Information Bulletins

October 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to the Schools Finance Team Bulletins, we hope you all had a good half-term week and a well-deserved break. The October Bulletin includes an update on Schools Finance team staffing changes and some key deadlines and reminders for the 2023 Autumn Term.

School Finance Team

As you may be aware, Coral Miller who was in post since November 2022 working in a role as Interim Finance Business Partner for DSG/Schools has now left the team for a new post, working in another London Borough. Her main role was to set the 2023-24 Budgets and perform the 2022-23 Year End Closure. Paula Gledhill who was in post as Interim Head of Finance for Social Care & Education Services has also now left the London Borough of Hillingdon.

There are some new members of staff that have now joined the team: -

Steve Denbeigh - has returned to the team after 2 years away as an Assistant Finance Business Partner. He is currently supporting both the School Finance Officers and wider school finance teams with grant payments, grants reconciliation and budget monitoring.

Ndenko Asong - started with the Schools Finance Team in June as a Strategic Lead Business Partner, equivalent to Graham's role. He will be mainly looking after the SEN Function, reporting to Schools Forum in a more strategic level as well as managing DSG and Schools.

Sailesh Patel - also started in June, replacing the Business Partner role that Coral was covering and to help increase capacity within the team. He has a varied background in Education, Schools and Children's social care over many years so is well placed to fulfil this role. Sailesh is currently working very closely with the SEN Team and is involved with setting up additional SRP capacity within Hillingdon.

Andy Moore - previously a Principal Accountant in Brighton & Hove City Council, he started in April as Interim Assistant Finance Business Partner dealing with Early Support Payments, SENDEX payments and is also assisting Ndenko with High Needs matters including the data collection for EHCP pupils.

Sheilender (Shelly) Pathak - We have a new Head of Finance for Children's & SEND started in September. Shelly has significant experience in this role and was previously with LB Hounslow

Benchmarking

The need for Benchmarking is very important and as ever being a component of SFVS, the DfE guidance specifically states that the schools financial benchmarking or view my financial insights tool should be used and now schools will have at least past three years of data available to them. We have now refreshed our guidance on benchmarking and a copy is attached for your attention.

Teachers' Pay Awards 2023

Following the government announcement on 13^th July 2023, the largest ever recommendation from the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) has been accepted by the Government. The School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) recommended a pay award of 6.5% across all pay scales, which has been accepted in full by the Education Secretary. There are also slightly higher pay increases for starting salaries outside London, so that new teachers receive £30,000 or above from September to deliver on the Government's commitment. School leaders recognise the vital role that teachers play in our country and ensures that teaching will continue to be an attractive profession.

Importantly, the Government's offer is properly funded for schools. The Government has committed that all schools will receive additional funding above what was proposed in March. The Government has announced to fund the full cost of the award above 3.5%, nationally as additional funding. This is in recognition of the fact that many schools budgeted for a 3.5% pay increase. Initially you will see a payment in the November Cash Advance to cover the period September 2023 to March 2024 (7/12^th). The grant will continue for the full financial year 2024-25 (12 months) for maintained school.

Support Staff Pay Award 2023

Agreement has been reached on rates of pay applicable from 1 April 2023 as follows:

The National Employers have agreed unanimously to make the following one-year (1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024), full and final offer to the unions representing the main local government NJC workforce:

· With effect from 1 April 2023, an increase of £1,925 (for Hillingdon it is £2,226 in Outer London and this has been included in SBS Budgets) (pro rata for part-time employees) to be paid as a consolidated, permanent addition on all NJC pay points 2 to 43 inclusive.

· With effect from 1 April 2023, an increase of 3.88 per cent on all allowances (as listed in the 2022 NJC pay agreement circular dated 1 November 2022).

UNISON have accepted the offer, Unite are taking action in some LAs, the unions met on 19 September to discuss the employers' full and final pay offer and agreed to reconvene for further discussions after GMB's strike ballots close on 24 October 2023. The pay process cannot move forward unless the NJC trade union side can reach an agreement.

National Tutoring Programme Grant

National Tutoring Programme (NTP) 2022-23 year-end statement opened in September 2023

All organisations that received the 2022 to 2023 NTP grant were required to complete a year-end statement and a form needed to be completed by Friday 29 September, even if schools did not use any of the NTP funding. Failure to submit the form will result in the full funding allocation being recovered by ESFA. If you have any other queries, please contact the NTP support desk.

Please note that there were some claw-back of funds for the School Led Tutoring Grant in respect of 2021-22.

The Government has decided once again to extend NTP funding over the academic year 2023-24. This funding is paid in termly instalments by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and, is intended to cover 50% of the unit cost of tuition, with your school making up the remainder of the cost using PP or other core school budgets and NOT the Recovery Premium Grant. Your NTP allocation is based on pupils eligible for the pupil premium, as recorded on the October 2022 school census. The academic year 2023-24 is the fourth and final year of the NTP and is intended for schools to consider how to deliver future tutoring in your school, providing targeted support for those children who will benefit.

Please note that the 2023-24 grant is only for this year and will not have been accounted for in the 2023-24 Budgets as 'Cash Advance Expected'. Last year's funding required all schools to submit a year end statement by end of September 2023 to conclude the spend and may even result in a clawback for that 2022-23 academic grant, dependent on your submission to the ESFA. The ESFA will expect another year-end statement return to be submitted in September 2024 for this grant, covering September 23 to August 2024 and to include:-

· how much your school spent on tutoring - this should be the total amount you spent on tutoring (the portion funded by the NTP grant and the contribution from your school)

· how many hours of tutoring your school delivered - this should include every hour delivered per pupil (for example, if you delivered a 15-hour course to 3 pupils, you would count it as 45 hours)

· how many pupils in your school have received tuition

KS2 UFSM GLA Funding

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan made an Announcement last year that every Primary School pupil in London will be offered a Free School Meal in this Academic Year, starting September 2023 to July 2024. The GLA Grant for FSM to KS2 has been calculated and an allocations table was emailed directly to schools to detail the three planned payments.

The grant is based on January 2022 Census less the FSM data recorded, given at the rate of £2.65 for 190 days with initial take-up based on a 90% uptake. The funding is paid over three instalments, as follow:-

· 1st trance which was 50% of the grant available was paid in the August 2023 Cash Advance.

· 2nd payment will be followed by 25% of the grant being paid in the December 2023 Cash Advance.

· 3rd payment will be followed by another 25% of the grant being paid in the April 2024 Cash Advance (next Financial Year, hence to be included as ring-fenced Carry Forward).

· The grant is based on a 90% take-up therefore if you expect take-up above this level, please ensure you keep suitable records to support a future claim. There is currently no guidance on what would be required however meals purchased with KS2 line detail from your provider would seem the most obvious.

Mainstream School Additional Grant (MSAG)

The Mainstream School Additional Grant (MSAG) is paid to mainstream schools supporting 5 to 16 age range of pupils i.e., not nursery or special schools. This funding is only for one year and going forward will be incorporated into the National Funding Formula / main allocations in 2024-25. There is flexibility to prioritise the spend to best support needs of the pupils and staff, and to address cost pressures. 1^st Tranche was paid out in the June Cash Advance, the 2^nd Tranche will be paid in the November Cash Advance. In most schools, the remaining funds currently are held in the Cash Advance Expected Funds Cost Centre and will need to be adjusted accordingly.

Pupil Premium - Service Children & Post LAC

There will be funding released for these budgets in the November Cash Advance together with an amendment to the Deprivation element of the main Pupil Premium budget. Each element will be posted separately on your November Cash Advance statement.

There is a separate email also sent to schools (dated 01/11/2023) detailing an adjustment for the deprivation factor (budget vs actuals). Plus, payments where applicable for Service Children and PLAC.

Where you have anticipated for these adjustments in FMS and posted income in advance, please liaise with you Link Officer if you need guidance in adjusting the values.

Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM)

There has been a delay in distributing this funding due to confusing communications from the DfE. We have now identified the correct allocations for schools and payments will be issued in the November Cash Advance. Steve Denbeigh will be distributing a separate, more detailed email including pupil numbers and allocation figures in the coming days (dated 01/11/2023).

SBS Budgets 2023-24 Updates

We are currently working with three schools to trial the Personnel Links. Initially, there have been a few teething problems. Once these are successful implemented, we are looking to roll this out to all schools. There have been a few difficulties with the schools that have been using SIMS but schools using Arbor Personnel recording system have been more successful and may be the first to be rolled out.

There is a minimum annual charged link to this, of around £100 per school. This charge is only for SIMS Schools as SBS already have a business agreement with Arbor.

Schools will have received emails regarding 'RE: SBS Budgets migration January '24' and will continue to receive further correspondence on this subject. We have been informed that a new piece of software is being introduced with a more modern look, there will be a change in colours and less clicks but new functionalities. There is a chance of cleansing the data that is held at the moment, with some schools that have created several scenarios. SBS have assured us that there will plenty of assistance and the Borough will have a choice when this migration actually takes place, starting to roll it out from January 2024. There will be a limited number of Budgets that will be able to migrate, and we will keep you informed of this process. We will be working with our Relationship Officer at SBS to receive the Demo Training of this and will arrange training sessions to include the new software training for schools too. There will be a limited time where the old software will still have a view only access.

There is a minimum annual charged link to this, of around £100 per school. This charge is only for SIMS Schools as SBS already have a business agreement with Arbor.

Returns 2023-24 -Quarter 3 Deadlines

EYPP -17^th November 2024, an email will be distributed in late October

Qtr3 Capital Returns - 8^th December 2023

Qtr3 VAT Submittal - 9^th January 2024

Qtr3 Returns - 12^th January 2024

SEN Review 2023-24

Update on High Needs Payments - An informative Teams meeting was held on Monday 16/10/2023, with Carole Lewis, SEND Advisory Manager and Dominika Michalik, SEND Strategic Lead, providing the presentations. For those who were unable to attend you can find the recording of the session here on LEAP: An Overview of Types of LBH SEND Funding - Leap (hillingdon.gov.uk). The slides used during the session are also here.

Hillingdon LEAP > Our Services > SEND & Inclusion > An Overview of Types of LBH SEND Funding

Andy Moore who is collating all the High needs top up data, thanks those people who have returned the change templates to the HN Queries email address (HN-Queries@hillingdon.gov.uk). A reminder that those outstanding should be sent ASAP, to date he has had about 1/3^rd back.

The Education Information Sharing Sessions

The Education Improvement & Partnerships Team ran some sessions around finance to support schools which took place on the following dates and recordings can be also found on LEAP. There is a list of all the contacts that the schools may require:-

· Tuesday 4th July - Overview and Outline, setting the scene.

· Tuesday 11h July - Re-structuring Process, when do you need to consider it with Bob Charlton from Schools HR.

· Tuesday 18th July - Forward Planning, pupil number forecasting / reduction in PAN / conditions to consider applying.

· Tuesday 12th September - Cost Saving Strategies and Ideas, PAN reduction process with Jenny Chalmers, School Admissions. Cost cutting whilst keeping the quality of provision as good as possible.

· Wednesday 20th September - Income Generation and Additional Grants, Grants / Procurement / Income generation.

· Tuesday 26th September - Sharing resources and Flexible Thinking, resource sharing / any other ideas. Marketing with Matt Szurgot, Head of School at Holy Trinity. Capital Programmes with Michael Naughton, Head of Capital at LBH.

An Overview of these sessions can be found on LEAP (hillingdon.gov.uk). The slides used during the session are also here.

Hillingdon LEAP > Our Services > Education Improvement and Partnerships > Guidance and Resources > Finance Information Sharing & Networking Sessions July & September 2023.

Schools Consultation Papers

Reminder to respond to the Consultations.

Following the recent school's forum meeting we have issued 3 consultations which require a response this month.

1. Proposed changes to the Scheme for Financing Schools. The deadline for responses is 17th November 2023.

2. Schools Funding Formula for 2024-25. The deadline for responses is 17th November 2023.

3. Notional SEN Budget for Mainstream Schools 2024-25. The deadline for responses is 21^st November 2023.

Formal responses to all the above consultations should be made by completing the appropriate response document and emailing to schoolfinancereturns@hillingdon.gov.uk.

VAT

HMRC have started scrutinising VAT return submissions. Prior to releasing payments to the council, there are a number of questions that we have to answer. This includes interrogation of VAT coding and providing copy invoices. It is imperativethat invoices are keyed accurately and the VAT documentation is obtained prior to reclaiming the VAT. This places the importance on schools querying anomalies with either the schools finance team or the corporate VAT team, as well as providing the VAT reports on time to allow for internal checks prior to submission to HMRC. Penalties will be recharged to schools.

There will be mandatory annual training sessions for schools as part of the action plan agreed with HMRC. Each school needs to send at least one member of staff, but there is no maximum. Dates for these sessions are, as follows:-

· Tuesday 28^th November 2023

· Friday 8^th December 2023

Both sessions starting at 10.30am and in CR5, details to follow.

The Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) Assurance Statement

The DfE has confirmed that the SFVS return is a mandatory requirement for the 2023-24 financial year. The SFVS applies to all local authority maintained schools, and the deadline for submission of your completed and signed self assessment is 31^st March 2024.

The SFVS 2023-24 template is usually available from the DfE website, in November. As soon as we are advised, we will let schools know when the new statement and guidance is published, however there is not currently any known changes.

Attachments

Schools National Financial Benchmarking Guidance - August 2023 (PDF) [1MB]

LA School Finance Returns Timetable 2023-2024 (PDF) [131KB]

Other Contacts

Please access ALL education information and weekly updates from the Education Improvement & Partnerships Team via here:

LEAP

The Schools Finance Team policies, guidance and documents can be accessed on the link here:

Finance - Leap (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