Agenda – plenary and work sessions
Wednesday 5th February 2025
09:30 – 11:00 Plenary session
Chair’s welcome – Charlie Lang, Programme Director of the Schools Productivity Unit, Department for Education
Keynote speech delivered by Commercial Director at the Department for Education, Susan Dawson
Budget-Led Finance – How to utilise your budgets to drive more effective financial management? Trusts spend many weeks, if not months working with stakeholders to ensure that their budget is well thought out and strikes the right balance between prudency and enabling investment in priority areas. After all this work has been done and the results are submitted to the ESFA, we start the year, and the finance system takes the ‘front seat’ at the core of the financial management processes with limited reference to underlying budget data. Is this approach still the best way forward?
- Will Jordan, CEO & Co-founder, IMP Software
Making your budget work for your pupils – An introductory panel and Q&A session with senior DfE officials exploring the current and future challenges faced by the sector.
- Nabil Ali, Deputy Director for Teaching Workforce Strategy, Department for Education
- Gavin Davies, Deputy Director for Schools Financial Support and Oversight Directorate, Department for Education
- Susan Dawson, Director for Commercial Sector and Commercial Operations, Department for Education
- Tom Goldman, Director of Education Funding, Department for Education
- Stephen Morales, Chief Executive, Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL)
The plenary session will end with Q&A, giving attendees the chance to ask questions and promote discussion on the issues which are of most importance to them.