• Planned phased access of additional centrally funded HR modules over the next 18 months, including:

  • Single Central Record (SCR) compliance management

  • Performance and appraisal management

  • Probation tracking and review processes

  • Disciplinary case management

  • Systemized policy distribution and acknowledgement tracking

This approach ensures that people are managed with professionalism, sensitivity and respect, enabling academies to focus on delivering excellent outcomes while fostering a strong, collaborative Trust culture.

• Access to iAM Academy, providing 400+ IOSH‑approved and CPD‑accredited training modules covering:

  • Compliance and health & safety

  • Safeguarding

  • SEND

  • Wellbeing and leadership

  • Cyber security and sustainability

• Climate action planning tools, supporting academies to meet DfE expectations around sustainability

Academies retain flexibility to use features proportionate to their size, phase and operational needs, while the
Trust maintains governance and assurance.

Insurance and Risk Management

• Central funding and management of the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA), ensuring consistent cover and cost efficiency across the Trust.

• Clear delineation of responsibilities where certain specialist insurances (including engineering and minibus insurance) are arranged and funded locally by academies.

• Integration of estates‑related risks into the Trust’s wider risk management and assurance framework, supporting trustee oversight and accountability.

Sustainability, Energy and Environmental Responsibility

• Trust‑wide leadership of energy, utilities and decarbonisation strategy, promoting efficient resource use and long‑term cost reduction.

• Support and guidance for academy‑level environmental initiatives and Climate Action Plan creation.

• Clarity that statutory responsibility for climate action planning remains at academy level, while all academies are expected to meet compliance requirements.

Partnership with Academies

• Close working in partnership with Head Teachers, facilities teams and academy business staff, recognising different school contexts, sizes, phases and staffing models.

• Active academy input into estates priorities and planning, ensuring support remains responsive, proportionate and supportive rather than directive.

• A balanced model that strengthens consistency, resilience and assurance, while preserving appropriate local control over day‑to‑day estate operations.

Future Development of Central Estates Services

Primitas regularly reviews DfE guidance and sector‑wide developments to ensure its estates approach remains compliant, proportionate and sustainable. Planned developments over the next 18 months include:

• Further digitisation of estates planning using iAM Compliant, in line with DfE Good Estates Management guidance (February 2026), with academy asset mapping already in place for the next condition survey data import by August 2027.

• A review of arrangements for compliance contractors (e.g. water hygiene, fire systems, HVAC), assessing opportunities for improved value for money through recommended supplier frameworks or revised service level agreements by August 2027.

This approach supports Ofsted expectations that schools operate within safe, well‑maintained environments and that leaders can demonstrate effective systems, oversight and risk management.