Insignis has been approved by the Department for Education as a savings platform for schools and academy trusts — a meaningful step for finance leaders who want greater control, clarity, and performance on their cash reserves.
For many schools and trusts, the question isn’t whether their reserves could work harder, it’s whether they have the time, capacity, or strategic headspace to take on one more operational process. Budgets are compressed, staffing is tight, and the financial calendar leaves very little room for additional administrative load.
For bursars, CFOs, and finance teams working under sustained budget pressure, this approval provides a straightforward route to making idle cash work harder without taking on capital‑at‑risk products.
The Department for Education is asking schools and academy trusts to review where their cash is held and whether it is earning an appropriate return. The rationale is simple: when public funds are not immediately needed, they should still generate value.
Across the sector, more than £6 billion sits in reserves. Much of this is held in low‑interest accounts and in some cases, earning nothing at all. The DfE is encouraging schools to consider savings platforms as a practical, low‑admin way to access competitive rates across multiple UK‑regulated banks.
Insignis is the only cash management platform to be approved for use across the education sector by the DfE. Insignis has had a long history of serving the education sector and has helped schools and charities earn over £51 million in interest in 2025 alone.
Through a single application, schools and trusts can access savings accounts from a large panel of UK‑regulated banks and building societies — without managing multiple banking relationships or opening separate accounts.
In practice, this gives finance teams:
Reserves are often seen as a static buffer. But with the right cash management approach, they represent a predictable source of income.
As our CEO, Kate Toumazi, puts it:
“Cash is so much more than an idle asset. For schools, interest payments generated by holding cash in multiple savings accounts create more capital to reinvest in teaching, facilities, and pupil wellbeing.”
This isn’t about making life harder for finance teams. It’s about surfacing value that is already there and making the most that minimises administrative strain.
Before moving anything, it’s important to understand your cash exactly as it stands today. Most trusts hold a mixture of:
Mapping these strands helps reveal a pattern: some cash genuinely must remain immediately accessible; other cash does not need to sit in a low‑interest account for months at a time. This review doesn’t require new work — it uses data you already maintain for internal reporting and ESFA compliance, but it reframes the question from “How much cash do we have?” to “How much of this cash needs to stay exactly where it is?”
This distinction matters, because it determines which funds could be placed into eligible savings accounts without increasing operational risk or breaching policy constraints.
Every school business manager has lived through bank KYC cycles, multiple signatories, repetitive forms, and fragmented interest statements. Opening even one additional savings account can create new reconciliation tasks, new login credentials, or new approval chains.
The DfE’s steer towards savings platforms is, in part, a recognition of this administrative load. Instead of opening accounts with multiple institutions, a platform model allows schools to complete one due‑diligence process and then access accounts from a range of UK‑regulated deposit-takers — each offering competitive rates and FSCS protection for eligible funds (up to £120,000 per individual, £240,000 for joint accounts, and £1.4m for temporary high balances per authorised institution).
This doesn’t eliminate admin entirely, but it consolidates it. For stretched teams, that can be the difference between taking action and maintaining the status quo.
Because Insignis is listed on the DfE’s Get Help Buying for Schools service, you can review the offer in a way that aligns with procurement best practice and governance expectations.
This matters for two reasons:
At this stage, you’re not committing to anything — you’re simply equipping yourself with the information needed to open a strategic conversation with governors, CFOs, or local finance committees.
If you decide to move forward, onboarding involves a single due‑diligence process. This includes confirmation of signatories, trust structure, linked accounts, and safeguarding controls around public funds.
The aim is not speed for its own sake — it’s accuracy, risk mitigation, and a clean foundation. After this stage, you won’t be repeating KYC for each bank you choose to place deposits with, which is where the platform model begins to save significant time over the course of a financial year.
This is also where your relationship manager becomes relevant. While many schools self-serve, most prefer guided onboarding — especially if they’re operating across multiple academies or have ring‑fenced reserves that need to be handled separately.
Once onboarded, you gain access to a range of eligible savings accounts from UK‑regulated banks and building societies through the platform.
This includes:
Crucially, diversification across institutions enhances FSCS protection for eligible funds and reduces concentration risk. You can structure your placements in a way that reflects the academic cycle, capital plans, and expected grant timings.
This stage isn’t about chasing the highest rate — it’s about balancing return with liquidity and administrative practicality.
As maturities roll, interest is paid, and budgets shift, you’ll be able to see your entire position in one place. This visibility is often the moment when finance leaders realise how much value had previously been left on the table.
With a consolidated view, decisions become cleaner:Should we lock in a rate for nine months? Hold back for operational needs? Restructure placements as the trust expands?
The platform is designed to support — not override — your judgement. You remain in control.
The DfE’s direction is clear: schools and academy trusts should ensure their reserves are not sitting idle when they could be generating meaningful returns. But this isn’t a call for complexity — it’s an invitation to treat cash with the same strategic discipline you apply to every other resource.
A platform model doesn’t remove the need for solid governance, careful planning, or internal controls. Instead, it concentrates the admin you already do, replaces fragmented processes with a single due‑diligence step, and gives you the visibility needed to make measured, defensible decisions about your reserves.
For schools and trusts managing competing priorities, fluctuating budgets, and regulatory oversight, that matters. It ensures public funds work harder without pushing operational risk higher or adding hidden tasks to a finance team’s workload. And it turns cash — often overlooked — into a reliable contributor to your long‑term financial strategy.
If you’re not yet an Insignis client, exploring your options now means you’re equipped to make decisions when your next financial cycle, budget revision, or trust‑level review comes around.
You retain control. You set the parameters. The platform supports the decision‑making — it never replaces it.
Explore how your school can strengthen cash management without increasing workload. View our schools page to download the brochure or book a meeting with our education team.
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