In 2018 the Department for Education published "Supporting excellent school resource management: strategy." This set out the Department's commitment to helping schools improve outcomes for pupils by making every pound count and getting the best value from their resources. This strategy underpins the School Resource Management (SRM) Portfolio of support from the department. The is a suite of tools which aims to help schools and trusts save money on day-to-day costs. In September 2021, BMG were commissioned to conduct independent qualitative research to evaluate the use and impact as a result of engaging with this suite of tools: namely the Schools Financial Benchmarking (SFB), the View My Financial Insights tool (VMFI), and the Integrated Curriculum and Financial Planning (ICFP) training course and accompanying resources. The specific research objectives for this qualitative project were: (1) What specific decisions and actions have schools and academy trusts taken because of their use of either of the two financial benchmarking tools or ICFP training; (2) What is the broad balance of costs and benefits of these indirect support strands; (3) What have those decisions and actions led to; (4) Including the estimated impact on school or academy trust expenditure; (5) What are best-case scenario impacts on expenditure of using the two indirect support strands; and (6) Are there ways to improve or maximise the contribution of each strand to school or academy trust expenditure? [This report was written by BMG Research.]