ICFP stands for Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning. It helps a school use resources as effectively and efficiently as possible. It does so by systematically analysing all aspects of the educational provision within a school setting to ensure that financial planning process effectively balances the allocation and expenditure of resources.

ICFP uses a reasonably simple set of metrics that assist with collaborative decision-making across the leadership triangle, requiring involvement from school business professionals, senior pedagogical leaders and governors/trustees.

You can read more about ICFP in the ISBL Approach to ICFP.

The tool uses readily available and easy-to-access data. On inputting this data, the tool calculates the essential diagnostic metrics that SBPs find easy to understand and use for analysing the efficiency and effectiveness of their resource use, enabling them to investigate potential areas of inefficiency and make more informed evidence-based, strategic decisions.

ASOT Essentials:

• Uses the ISBL Approach to ICFP.

• Guides you step-by-step to enter your school’s data.

• Calculates the 12 Key Metrics for you not only for the current year but the previous two years as well as the future two year forecasts, based on year-specific thresholds.

• Applies a RAG rating system to all of the metrics to indicate which areas may be of concern and require further investigation.

• Provides separate thresholds for region-specific metric comparisons (National/Fringe and Inner/Outer London).

• Assesses the potential size and financial impact in every metric area by comparison with national threshold benchmarks.

• Provides a summary sheet of all of the key values.

• Is supported by accompanying documentation to help you understand the 12 Key Metrics and the calculations used.

ASOT Essentials is suitable for individual schools and DOES NOT include the following enhancements that are included in the full ASOT:

• Quantifies inefficiencies by translating the variance into the potential value of resources being inefficiently used and indicating the possible resource efficiencies to be made

• Identifies possible reasons / causes of inefficiencies.

• Allows SLT to assess its structure’s efficiency.

If you would like to access the full ASOT tool that incorporates the enhancements above then click here.

• Guidance is provided about how to gather the data from your MIS and other sources that are needed for the data inputs into ASOT Essentials.

• You enter your schools data into ASOT Essentials – you can differentiate between region-specific metric comparisons (National/Fringe and Inner/Outer London).

• ASOT Essentials calculates the ICFP metrics for your school.

• The Primary or Secondary thresholds are then applied to your data, providing you with a RAG rated dashboard which:

  • Calculates year-specific thresholds for all years analysed

  • Calculates five years’ worth of key staffing and balance metrics based on year-specific thresholds

  • Assesses the potential size and financial impact in every metric area by comparison, with the green (expected) national threshold benchmarks showing typical variance to these

• You are provided with a summary sheet of all the key values to export into your reporting mechanisms to share with your senior leadership team (SLT), governors, trustees and other external audience.

ASOT Essentials applies either Primary or Secondary thresholds to your schools data to produce the RAG rated dashboard. These thresholds are reviewed and updated twice a year, making our ICFP tool one of the most up-to-date available.

The thresholds used in the RAG rating are based on DfE statistical data and have been developed through our experience of applying ICFP to a wide range of schools’ data through insights from the ISBL School Resource Management Advisers. The Green thresholds are, from our experience, where schools should ideally aim for with consideration to their own strategic aims and context.

ASOT Essentials should be used alongside a thorough understanding of how to use and implement ICFP in your school/trust. Context is key when interpreting ICFP metrics and there may be good reasons why your school falls into another threshold band. You should use the information from ASOT Essentials to further investigate and diagnose possible areas of concern before moving ahead with any recommendations.

ASOT Essentials is suitable for those wanting to introduce and familiarise themselves with the underlying principles of ICFP. It is suitable for use by primary and secondary maintained schools, SATs and independent schools (small MATS and Federations if appropriate).  This tool focuses on the essential elements required by single schools and new users when utilising ICFP either as a new user or in a single school setting. ASOT Essentials can be used to calculate the metrics for special schools, however since the context of a special school can vary enormously, there is not a RAG rating available for this school type.

ASOT Essentials only calculates the metrics for one school, and so if you want to use it in the context of multiple schools, you will need to calculate the metrics for each individual school and then self-aggregate the results.

NOTE: For more experienced practitioners and MATs we would recommend purchasing the full ASOT due to the enhanced features. ISBL will also be launching an aggregation add-on tool to the full ASOT for use by MATs within the next 12 months. If you would like to access the full ASOT tool that incorporates the enhancements then click here.

ASOT Essentials is being offered as a non-supported tool, however:

• All metrics and thresholds are correct at the time of purchase.

• The thresholds used within ASOT Essentials are reviewed and updated twice a year. Existing customers will then be issued with an updated version of ASOT Essentials.

• ASOT Essentials will be updated and developed over time, existing customers may be offered the opportunity to upgrade their ASOT Essentials version which may be at cost or free of charge.

• ASOT Essentials is an Excel based ICFP tool. We recommend that you use Excel 2013+ or 365 on Windows. Some of the more advanced functionality in ASOT Essentials is currently not supported for Macs.

• Via a support webpage you can access a user guide, video tutorials and other documentation to help support you to use ASOT Essentials in calculating the metrics you need.

We run a range of ICFP training. What level of ICFP training you require will depend on your knowledge and experience of ICFP to-date.

If you are new to ICFP, we recommend that you attend this ICFP Fundamentals webinar to gain an understanding of the principles of ICFP and how it can be used. If you already have some knowledge and experience of ICFP, we recommend that you consider our intermediate training: Using ICFP accurately and effectively in your school webinar series

There is an ISBL member rate and a non-member rate for all our tools. All rates quoted below are inclusive of VAT and include bi-annual updates:

ISBL Member rate: £300

ISBL Non-member rate: £400

Please also be aware of the additional threshold costs as detailed below.

One of the benefits of being an ISBL member is being able to access the member rates for training and conferences. If you are not a member, you can find out more about joining ISBL by clicking here.

To be able to access the ISBL member rate, your membership needs to be active before you book your place on the programme.

The full cost must be paid in full before you purchase. Our Terms & Conditions can be found here.

Any threshold updates will be provided free of charge until 31st August 2025. After this point ISBL will charge for threshold updates at an additional cost of £100 per year for members and £120 for non-members (inclusive of VAT).

You can purchase the threshold data sheets that are used in ASOT separately from the tool. Click here for more information.