Effective, efficient and robust financial management in schools is essential. The school finance team are here to support you in achieving this. We are a dedicated team of friendly, professionally qualified staff with many years experience of working with schools, providing comprehensive support, advice, guidance and training service covering all aspects of managing your school's finances.
The principles of financial management in schools are standard. We recognise, however that those managing them are not. Our support is, therefore, tailored to meet the needs of our customers. As well as covering your statutory requirements as part of our core service, we offer a range of sold services. These are provided through a basic financial support package and on-site support visits.
What we offer:
Basic financial support package* - this includes:
- Dedicated telephone helpline - open 9am-5pm (Monday to Thursday), 9am-4.30pm (Friday) during term time & 10am-3pm in school holidays.
- Remote access to SIMS FMS to enable us to deal with complex queries.
- Speedy resolution of finance and payroll transaction queries.
- Integrated salary calculator and multi-year budget planning tool
- Budget modelling tool (current and future years) with accompanying budget forecasting guide.
- Final accounts guidance and production of year end governor report.
- Regularly updated financial guidance and procedure notes.
- Administration of the school loan scheme.
* Please note the basic financial support package is not available to academies.
Costs:
- Basic financial support package* - Primary/Special schools - £995 per annum
- Basic financial support package* - Secondary schools - £1,295 per annum
- On-site visit - half day (up to 3 hours) - £225
- On-site visit - full day (up to 7 hours) - £520
- On-site visit - additional hours - £80 per hour
- On-site REC1 visit (up to 1.5 hours per visit) – £115 monthly or £1,150 for an annual package
- REC1 completed remotely (up to 1.5 hours) - £50 monthly or £500 for an annual package
- Onsite year end closedown (up to 1.5 hours per visit) - £115
- Remote year end closedown (up to 1.5 hours) - £50
There is also the option to purchase ad-hoc financial visits during the financial year at an additional cost of £80 to the standard visit charge identified above. These will be subject to staff availability.
* Please note the basic financial support package is not available to academies.
On-site support:
- Select half or full day visits - the combination, number and content is for you to decide, but advice on what can be covered is always available.
- We aim for visits to be delivered by a named finance contact to ensure continuity and an understanding of your needs is maintained.
- Dates of visits are confirmed in advance allowing you time to plan for these to gain the maximum benefit for your school.
- Visits can be extended on an hourly basis depending on the availability of your finance officer.
Training:
We run a comprehensive range of financial training events for governors, senior leadership and finance staff. Our training programme is reviewed and updated annually in the light of customer feedback and current regulations and initiatives. A schedule of events is published at the start of each financial year. Further training sessions may be added during the year in response to changes in regulations and initiatives.
