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1 July 2021
By Schools Financial Services

Schools Financial Services Newsletter July 2021

Training Webinars

The summer term and the first half of the autumn term training programmes are available on CPD Online and are available for course bookings. Here are examples of what's on offer:

  • NEW! LIMITED TIME ONLY - Smart Data
  • Budget Monitoring - Experienced
  • Budget Monitoring - Beginners
  • Introduction to School Finance
  • Various FMS6 Courses
  • NEW REVAMPED - Senior Leaders
  • Strategic Financial Management in Difficult Times.

These courses are free to all Kent maintained schools and Medway schools and academies who purchase the Core Financial Support Package. If you don't purchase a package you can attend for a small fee.

If you're interested in attending, ensure you have booked your place via CPD Online.

SFS Data Collection

The summer Data Collation has now been sent out to all schools we have contact with. If you haven’t done so already, please can you ensure you return the form to advise us of any changes. This will ensure we keep our customer information up to date and ensure that relevant information is send to the correct individuals. If you have no changes to the email sent, please return by email to confirm all current data held is correct.

Onecard Update

Schools Financial Services are coming to the end of processing all applications we have received and passing them onto NatWest. This should hopefully mean that all cards will be ordered and send to schools prior to the end of the summer term.

If you have already received your card and pins in the post, please ensure you’re using them as soon as possible and destroy your old card. Schools Financial Services will deal with the cancellation of cards once we’re confident all schools that have applied for cards have received them.

Programme Administrators should have now received their Smart Data login details. The URL for SmartData is: https://www.natwestbusinesscard.com/ Guidance has also been sent out to schools along with common reasons for declined transactions.

Smart Data webinars are now available to book on CPD Online, we highly recommend that the programme administrator for your school books onto one of these if they haven’t done so already to ensure you have a clear understanding of how the system works.

Budget Monitoring

As this is the time of year that schools are getting ready to complete their first monthly monitoring for the new financial year, we just wanted to remind BPS users to create working copies of your scenarios, together with a working copy Budget Forecast.

The guidance on how to do this can be found on page 36 of the BPS Budget Setting Guidance Manual 2021-22, located within the Help and User Guide section of BPS.

In This Issue

  • Training Webinars
  • Academy Information: Budget Forecast Return (BFR)
  • SFS Data Collection
  • Pupil Premium allocations for 2021 to 2022
  • Onecard Update
  • Sports Grant Funding
  • SFS Compliance Visits
  • Budget Monitoring.

Academy Information: Budget Forecast Return (BFR)

The online form for the Budget Forecast Return (BFR) 2021 is now available for academies to use. The deadline to complete and submit your BFR is close of business 27 July 2021.

Academies can access the form and see the Government schedule for their weekly MS Teams calls and webchats on the BFR page on GOV.UK.

You can also read the detailed guidance for completing the BFR online form.

Pupil Premium Allocations for 2021 to 2022

The ESFA have published the allocations for 2021 to 2022 for Pupil Premium. You can find school allocations on the fourth item down on this link GOV.UK. Please check these allocations against your Three Year Plan figures and amend if necessary.

Sports Grant Funding

It has been confirmed that the PE and sport premium will continue for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

It has also been announced that due to COVID any unspent PE and Sports Grant from both:

  • 2019 to 2020 academic year (Sept 2019-Aug 2020)
  • 2020 to 2021 academic year (Sept 2020-Aug 2021)

can be carried forward into the 2021 to 2022 academic year but will need to be spent in full by 31 July 2022, the 2020 to 2021 conditions of grant documents have been updated to reflect this.

SFS Compliance Visits

The current plan (COVID dependent) is for the Returns and Compliance Team in SFS to re-commence the Compliance programme from September 2021. Those schools who will have visit in the first half of September will be contacted by the team over the next few weeks.