Schools are responsible for their own budgets and many employ bursars to carry out the finance work. Bursars are supported by a School Finance Team, which is employed by the Council.

Because we take our accountability duties very seriously, the Council's Audit Team works very closely with the school finance team. This means that, when potential issues are identified with a particular school's budget, the Audit Team is called in to investigate. There are also regular audits of all schools on a rolling programme.

In the very rare circumstances where an investigation reveals serious problems, these are swiftly addressed with the school's governing body. Council staff advise and support the governors in any actions that need to be taken.

The fact that there has been a recent case, which has resulted in a school taking measures to bring its spending back on track, demonstrates that the procedures are working very effectively.