Finance and Budget Briefings for PRUs and

Specials 2015-16

Financial Year

toilets

fire exits

breaks

timings

phones

confidentiality

Domestics

Agenda• Financial Context• 2015-16 Budget

How the additional £9.5m has been allocated High Needs Block, changes & re-cap Pupil Premium Universal Infant Free School Meals year-end accounting

• New Budget Toolkit and recap of processes and deadlines• Role of Schools’ Accountancy Team

What we do with the data submitted School and Governor responsibilities Expectations / Interactions

• Changes to SchoolSurf and Suffolk Learning websites• Future Planning - beyond 2015-16• Messages from our partners – Schools Choice and EFMS

Financial Context• Cash Frozen Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) for most

authorities. Suffolk has been awarded £9.5m additional funding due to being a poorly funded Local Authority (LA). We still remain a low funded LA in comparison to others.

• Pupil Premium will continue to be funded as an allocation outside of DSG

• Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) remains at minus 1.5%. Gains are capped at 7.5%.

• No Special School or PRU has been subject to MFG since the funding reforms were introduced.

• Schools will have to bear the cost of NI increases, no additional funding for this.

Academies and Free Schools

• Schools Accountancy Team calculates academy and free school budgets in the same way as LA maintained schools

• Free schools are funded on an average formula calculated by the EFA, therefore the amount recouped from the LA bears no relation to the funding a free schools receives. The EFA makes up the additional funding from a central pot.

• Funded from September to August to reflect the academic year.

This session is primarily aimed at maintained schools, but still applies to academies

2015-16 Budget

• Suffolk received an additional £9.5 million to allocate in 2015-16

• As a poorly funded LA – aimed at closing the gap

• Schools Block - £6.3m

– applied to AWPU

• High Needs Block - £2.6m

–Meeting demand, service redesign & investment

• Early Years Block - £0.6m

–applied to the hourly rates (base and quality)

Additional Funding

DfE, position is as follows:

The position is that currently we do not intend the £390m to be a one-off, but an addition to baseline budgets. However

the final position in 2016-17 onwards will depend on two things that are currently uncertain:

1. The total budget DfE has to spend, which will be agreed with Treasury in the next Spending Review.

2. Any funding policy changes that the government decides to make before we allocate 2016-17 funding. Those decisions will be taken after the general election.

Is the additional £9.5m recurrent?

How DSG Allocation is spilt between Blocks

• The DSG is ring-fenced.

• However the three blocks are not individually ring fenced.

• Funding can be moved between blocks – With School Forum approval.

So how is the DSG Spent?

Total High Needs Block = £45.1m

- Top up funding = £17.7m

- Special and PRU Place Funding = £13.1m

- Out of County providers = £8.2m

- EOTAS and other provision = £5.2m

- Service redesign and development = £0.9m

•Of this funding £0.1m is non recurrent, this is the High Needs block share of the underspend from 2013-14 and is a one off for 2015-16.

High Needs Block 2015-16

High Needs Block 2015-16

£0.9m - Service Dev

High Needs Block Budget 2015-16High Level Breakdown

Directed to schools

£13.1m - School place funding £8.2m - Out of County

£5.2m - EOTAS & Other Services

£17.7m - School top-ups

• As agreed by Schools Forum £2.6m of additional DSG allocated to the High Needs Block– £1.0m to support increased capacity & demand in specialist provision– £0.35m – targeted SEN funding to support mainstream schools with

high proportion of SEN pupils– £0.3m – Contribution to Post 16 top up funding– £0.9m – Service redesign and development

• Some of this funding may be used in the short term to manage pressures and demand

• Look to develop and build provision where the LA currently has gaps

• Potential for some double running costs during a transitional period

Additional Funding 2015-16

• DfE are increasing the place funding for PRUs from £8,000 per place to £10,000 from September 2015, bringing them in line with special schools.

• Therefore place funding will be calculated as:– 5/12th (Apr - Aug) = £8,000– 7/12th (Sep – Mar) = £10,000

• LA is conducting a High Needs Block review:– PRU Service Level Agreement introduced including funding

details– Meeting demand and where to target funding utilising £1m

‘pot’. Available in 2015-16– Provision – ‘Local Offer’– Banding & top up values still to be finalised

Changes and re-cap

Re-cap Dual Placements• Special School receives:

– Full place funding of £10,000 plus top up funding at the relevant band

– £500 admin fee per dual placement– If child leaves special school permanently, special school to

transfer appropriate amount to support pupil in new setting dependant on timings.

• Mainstream School receives:– £15,000 is the cost of a dual placement based on the number

of sessions delivered at £1,000 per day, per term.

• The Special School is responsible for processing the payment• Dual placements where a pupil is sole registered at the

mainstream school are becoming more uncommon, if this occurs please contact SAT for guidance

Pupil Premium• Specific to individual children• LA advises schools to transfer funding appropriately,

where pupils are in dual placements or transfer school.• The grant has been extended to children in early years

settings.

Rates:• £1,900 for all looked after children• £1,320 for primary-aged pupils• £935 for secondary-aged pupils• £300 for service children• £302.10 per year for each eligible child that takes up full

570hrs with a provider.

• The final allocation for the 2014-15 year will be based on actual take-up data derived from an average of the October 2014 and January 2015 schools censuses.

• The final payment for 2014-15 will be made in

early summer 2015; schools will receive an amount equal to their final allocation minus the amount they received in June/July 2014.

Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) - Revenue

Capital• Funding remains at low level for both schools and LA• Projected Funding to LA:

- Maintenance £8m (reduces with Academies)

- Basic Need £1m (Suffolk is lobbying for more)• Suffolk will be adding to this from borrowing to build the

schools we need.t• DFC

– £4,000 per school– £33.75 per PRU or Special full time equivalent pupil

• SCC priorities remain the same: – Continuing School Organisational Review– Urgent Health and Safety condition work– Place provision

Any Questions ?

New Budget and Strategic Planning Toolkits

• Based on three year Medium Term Plan.• Only one scenario for each year - Realistic

1 Year Budget Plan

• Same format

• One extra column which enables an estimated outturn to be input.

• No separate Budget Report for Governors, instead a toggle button which will hide and unhide the columns not relevant to Governors.

Summary of Changes

Strategic Plan = 3 year Plan•There is one toolkit for both the 1 year and the 3 year plan – schools submit twice. •3 year plan looks the same as the 1 year plan•There is an actual outturn column on the 3 year plan - as actuals will be known at this point.•1 year budget column on 3 year plan will be automatically completed from the virement tab.•Schools need to estimate their budgets for the next two years.

Summary of Changes

• Working document

• Submitted twice by Schools

• Detailed line-by-line

• Submitted via AVCO

First Step: 2015-16 Budgeto Agreed by Governors by 31st March 2015o Electronic copy to LA by 1st May 2015

Second step: 2016-17 and 2017-18 budgeto Governors to agree Plans by summer half-termo Electronic copy to LA by 29th May 2015

Processes and Deadlines

Any Questions ?

Role of Schools Accountancy Team

• The Schools Accountancy Team provides the statutory aspects of finance in schools as well as providing a wide range of support on other financial matters.

• We are part of Suffolk County Council (SCC) and sit under the Resource Management Directorate.

• Schools do not pay for our support and we are not funded from Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), we are funded from SCC base budget.

Statutory Finance and Support

• Modelling and calculating School Budgets within the Suffolk Dedicated Schools Grant envelope.

• Informing maintained schools of their DSG funding• Finalising the accounts of closing and converting schools.• Monitoring and intervention of schools in deficit and those deemed high risk• Statutory reporting to DfE of SFVS, CFR and S251.• Statutory inclusion of Schools in Suffolk accounts.• Working with Schools Forum• Reconciliation of schools bank account records with the SCC accounts• Publication and regulation of the LMS Scheme for the Financing of Schools.• Payment to maintained schools of school budget share, High Needs top up,

Early Years and Growth funding. • Where SCC is commissioner of provision, payment to academies and free

schools, High Needs top up, Early Years and Growth funding. • Issuing Warning Letters and Notice of Financial Concern (NOFC)• Pupil Premium funding payments to Suffolk maintained schools

The Schools Accountancy Team is responsible for:

• We use the Budget Plan and Strategic Plan to carry out a quantitative risk assessment of all Schools.

• Schools are assessed on twelve risk factors, the maximum a school can score is 18 risk points. Schools that score over 4 risk points are allocated a monitoring officer.

• We do not carry out detailed checks or correct errors on budget plans. These are the schools documents and we assess based on what is submitted.

What do we do with the school finance data submitted?

Schools are allocated a Monitoring officer when:

No. of schools

•They score over four risk points (44)

•They are converting to Academy (23)

•They are closing e.g. SOR (6)

•Licenced Deficit or NOFC issued (13)

•Concerns raised by LIS or Internal Audit (17)

Schools we work with

Key Deadlines and Interactions with SATActivity Deadline

Year End Listed Entries 27th March

Step 1 of Oracle to Data SheetStep 2 of Oracle to Data sheet Step 3 of Oracle to Data sheet

27th March15th April29th April

Budget Plan approved by Governors 1st May

Strategic Plan approved by Governors 29th May

CFR 17th July

SFVS approved by Governors & submitted to SAT 31st December

Bank Reconciliations End of September, January and March

School Fund Return End Autumn Term

VAT returns 15th of each Month

Key Deadlines and Interactions with SATActivity – New for 2015 Deadline

Certificate of PCI DSS Compliance 31st May

• LMS Doc 2015/05• Finance Regulations on SchoolSurf• Schools’ Choice templates to assist schools

• Annual Certificate – require returns from 100% maintained schools/PRUs

• Not taking card payments/holding PDQ terminal?– only need complete Certificate of Compliance– also obtain Certificate of Attestation(s) for 3rd Party provider(s) e.g.

ParentPay

• More work for schools taking card payments/holding PDQ terminal– 24 page Self Assessment Questionnaire B

• SCC carrying out a review of their digital strategy, web presence etc.

• Schoolsurf to be ‘decommissioned’

• Process of transferring content to other platforms. i.e. Suffolk Learning, Suffolk County Council, Schools Choice,

• Schools to be notified and made aware of any future changes

• Schools Accountancy Team information, statutory documents, policies and procedures will be moving.

• From the 1st April there will be a section dedicated to Schools Accountancy Team on Suffolk Learning www.suffolklearning.co.uk - then: Leadership & Staff Development > Schools Accountancy Team

Changes to Schoolsurf and SCC Digital Strategy

Suffolk Learning•Suffolk Learning is an ‘external’ website•CYP Education & Learning - Learning Improvement Service (LIS) host the site•Schools Accountancy Team will sit under Leadership & Development.•Clearer headings•Easy to navigate•Improved search functionality•User testing carried out by a selected group of schools

Any Questions ?

Future Funding

Responding to Uncertainty – What can Schools do?

• Ensure good financial management

• Ensure good value for money

- Benchmarking

- Staffing

- Procurement

- Free School Meals

• Strong partnerships

Good Financial Management

• Sound budget and medium term plans• Avoiding basic errors in submissions• Proper involvement and sign up of governors• Good quality and robust on-going monitoring• For school in deficit or at risk - robust recovery

plans with clear underlying assumptions• For school with surpluses – clear plans for how

that surplus can be used, with a focus on attainment, backlog maintenance, and managing risk

Good Financial Management

Financial YearReserves at Year End

No of Maintained schools at End of year

£ million2009-10 19.4 355 2010-11 20.8 333 2011-12 25.4 317 2012-13 28.1 299 2013-14 27.9 286

Good Value for MoneyBenchmarking

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/•Enables comparisons with similar schools•Enables comparison across LAs•Enables comparison of outcomes as well as costs•Based on schools own published data

Looking at pay as well as non-pay•Staffing counts for approximately 80% + of a school’s budget •Vacancies give opportunity to make changes•Think about grading, full or part time, contact time, sharing specialist staff•Incentives to take on middle school staff

Good Value for Money• Avoiding procurement risk

– Leases

– Finance leases are considered a form of borrowing and schools cannot enter into borrowing without the secretary of states permission.

– High risk items, IT, telephony, copiers, promotions

– When in doubt get advice – all schools buy into the procurement advice service.

• Free School Meals– Impact of Universal Infant Free School Meal policy – slight fall in FSM

registration since the introduction of this policy affects Pupil Premium.

– Suffolk losing approx. £5m of Pupil Premium through non registration.

– Think of other incentives, improved web presence, taster days, promotion when parents are in the school.

Strong Partnerships

• Does not just mean formal federation• Sharing specialist staff, knowledge, skills, or

facilities.• Especially important to think about shared staffing• For formal federation no disincentive in the budget

setting process• Federation budgets are set as individual schools

and then added together to give a total federation budget.

Any Questions ?

Schools Accountancy Team:

Telephone: 01473 265626E mail: sat@suffolk.gov.uk

Website: www.suffolklearning.co.uk/leadership-staff-development/schools-

accountancy

SOR Policy: 01473 260791fiona.heath@suffolk.gov.com

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