March 2021
Dear Colleagues,
This month's bulletin includes an update on Schools Finance team staffing changes and reminders for both year-end and budgeting.
Schools Finance Team - Staffing update
As you may be aware, Steve Denbeigh left the local authority in January. This has led to a reshuffle of staffing resources within the Schools Finance team. Rubina will be moving across to a more central role within finance and therefore will no longer be directly supporting schools. Debbie Collings has joined us on a temporary basis and will be supporting Rubina's schools in the coming months whilst we go through the process of recruiting a permanent replacement. Debbie has a wealth of experience as a School Business Manager working in several different schools over a number of years.
Google Web Page
With immediate effect please use the LEAP (Local Education Area Partnership) web site to access information as we are no longer able to update the Google site. The LEAP link can be found here:
Finance - Leap (hillingdon.gov.uk)
COVID-19 Catch-up Grant
COVID catch up funding second tranche allocation for spring term has been paid in the March 2021 cash advance. Further details can be found here:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/catch-up-premium-coronavirus-covid-19
COVID-19 Exceptional Costs Grant
The second Exceptional Grant claims payment have been paid in the March 2021 cash advance. There has been no update since December 2020 for any further claims.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund claim form
The coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools and colleges online form is now live. The deadline to submit your claim is on 31 March 2021. Guidance has been published to help you complete the form and can be found here.
Adult Meals & VAT
The Chancellor announced at the Budget 2021 that the temporary reduced rate of 5% will be extended to 30 September 2021.
We understand from 1 October 2021 the reduced rate for these supplies will be replaced by the introduction of a new reduced rate of VAT of 12.5% which will remain in effect until 31 March 2022. Further details can be found here.
Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) - VAT Domestic Reverse Charge
Please be advised that the LA are managing the CIS - VAT Domestic Reverse Charge corporately and have sent letters to all our relevant active Construction suppliers. Some suppliers may show as inactive since 2014 on the LA's records. On this basis no further action is required by the schools except replying to the e-mail informing the supplier that the LA are managing this centrally.
Pupil Premium 2021/22
The pupil premium and service premium rates will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021/22. Primary will remain as £1,345, Secondary £955, Service Children £310 and LAC £2,345. These new values have been reflected in the funding estimates. Schools should note that the census used for allocating Pupil Premium funding has changed to the October census (previously eligibility data was taken from the January census).
Year End
Capital is now closed for 2020/21 so if you need to make any capital amendments at this stage, please contact your Link Officer for guidance.
The year-end returns deadline is Tuesday 6th April and early closes are possible from 22nd March. Please contact your link officer if you encounter any problems that could delay returns. If you have not done so already, please let your link officer know when you are likely to complete your closedown.
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 full time (52 weeks contract) working pattern is completed correctly for column F (sometimes this column is completed as 'part and full time' contracts, these are not the correct working patterns required for 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 Year End Guidance under Staff Remuneration Troubleshooting section, pages 10 and 11. Then complete the "Reasons for Variance" tab on the return.
Authorisation Letter to Bank
Please be reminded that 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, were attached as part of your Year End Guidance email.
In addition, please send a copy to schoolfinancereturns@hillingdon.gov.uk
IR35 Legislation & Declaration
Please be reminded that your school is complying with IR35 guidelines by checking the IR35 status of a worker.
Schools can easily determine the IR35 status of a worker by: completing HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) online questionnaire.
Please find attached an IR35 Annual Declaration Form, to be signed by the Headteacher and submitted to Schools Finance Team. Please note, this is a new requirement and deadline for these to be returned will also be 28th May 2021, along with your SFVS returns.
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.
Staff Pay Award
The support staff pay award that came into effect on 1st April 2020 and the teaching pay award came into effect on 1st September 2020 should already on SBS Online. Please ensure that the correct salary amounts are being used to calculate the salaries for 2021-22. SBS will automatically change the points on each contract and for the top of scale.
Budget Overview
Under Reporting > General Reports > Budget overview it states that the latest teachers and support staff pay scales are selected, currently showing 2020/21 scales.
Applying Inflation
It is recommended that Teaching Staff expenditure is to be set at between 1.5% to 2% and Support Staff expenditure at 1% for the first year and 2% for the next two years for both types. These settings should be decided by the Governing Bodies at each school.
Superannuation for Teaching Staff should be set at 23.68% and for Support Staff at 24.10%. This can be checked under Staffing > Inflation and Superannuation.
However, inflation is not set on non-staffing expenditure -
To inflate a single Budget Entry
- Planning
- Budget Entries
- Select Edit
- Profile Tab
- Enter Inflation percentage
- Apply
- Save
To inflate multiple lines
- Planning
- Budget Entries
- Tick all budget lines to be inflated
- Under Actions choose edit pencil icon
- In Inflation box enter percentage
- Save
Generally, we recommend 2% be applied. School may wish to apply difference percentages where they are aware of specific contract terms.
If you wish to revert any line(s) back to zero, then 0.00 must be input for saving.
Apprenticeship Levy
The cost of the Apprenticeship Levy needs to be put in an expenditure Budget Entry. This is calculated as 0.5% of total payroll cost. VA and Foundation Schools are not required to pay this levy, unless the pay bill is in excess of £3m.
Outturn on and off
There is a button under:
- Settings
- Budgets
- Edit
- Core Settings
This relates to reporting. If you wish an outturn column in the reports then this button needs to be turned on and the values can be entered. This does not apply to all reports. If you do not wish to have this facility then it can be turned off.
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
