Consistent financial reporting (CFR)

The schools financial procedures provides maintained schools with guidance on a range of financial management processes that are set out as individual sections.

The consistent financial reporting framework (CFR) provides a standard template for schools to collect information about their income and expenditure in the financial year 2024-25.

The CFR framework applies to maintained schools and pupil referral units. It is optional for nurseries and non-maintained special schools.

The information collected is used to support benchmarking and enables comparative reports to be produced of school income and expenditure profiles with similar schools for governors and local authorities (LA). Please see link to the financial benchmarking website: Schools financial benchmarking

Governing bodies (GB) of maintained schools must provide Ealing LA with a financial statement, presented in accordance with the approved headings and sub-headings set out in the Consistent Financial Reporting (England) Regulations 2012 and in compliance with the established accounting practices of the LA.

This includes:

• All allocations and other income received in a financial year including any balances brought forward from the previous financial year
• All expenditure within that financial year
• A summary of the school’s financial position at the end of that financial year.

The guidance is aimed at:

• LA finance officers
• School finance officers
• School business managers (SBM)
• Bursars

The Department for Education uses COLLECT (Collections On-Line for Learning, Education, Children and Teachers) to capture CFR data from schools and LA’s. Further information about the CFR Framework and Data Collection is available online.

Updates for 2024-25

The changes for 2024-25 are now available at: Consistent financial reporting framework 2024 to 2025 - Guidance - GOV.UK

CFR deadlines

We will provide further updates on the submission deadline for financial year 2024/25 when this is announced.