Capita Children’s Services Limited have issued a revised version of the SIMS Technical Roadmap which may have implications for some schools on the hardware and software they use to run SIMS/FMS.

Please view the updated Technical Roadmap for October 2019 to find out if any of the proposed changes will affect your school.

The ESFA have now published the hourly funding rates for 2-year old and 3 and 4-year old early years entitlements for the 2020 to 2021 financial year.

The ESFA have also published a step-by-step guide and technical note to explain how the funding rates have been calculated.

You can view the written ministerial statement that announced the funding.

Laser have published their latest newsletter, where you will be able to find the new October 2019 price list.

Please see below: https://www.laserenergy.org.uk/media/1807/laser-newsletter-nov-19.pdf

Schools Financial Services are offering to deliver budget setting training courses to cluster groups in April 2020 at the venue of your choice.

Note: The venue MUST have excellent broadband access for up to 20 delegates.

To aid our planning of budget setting courses, if you are interested in being part of a cluster, Please email details of which cluster group you belong to along with the name of your school (including DfE No) as well as the group & lead contact person for the Cluster to [email protected] by Friday 6th December 2019.

If your school has more than one gas meter, as from November 2019, Laser will be changing the way your school gas metre will be billed.

If your school occupies a single site and has two gas meters, you would normally receive two separate bills (one per meter), they will now be billed on a combined invoice receiving one invoice per month covering both meters.

Infant and junior schools that share a site are deemed to be separate premises and nothing will change.

For any enquiries please visit: www.laserenergy.org.uk

Dear Colleagues,

Regretfully I have some very sad news to share with you. Siobhan Cheeseman who was Head of Schools Financial Services and retired in October 2018, sadly passed away due to cancer on the 12 October 2019.

Siobhan was a valued colleague and highly thought of on a personal level.  Siobhan worked for Kent County Council for over 17 years, spending time in Internal Audit before moving to Schools Financial Services in 2008. For many years she was the Business Manager of SFS and during this time Siobhan’s great strength was enabling schools, Governors and staff to work to their full potential.

This was unexpected and sudden, and our thoughts are with Siobhan’s husband Pete, her children and her grandchildren for their terrible loss.

Siobhan’s funeral was on Thursday 7 November and her family suggested, rather than sending flowers, that friends could donate to the National Autistic Society. 

I have included the link to donate below, should you wish to do so, in memory of Siobhan.

National Autistic Society
c/o John Weir Funeral Directors
130-132 high Street
Rainham
Kent
ME8 8AR

For Charitable Donations to the National Autistic Society

Please send to:

John Weir Funeral Directors Parkwood

Yours sincerely,

Ian Hamilton (Schools Financial Services - Head of Service)

• SIMS Technical Roadmap
• Early Years Funding
• Laser Newsletter
• Teachers Pay Grant
• Training
• Corporate Card T&C's
• Laser Charges
• Fraud awareness Week
• TEP Membership

The ESFA have published the allocations for September 2019 to March 2020.  See link below for allocations at School and Local Authority Level:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachers-pay-grant-allocations-for-2019-to-2020-financial-year

The ESFA have published the allocations for September 2019 to March 2020, including information on the supplementary fund.  These can be found via the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-grant-2019-to-2020-allocations-and-supplementary-fund

Fraud Awareness Week is 17-23 November 2019.  Fraudsters steal 2.2 billion from local Government each year. Please make sure your school is not one of them:

For more information please visit: https://www.fraudweek.com

All Kent schools will be moving to a new public sector agreement for corporate cards from 1 December 2019.  There is no action to take and there will be no impact on current users.  However, there may be a rebate to finalise the old contract and as such, if this appears on any card statements you will need to add these as a cash book journal on FMS6.  

If you require any assistance with this, please contact the Help Desk on 03000 415 415.

All schools should have received an email from the The Education People, regarding enhanced and elite membership.

For all queries please contact: [email protected]

When processing an invoice in FMS6, the date field (top right of screen) on invoice/credit note processing in FMS6 is hiding part of the invoice date.

This issue can be rectified by a new/updated font being installed.  If this is happening in any of your schools, please log a call to EIS who will arrange for this to be fixed.

Remember if you want to know when the newsletter is available each month, subscribe via The Education People website.