February 2021

Dear Colleagues,

February's bulletin includes information for year-end, staff remuneration returns and authorising letters to banks which can be completed well ahead of year-end deadlines. The budget season is also underway, and this month's bulletin includes the latest updates.

Funding of catering providers during lockdown

We have received a number of queries from schools in relation to the funding of catering providers during periods of lockdown.

The DfE previously provided guidance which indicated the following: -

If you consider it appropriate, in order to maintain delivery of critical services, you should continue to make payments as normal where suppliers are considered at risk, even if service delivery is disrupted or suspended. Such payments should only cover the cost of free school meals and universal infant free school meals, and not the costs of meals usually purchased by parents for pupils who are not eligible for free school meals. Any relief payments for free school meals and universal infant free school meals should be based on previous invoices prior to lockdown. The government will continue to provide schools with their expected funding, including funding to cover free school meals and universal infant free school meals, throughout the period.
Schools are advised to liaise with suppliers who should agree to act on an open book basis and make cost data available, in order to demonstrate what costs are being incurred and also what other financial support has been accessed (i.e. job retention scheme).

Year End

Year-end guidance was e-mailed to schools on 10th February. This year the deadlines are:

4th March - Q4 Capital Return
6th April - Q4 VAT Submittal with VAT Submittal MTD & Full VAT MTD in excel
6th April - Year End Statements with supporting documents
6th April - Staff Remuneration

Once again, there is an option to complete an Early Close - from 22nd March. Capital transactions will need to be frozen from 4th March so please liaise with any building contractors who may be affected. Revenue transactions will need to be frozen from the date returns are submitted.

Staff Remuneration

With cooperation from your payroll provider, the Staff Remuneration return can be completed as soon as the March payroll has been finalised. As in previous years, most schools send the Staff Remuneration template to their payroll provider for staff salaries to be entered. Once received please check the following:

The teaching and non-teaching options are completed correctly for column E.
The term time and all year-round working pattern is completed correctly for column F (sometimes this column is completed listing part and full-time contracts, these are not the working patterns required on this form).
Any one-off payments such as honorariums and redundancy payments are separated into the appropriate columns.
Where the total payroll amount does not match FMS, please refer to the Staff Remuneration Troubleshooting guide. Then complete the "Reasons for Variance" tab on the return.

Authorisation Letter to Bank

Every year a letter needs to be sent directly to your bank authorising auditors to verify balances held by your school at year-end. There are two templates available, one for Lloyds bank and one for all other banks. Both templates are attached to this e-mail for your convenience. In addition, please send a copy to schoolfinancereturns@hillingdon.gov.uk

SFVS returns by 28 May 2021

Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Department for Education (DfE) has decided that the SFVS return should be delayed this year. This is to take account of the current pressures schools and local authorities are facing.

For the financial year 2020 to 2021, schools should submit their SFVS no later than 28 May 2021. We encourage schools to submit the return before this deadline, if possible, to give the Schools Finance team sufficient time to review and come back to you with any queries.

Please click on the link for the document:

Schools financial value standard (SFVS)

COVID-19 Catch up funding

There has been no further update on the second tranche payment, expected early 2021.

VAT

Schools are reminded that any invoices received from LBH and invoices received from LBH maintained schools should be recorded Outside the Scope of VAT. Please see attached VAT Guidance Appendix A&B.

Pupil Premium Reform

Information: pupil premium allocations - guidance on the move using the October census

On 17 December, the Department for Education (DfE) announced that the pupil premium rates will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021 to 2022 and that, from 2021 to 2022 onwards, pupil premium allocations for mainstream and special schools will be based on the October census.

Pupil premium funding for the financial year starting on 1 April 2021 will therefore be based on the October 2020 census instead of the January census as would have previously been the case. The DfE have now published further information on this administrative change. This can be found under "allocation changes from 2021 to 2022". This administrative change brings the pupil premium in line with how the rest of the core schools' budget is calculated and going forward it will provide both schools and DfE with greater certainty around future funding levels earlier in the year. Total pupil premium funding is expected to increase to more than £2.5 billion in 2021 to 2022 as more children have become eligible for free school meals as a result of the impact of the pandemic.

Teacher Pension Forms

Please be reminded all Teacher Pension forms should be directed to Elaine Hill in the first instance and not sent to Teachers Pensions directly to avoid any delays in processing the pension membership.

Teacher Pension Contribution band changes 2021

Salary bands for contribution rates for members will increase by 0.5% with effect from 1 April 2021. The new rates as of 1 April 2021 will be:

Further information can be found on updates page.

Budgets 2021/2022

We are currently preparing the indicative budgets and anticipate they will be sent out to schools the week following half term. As always, they are subject to change with the final budgets made available by the 31st March.

From 2021 to 2022, funding for the teachers' pay awards and increase in pension costs will be paid through the schools individual delegated budget instead of as separate grants.

Budget Planning

It is recommended that schools do not copy scenarios until basic settings and checks as well as a basic budget have been completed. After this, "what if" scenarios can be created if wished.

Settings and Checks

The following will be covered as part of the forthcoming budget workshops. There are a number of checks to be made to the software to ensure your budget is as accurate as possible.

NI Update

SBS do not like to make changes "behind the scenes" and cause confusion if any amounts have altered without you knowing. Keep an eye on the Dashboard because there are two tabs, one to inform you of software updates that have been made by SBS. The second School Business Updates tab will prompt you to update information.
Currently as an example - there is a need to update National Insurance rates for 2021/22. This is done as follows:

Select Dashboard
School Business Updates Tab
New 2021/22 National Insurance Calculations

This will give instructions on how to update NI, which are:

Go to Settings
Budgets
Edit a budget (right hand side)
Select Calculation Tables tab
Scroll down to the 'National Insurance tables' section
Click the 'Add National Insurance table' button
Select the date 1st April 2021
Choose the '2021/22' table from the version drop-down list
Click the green tick in the top right to save changes
Repeat for each budget scenario as required

Salary Hours and Weekly Per Hour

Go to Settings
Budgets
Edit (on right)
Staff Contract Settings

We recommend if not already set that:

Weeks be set to 52.143 for both Support and Teachers
Teachers 27.5 hours for all schools except infant schools who wish to use 25 hours
Support staff 36 hours
Save

Funding

Funding will require updating into the Funding Predictor section once indicative budgets are issued. For non-section 251 funding such as pupil premium, budget income lines can be used. Please do not select a cost centre for these entries. Instead, use a Cash Advance Tag to be able to produce a separate report for this funding.

Staff Members and Contracts

It is recommended all staff members and contracts are updated to your current staffing structure.

Staffing > Staff Contracts

Staffing > Staff Members

Teacher Payscales

It is recommended that teacher pay scales be double-checked under Staffing > Salary Scales because these are different for each school. Look at the September 2020 for current rates.

If you use Custom Teacher Pay Scale, it is recommended that your school's September 2020 custom teacher pay scales are updated prior to attending the Budget Workshop. Please find attached SBS guidance on updating custom scales.

Inflation

Staffing expenditure - the local authority is assuming 2% for staffing inflation, but given the uncertainty you may wish to set this at a different value for each year under Staffing > Inflation and Superannuation.

Non-staffing expenditure -

For single line to be inflated