The Government have announced that the second claims window for Covid-19 Exceptional Costs is now open. It is due to close on 22 December and there will be no opportunity to submit further claims after this date.

It will cover any unclaimed eligible costs for the period March 2020 to July 2020 and free school meal support for the summer holidays for costs outside of the COVID Summer Food Fund:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund

The on line claims form can be found at:

https://form.education.gov.uk/service/coronavirus-schools-fund-claim

The full instructions for completing the form at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/claiming-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-1

The Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) document has been updated, the 2019 SFVS document has been replaced on Kelsi with a link that now takes you directly to the DfE website.

There are three changes:

1) Question 11 has been re-worded. “Is the governing body ...” has been replaced with “Is the school ...”

2) The Dashboard tab has an additional question in Section A: “I'm entering data for the year:” there is then a dropdown option in the next column to select the year of the data that is being entered. Maintained schools should select “2020-21 (financial year)” assuming you are entering the latest expenditure data.

3) The data used to generate the red, amber and green ratings has been updated and now uses 2018 to 2019 data.

It is highly recommended that the latest SFVS document is used so if you have already started completing the SFVS for 20-21, please transfer your answers to the updated document.

Thank you all for your commitment and professionalism in maintaining financial services in your schools in 2020. Enjoy the break and what festivities this time of year has to offer. Merry Christmas from everyone at Schools Financial Services.

• Covid-19 Exceptional Costs
• SFVS Update
• NatWest Cheque Payments
• Spring Term Training Webinars

The spring term training programme has now been confirmed and are all available to book. Some of the courses available are:

• Intro to School Finance
• FMS6 Healthcheck
• Intro to Finance for Headteachers
• FMS6 Closedown

These courses are free to all Kent maintained schools.

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

From Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 December, the Helpdesk will be open from 9:00 to 15:00.

The Helpdesk will then close for Christmas on 24 December and re-open on Monday 4 January 2021.

Schools within the NatWest Corporate Banking scheme should have received an email from us on Wednesday 9 December requesting you to complete a spreadsheet and return to NatWest for any cheques issued that could potentially be cashed over the holidays. The aim of this exercise is to reduce queries from NatWest while schools are closed and to ensure that cheques aren't rejected.

Please ensure the spreadsheet is completed and sent to NatWest prior to to end of term to aid with this.

The Department for Education has funded webinars to help the education sector plan for the future and ensure long term financial sustainability.

Full details of the training and how to book can be found on the Entrust School Resource Management portal: https://educationspace.co.uk/SRM/