June 2022

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Schools Finance Summer Term Bulletin. This bulletin includes an update on Schools Finance team staffing changes and some key deadlines and reminders for the 2022 Summer Term.

School Finance Team

In the past year we have delivered several Bitesize Sessions in preparation for the 2021-22 Year End process. We also delivered SBS Workshop/Training sessions in the spring term to aid in the preparation of budgets for 2022-23. To help us deliver future sessions, we would welcome your feedback. Please let us know areas of finance where you would like more information that you feel would be beneficial.

As you are aware, Graham Young will be leaving Hillingdon in July to take up an Academy Trust role in Hertfordshire. We thank Graham for his seven and a half years of service with the LA, we will all miss his calm professional manner and leadership and wish him all the very best for the future. Terry Shaw will be covering the role on a part time interim basis with immediate effect while the permanent recruitment process takes place. We welcome Terry to Hillingdon and look forward to working with him in the months ahead.

If you have any urgent queries and cannot contact us directly, please send them to schoolfinancereturns@hillingdon.gov.uk where a member of the Schools Finance Team will be able to pick them up.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Grants and PE & Sports Premium

Any underspends carried forward from the 2020-21 and the 2021-22 academic year grants, will need to be spent in full by 31 August 2022. Schools should factor this into their School-Led Tutoring, Recovery Premium and PE and Sport Premium and any remaining COVID-19 spending plans.

Deadline to claim for the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund had been extended, providing financial support to eligible schools and colleges for costs incurred due to staff absences from Monday 22 November 2021 to Friday 8 April 2022.

School-Led Tutoring Grant - schools are reminded that if they are in receipt of this funding, they are required to complete a mandatory Year-End Statement by the 16th September 2022. The form and guidance including exact timelines and further assistance will be available very shortly from the DfE.

Pupil Premium 2022-23

The Pupil Premium and service premium rates for the financial year 2022-23 have been published. Primary is £1,385, Secondary £985, Service Children £320 and Looked After Children (LAC) £2,410. Adjustments to the funding estimates have been reflected in June 2022 Cash Advance. Schools should note that the census used for allocating Pupil Premium funding is now October data.

External Audit - 2021-22 Year End

We have prepared the year-end information for inclusion in the Council's statement of accounts and subsequent audit. Further information may be requested by the external auditors, Ernst and Young, over the next few months and these requests will have to be answered within 48 hours. The expectation is that we have already received sufficient information from schools to answer any such requests, however if the auditors do require any further detail relating to your school, your Link Finance Officer will contact you.

VAT (Reminder)

The Quarter 1 VAT Submittal returns are due in early July. As always, we have a tight turnaround with these returns to ensure reimbursement by the end of the following month. Please see guidance on printing these reports.

If any adjustments are required following the Quarter 4 Audit, the correcting journals should be processed before 30th June 2022.

The Council is committed to being fully compliant with all tax laws, rules, and regulations. Schools are advised to continue to check that ALL VAT transaction are correctly processed and input into the financial systems. Please see FAQs.

A reminder, that the reduced Rate of 12.5% for supplies in respect of 'admissions to shows and certain attractions' came to an end on 31st March 2022.

Final 2021-22 FMS Close and Upload of CFR Returns to DfE

Final Closure details:
All preliminary CFR returns have now been checked. Please follow the guidance attached with this bulletin to complete the final 2021-22 'Close' on FMS and to upload the Final CFR return from FMS to the DfE COLLECT site.

The deadline for the submission of the Final 2021-22 CFR returns to COLLECT is Wednesday 6th July 2022. Please note once this has been done, unwanted cost centres can be deleted.

SBS Budgets 2022-23

With budgets in the main now submitted and imported into FMS, a reminder to ensure that once checked and balanced, you 'fix' the budget in FMS and 'fix and publish' the ratified scenario in SBS.

All schools must use this facility once checked by your link officer. In the past, problems have been encountered where schools edited their scenarios after the budget plan was agreed by Governors but before it had been locked on the software. As a result, they were unable to track back to the exact details behind the school's three-year budget plans when queries arose.

To change name of your budget plan on SBS select: o Settings o Budgets o Click on 'edit', right of budget name o Amend title to 'Final budget 2022-25 as agreed by Governors' or similar and save

To fix your budget plan on SBS select: o Settings o Budget o Click into budget name 'Final Budget 2022-23.......' o Click on cog icon at top right of screen o Choose 'Fix' o This will create a duplicate working budget that will continue to be editable To Publish your 2022-23 Final Budget plan, select: o Settings o Budget o Click into budget name 'Final budget 2022-25....' o Click on cog icon at top right of screen o Choose 'Publish'.

To change name of your copied budget plan on SBS select: o Settings o Budgets o Click on edit of (auto-duplicate) budget o Amend title to 'Working budget 2022-25' or similar o Click on cog icon at top right of screen o Choose 'Set as current' and then 'Make default'.

You are now able to Archive any remaining budgets that are no longer required. o Settings o Budget o Click into budget name 'Working Budget 2021-22.......' o Click on cog icon at top right of screen o Choose Archive and OK.

View my Financial Insights (VMFI)

The DfE have again updated the view my financial insights (VMFI) tool for local authorities and maintained schools with the latest consistent financial reporting (CFR) 2020-21 data.

You can log into VMFI now to view the latest data and refreshed metrics.

VMFI can provide users with enhanced analytics into the financial position and performance of their school and an assessment of potential areas to improve school resource management.

You can read more information in the VMFI user guides.

Energy Inflation

Current LA inflation predictions for energy costs are 128% for gas and 61% for electricity. This does appear to be higher than we included in the assumptions in our budget setting guidance (I'm not sure anyone expected the increases we are seeing). It will differ for individual schools as they will be with a range of providers and on different tariffs. We can however advise that schools speak to their providers and keep a close eye on prices to ensure that they are able to adjust budgets accordingly.

Richard Coomber, the officer responsible for energy contracts has also said that energy costs will remain high for the foreseeable future, due to the current world situation. For those schools that are part of the LA contract, Richard has confirmed that he will periodically share inflation estimates with schools.

Apprenticeship Levy

The Learning & Development team have confirmed that draw-down from the Apprenticeship Levy is open to all maintained schools (including Foundation and Voluntary Aided). Further details on how to access funds can be found by contacting Alan Galloway (agalloway@hillingdon.gov.uk) or on the Learning & Development website.

Attachments

• A guide to Final Close and Final CFR Upload Final FMS6 Close & Final CFR Upload Guidance year ending 21-22 (PDF) [505KB]
• Example Cost Centre-Ledger Code-CFR Code Structure 2021-22 Example Cost Centre-Ledger Code-CFR Code Structure 21-22 (Excel doc) [36KB]
• Guidance for Printing VAT Reports Guidance for printing VAT Reports December 20 v1.0 (PDF) [340KB]
• Schools VAT FAQs Schools VAT FAQs (PDF) [108KB]

Other Contacts

Please access ALL education information and weekly updates from the Education Improvement & Partnerships Team via Hillingdon LEAP - Leap

The Schools Finance Team policies, guidance and documents can be accessed here Finance - Leap (hillingdon.gov.uk)

The Provider SEN Portal - ContrOCC system went live from 1st September 2021.

All SEN payments and statements will be accessible via the ContrOCC portal and payments will be paid on or around 8th of every month.

If you have any queries regarding the portal system, please contact the following email address: paymentscarefirst@hillingdon.gov.uk

Any SEN funding queries, please email SENfinance@hillingdon.gov.uk

SBS Helpline and email

SBS provides a helpline to schools for technical questions:

Telephone: 0345 222 1551 option 8

Email: sbsonline@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk

Kind Regards,

Schools Finance Team
Graham Young 01895 277687 gyoung@hillingdon.gov.uk
Davinder Devgon 01895 250458 ddevgon@hillingdon.gov.uk
Greg Watson 01895 250451 gwatson2@hillingdon.gov.uk
Nina Yasin 01895 277665 nyasin@hillingdon.gov.uk
Elaine Hill 01895 250985 ehill@hillingdon.gov.uk
Terry Shaw TBC tshaw@hillingdon.gov.uk

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