January 2021
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the Schools Finance New Year Bulletin. We hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are keeping well, as best as you can as we embrace Lockdown No.3...
We hope you are ready for another arguably busiest term and see what this term has in store for us!
School Finance Team
As you may be aware, Steve Denbigh has left LBH after nearly 5 years with the team. He made plans to travel for a year or two before he gets too old... We wish him all good luck, health and happiness for the future.
With his departure from the Schools Finance Team, the 'Link Officer' allocations have been slightly amended. Those schools who have seen a change will have been notified by email.
VAT
Thank you for the Quarter 3 VAT Submittal returns. As always, we have a tight turnaround with these returns to ensure reimbursement by the end of the following month.
Please note that from Q3 going forward, we will also require a full VAT report in excel format for ALL Schools with your submissions. That means, we now require the following 3 separate reports every quarter: -
- A VAT Submittal report, signed by your Headteacher
- A digital VAT Submittal (MTD) report
- A digital VAT Full (MTD) report
Please note, it is a requirement to submit the Corporate VAT Returns digitally, hence the latter two reports should be sent in excel version.
Schools invoice sampling - The Council is committed to being fully compliant with all tax laws, rules and regulations and is currently undergoing a Business Risk Review for VAT by HMRC. It has therefore been decided that the current sampling process where only 13 schools are reviewed per quarter, will change to review ten samples from each school in Q3. That means 540 invoices will be selected in the first instance and where a high number of errors / anomalies are detected, further sampling will be undertaken. The project will be led by Thu Ta and she will liaise directly with schools.
Lease Return
Reminder, in early preparation for year end 2020/21 we attached the lease return template with the December Bulletin. This was due by the 22nd of January 2021. Please contact your link officer if you have any questions on the completion of this.
SBS Budgets 2021/22
We included invitations to the Budget Workshops in the School Leaders Briefing on the 11th of January. There will be the usual selection of dates to choose from, however remember places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Most of you have now been allocated a slot, please let us know if you have not yet received a confirmation. Please note that the deadline for bookings is Friday 29th January 2021.
Given the current pandemic uncertainty, the budget workshops will be held virtually this year and delivered by your school's finance link officer. Details of how to prepare the Teams meeting and what to have on the day, to follow soon. In the meantime, please see attached a 'New Code Listing for 2020/21'.
Please note: Attendees to the virtual sessions will need access to a laptop or desktop computer that is equipped with an internet connection, a microphone and a camera (optional), along with Microsoft Teams software. If this creates any difficulties, please contact the Schools Finance Team at your earliest convenience.
Fraud
We have had a fraudulent bank withdrawal attempt reported to us earlier this month where the bank was able to intercept this from happening. Please be vigilant of such incidents taking place and ensure regular bank reconciliations are undertaken in order to identify any fraudulent activity at the earliest stage.
ICT Equipment from the DfE
The DfE laptops provided to schools from September 2020 are for the individual schools to own and manage. The Council provided permission for maintained schools to order the laptops directly from the DfE as the Council cannot take any responsibility for loss, damage, maintenance or misuse. The documentation should have been provided with the laptops or be available via the DfE's helpdesk: covid.technology@education.gov.uk
Funded Training in School Resource Management
The Department for Education has funded webinars to help schools, trusts and local authorities plan for the future and ensure long term financial sustainability.
Focusing on resource management and integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP), delegates will receive the knowledge and tools they need to quantify areas of inefficiency, diagnose the causes and ensure effective use of resources.
The webinars will be delivered by Entrust Support Services from now until March 2021.
Full details of the training and how to book can be found on the Entrust School Resource Management portal.
Things to Note
- SLA offers for 2021/22 will be sent out in the next couple of weeks. We will be looking for your indications as to which services you would wish to buy back in 2021/22.
- Year end guidance will shortly be circulated to schools to assist with the preparation for closing the 2020/21 accounts.
- We are still waiting on the 2nd tranche allocation of the COVID-19 Catch-up Grant from the ESFA. As soon as this is received by the local authority it will be distributed to schools.
- Following the termly census on the 21st of January, will be asking those schools with a Nursery setting for numbers so we can make a provisional EYSFF formula adjustment for the spring term. This will hopefully negate schools having to make any accruals.
SBS Helpline and email
SBS provides a helpline to schools for technical questions:
Telephone: 0345 222 1551 option 8
Email: sbsonline@schoolbusinessservices.co.uk
Please continue to contact your link officer for finance queries.
Kind Regards
Schools Finance Team
