September 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back, we hope you have had a good summer and a well-deserved break.

Adult Meals & VAT

As you may be aware, the Chancellor has made some temporary changes to VAT charged on adult meals. If adult meals are supplied and charged for in your school, the adult meal income rate is increasing from 5% to 12.5% as from the 1st of October 2021 to 31st March 2022. Attached to this bulletin is the guidance on creating the new vat code for 12.5% income code.

Introduction of a new reduced rate of VAT for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

CFR - Changes to the reporting requirements for 2021-22

The Department of Education CFR reporting structure for 2021-22 guidance has indicated that there will be changes to the CFR I18b. Following this update, Coronavirus COVID-19 Free School Meals Additional Costs funding is now coded as I18b rather than I18d. Schools who have already received funding in this financial year will receive an updated movement in the September Cash Advance.

Further details can be found here:

Consistent financial reporting (CFR) framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

September Cash Advance / New SEN Portal - ContrOCC

Schools will see a cash advance reduction in SEN funding movement against CFR I03 Delegated SEN funding due to the introduction of payments through the Provider Portal - ContrOCC system. SEN payments will no longer be paid through the cash advance but will be paid via the portal, as a direct bank transfer. Going forward, to account for this correctly on FMS, a bank cash book journal will be required to receipt this actual income on a monthly basis.

The Provider Portal - ContrOCC system has gone live from 1st September. To enable to migrate your SEN payments onto the new system please ensure you have completed the set-up form, e-mailed to schools on 21st June. Once you are registered and set up, you will have received a welcome pack which includes your username, password, link to the portal and the short training video guides. All future 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

For changes to the SEN on the cash advance, please refer to the SEN Cash Advance Movement guidance for further information.

National Non-domestic Rates for schools - April 2022

Last month the ESFA announced changes to the payment process of schools' business rates from next financial year. Further details can be found here:

Changes to the payment process of schools' business rates - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Bacs Remittances for LA Direct Payments

Although rare, if you receive payments from the LA directly (i.e. not through the cash advance) and are not receiving the remittance advice, you can update your email address by contacting the Payments Control Team at: paymentscontrolteam@hillingdon.gov.uk

HR Mandatory Governors' Training for Maintained Schools - Reminder

All maintained school Governors are requested to attend this funded HR Governors' training to understand roles and responsibilities, recruitment legislation, pay awards and more to be delivered by an external organisation. Each maintained school Governing Board has an allocation of 2 places, one for the Chair of Governors and the other for any other Governor on the Board. At least one governor from each maintained school must attend. Sessions to take place on Wednesday 22nd September 2021. Please inform Governors to book their places by completing the booking form on LEAP by Monday 13th September.

DfE Webinars on Approved Frameworks - For your information

The Department for Education (DfE) is hosting webinars on how using approved frameworks could help your school get value for money. If you are responsible for buying goods and services for your schools check out the range of informative webinars that could help you save time and money. All sessions are free, use the Eventbrite links below to join the Schools Commercial Team and take the opportunity to ask providers the questions you may have from buying your electricity to IT leasing, legal services to network connectivity.

The sessions are available on multiple dates. Find out more here:

Hillingdon LEAP

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

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

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

Attachments

Setting up new 12.5% VAT code in FMS6 v2.0 [3MB]

SEN Cash Advance Movements - Step by Step Guide [24KB]

DfE Changes to the payment process of schools' business rates [453KB]