Output reports The tool a number of output reports as follows: Report Detail There are four benchmarking reports: Income: information on income relative to learner numbers Pay costs: information on pay costs relative to staff numbers Benchmarking reports Non-pay costs: information on specific data comprehensive Detailed comparison: information on a line-by-line basis for all fields in the finance record There is 5-year trend data presented in table and Trend analysis chart format. There are two sets of underlying data: Benchmark population: includes colleges in the benchmark population once filtered for Underlying data the criteria selected Total population: includes all colleges with information for both 2014/15 and 2015/16 Interpreting outputs Users should apply professional judgement in interpreting the outputs of the tool. The tab in the tool sets out some key things to consider when interpreting ‘guidance’ results, including: benchmark measures data completeness data accuracy Users may want to produce iterative versions of the output reports based on different benchmark populations. Users may also want to undertake additional benchmarking activity focusing on alternative comparator groups and additional datasets. They may also wish to enhance the benchmarking reports with a narrative understanding of the reasons behind any variances.
Output reports The tool a number of output reports as follows: Report Detail Benchmarking reports There are four benchmarking reports: Income: information on income relative to learner numbers Pay costs: information on pay costs relative to staff numbers Non-pay costs: information on specific data Detailed comparison: comprehensive information on a line-by-line basis for all fields in the finance record Trend analysis There is 5-year trend data presented in table and chart format. Underlying data There are two sets of underlying data: Benchmark population: includes colleges in the benchmark population once filtered for the criteria selected Total population: includes all colleges with information for both 2014/15 and 2015/16 Interpreting outputs Users should apply professional judgement in interpreting the outputs of the tool. The ‘guidance’ tab in the tool sets out some key things to consider when interpreting results, including: benchmark measures data completeness data accuracy Users may want to produce iterative versions of the output reports based on different benchmark populations. Users may also want to undertake additional benchmarking activity focusing on alternative comparator groups and additional datasets. They may also wish to enhance the benchmarking reports with a narrative understanding of the reasons behind any variances.
Benchmarking_tool_guidance_1415_1516.docx