Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP)
Source: gov.uk (2025-10-08)

How schools can use ICFP to create the best curriculum for pupils with available funding.

Overview

Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) is a management process that helps schools plan the best curriculum for their pupils with the funding they have available. It can be used at any phase or type of school.

ICFP involves:
- measuring your current curriculum, staffing structure and finances
- using data to create a 3 to 5-year plan
The idea of linking curriculum and financial planning is not new. Most schools probably use some ICFP processes already when reviewing their curriculum or financial strategy.

The benefits of ICFP

ICFP is most effective when it is part of your planning activity and involves your senior team, including your business manager and governors.

Linking curriculum and financial planning can help you:
- achieve educational success and financial sustainability
- deliver the best curriculum your school can afford that meets the needs of your pupils
Common ICFP steps

Most approaches to ICFP follow common steps.

Preparation

Get school leaders, governors and trustees on board and make sure they understand what an ICFP approach is. The free webinars (#free-webinars) section can help with this.

You’ll need to:
- get curriculum and financial planners to assess your school’s current financial situation and the school’s teaching resources
- create an educational vision statement for your school
- pupil numbers and needs
- funding
- costs
- staffing
- educational policy
- choose an ICFP tool (#icfp-tools) that meets your needs
Analysis

Use your chosen ICFP tool to enter your school’s:
- income and expenditure
- teacher costs
- full-time equivalent teachers
- pupil numbers
- length of your timetable cycle
You can then measure and benchmark (https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/) key metrics against other similar schools. Key metrics are explained in more detail in the section on free webinars.

The ICFP tool will calculate metrics for you such as:
- pupil teacher ratio
- average class size
- average teacher load
- teacher contact ratio
- cost per lesson
- average teacher cost
The more variables you measure, the more accurately you’ll be able to predict the resources you can afford.

Reconciliation

Your analysis will give you the number of teachers you can afford, and the number of teachers needed to deliver your ideal curriculum. If these numbers are different, you will need to reconcile them.

Reconcile your numbers by:
- changing other metrics to close the gap between these numbers – you may need to adjust class size, number of teachers or the curriculum offered
- working openly with all relevant staff until you reach an agreement – what you change will depend on the priorities set out in your educational vision statement
- considering what school staff can deliver and the impact that any changes may have on workload and work-life balance – reducing school workload (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/reducing-school-workload) can help with this
Strategic planning and reviews

Write a strategic plan for 3 to-5 years using all the data you have gathered.

Set regular reviews and update the plan as things change, making sure that you continue to include all leaders and governors.

ICFP tools

Basic free ICFP tool

If you are new to ICFP, the ICFP tool in the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool (https://financial-benchmarking-and-insights-tool.education.gov.uk/) (FBIT) will help you to do a basic ICFP analysis. It is free to use, you just need a DfE Sign-in (https://services.signin.education.gov.uk/) account.

Intermediate free ICFP tool

If you already have some experience of ICFP, you might like to use a more detailed tool such as the:
- primary school workbook (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6798c114419bdbc8514fdf42/Primary_school_workbook.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 86.1 KB) and technical guide (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67923102a0bd2a64fc27fc09/Technical_guidance_for_users_of_the_primary_school_ICFP_workbook.pdf) (PDF, 375 KB, 15 pages)
- secondary school workbook (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6798c127fe1eabe7d7a22d3d/Secondary_school_workbook.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 99.8 KB) and technical guide (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/679232a823c34b0ef8fad5e3/Technical_guidance_for_users_of_the_secondary_school_ICFP_workbook.pdf) (PDF, 427 KB, 19 pages)
- special schools and providers of AP workbook (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6792359bbcd53eb4d9fad5d6/Special_schools_and_alternative_provisions_workbook.xlsx) (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 751 KB) and technical guide (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/625fd24fe90e0729f6bf8270/Esteem_MAT_ICFP_Guidance_for_populating_ICFP_tool_v1.0.pdf) (PDF, 272 KB, 15 pages)
ICFP using DfE tools (https://vimeo.com/653655964/4d303a62f6) is a free webinar from Entrust that gives an introduction on how to use the workbooks.

Paid-for ICFP tools and packages

There are ICFP tools available for schools to buy. Some of these tools have additional resources and training. You could ask other schools in your networks which tools they use and recommend.

Free webinars and guidance

This training will help head teachers, governors and school business professionals.

Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL)

ISBL (https://www.youtube.com/@instituteofschoolbusinessl9158) has an ICFP training presentation that covers:
- an overview of ICFP
- calculating metrics
- what the metrics can tell you about your school
Entrust

Entrust’s webinar on How to integrate curriculum and financial planning (https://www.entrust-ed.co.uk/dfe-funded-school-resource-management-webinars) covers:
- which metrics you will need
- how to understand your ICFP results
- how to implement changes
Entrust also have school resource management webinars which cover:
- ICFP using DfE tools (https://vimeo.com/653655964/4d303a62f6)
- ICFP metrics deep dive (https://vimeo.com/653650079/95dde28008)
- ICFP during times of uncertainty (https://vimeo.com/653654069/8b6ebbae5f)
Free ICFP guides

These guides provide further support with ICFP and ICFP terms:
- 7-step guide to ICFP (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d6cf2e2ed915d53b7d5e20b/7_steps_for_clearance_logo.pdf) (PDF, 135 KB, 7 pages)
- basic principles of ICFP (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d6cf2faed915d53adcf51c2/ICFP_guidance_-_basic_principles_logo.pdf) (PDF, 179 KB, 10 pages)
- common ICFP terms (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d6cf303e5274a170f995711/ICFP_glossary_of_terms_logo.pdf) (PDF, 202 KB, 9 pages)
Support

SRMA programme

You can request a free, confidential visit from one of the department’s school resource management advisers (SRMAs), who are experts in school resource management and provide tailored advice and support.

The school resource management advisers (SRMA) programme (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-school-resource-management-advisers-srma-programme) has more information.

Financial advice

Get financial advice for schools (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-financial-advice-for-schools) has a list of paid providers of ICFP advice. Services include:
- recommending or supplying an ICFP tool
- analysing your current processes
- supporting you to make an ICFP action plan
Related resources
- School workforce planning (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-workforce-planning)
- Helping schools manage resources and money: guidance for governors (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/helping-schools-manage-resources-and-money-guidance-for-governors)
- Deal for schools: hiring supply teachers and agency workers (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/deal-for-schools-hiring-supply-teachers-and-agency-workers)
- Buying for school’s blog: using the ICFP tool to help manage your school’s resources (https://buyingforschools.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/22/using-the-dfes-integrated-curriculum-financial-planning-icfp-tool-to-get-essential-insights-into-managing-your-schools-resources/)