Schools Financial Services Newsletter - September 2020

Following the end of the consultation for Teacher Pay Scales on 14 September, there has been no confirmation of the Pay Scales. Therefore until this has been published, the Budget Planning Software (BPS) won't be updated.

As soon as confirmation of the scales is received, further communication and updates will take place.

Academy BPS sites are getting a new colour scheme! The new look will be applied to your BPS site over the next couple of weeks and is purely aesthetic so will have no impact on your information.

It is with great happiness I am able to welcome Michael Howard as the new Business Development Manager, replacing Nick Lockyer-Fincken. Michael re-joins Schools Financial Services after 9 months away in the private sector. Michael brings with him knowledge and expertise in all things BPS and technology related. Welcome back Michael!

VAT on hospitality and tourism has been reduced from the standard rate of 20% to the reduced rate of 5% for the period of 15 July 2020 to 12 January 2021.

This will affect schools when paying for school meals, day trips, residential trips, theatre visits and when receipting income from adult meals.

Please ensure that ALL VAT returns are submitted on time, even NIL returns.

We need to ensure that there is a complete record for KCC's accounts.

Some schools may have no VAT to reclaim but may have processed entries as Zero Rated and they will need to be included in KCC's VAT Return.

The DfE have updated the 2020-21 Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) codes and as a result schools are now required to add new Ledger Codes to FMS (FMS Procedure Note 89) in order to clearly identify various funding streams relating to Covid19.

The pay scales for non-teaching staff at Medway Schools from 1 April 2020 on the BPS have now been updated as per publication from Medway Council.

• Teacher Pay Scale Update
• VAT on Hospitality & Tourism
• Autumn Term Training Webinars
• September Budget Update
• SALE - Financial Benchmarking Report

and much more!

The SFS Training Team are holding a number of webinars via Zoom over the Autumn term, such as:

• Financial Controls
• FMS6 Healthcheck
• Introduction to Schools Finance
• Accounts Receivable
• Accounts Payable.

And many more!

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

The next Finance Information Group (FIG)will be held on Wednesday 14 October 2020. 

This will be done via a Webinar format. Please ensure you have booked onto the FIG via CPD Online to secure your place!

The Schools Financial Services helpdesk will be closed on 13 October 2020 for a Team Training day. Please email with any queries and we'll respond as soon as possible.

Schools Financial Services are having a 10% off sale on all Financial Benchmarking Report orders received by 23 October 2020.

The report provides benchmarking against other Kent Schools based on filter criteria provided by yourselves. The report has a variety of different graphs/charts detailing Income & Expenditure information with comparison against other schools.

For further details and to view a report sample, please go to: Financial Benchmarking Report 

Guidance on the Covid Catch-up funding has been circulated to schools.

Mainstream schools will receive £80 per pupil based on the number of children in Years R to 11 (October 2020 census) for the 2020-21 academic year.

Special and AP schools will receive £240 per place. For maintained schools will be based on the number of commissioned places for the 2019-20 academic year.

Payments are being split over 3 terms:

• Autumn 2020 - Interim Payment
• Spring 2021 - Additional payment based on October 2020 census for Mainstream Schools. This payment will top up the first one to provide £46.67 per pupil or £140 per place.
• Summer 2021 - final payment of £33.33 per pupil or £100 per place.