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20 May 2022
By Schools Financial Services

Schools Financial Services Newsletter - May 2022

New Helpdesk Number

We previously advised that our Helpdesk
phone number would be changing, this has
now happened.

Please update your records and ensure
you use our new number to contact us:
03301 651 001.

SFS Training

We have a number of courses still
available for the summer term which are
available to book onto.

Some of these are:

  • Introduction to School Finance
  • Embedding Finance in your School
  • Improvement Plan
  • BPS Budget Monitoring
  • BPS Payroll Reconciliation
  • Financial Controls
  • FMS6 Healthcheck.

There is a course suitable for everyone. All
of our programmed training is free to
Kent Maintained Schools, but it is also
available to Academies and Medway
schools (although not all is applicable). For
further information on this, please email
schoolsfinancialservices@theeducationpe
ople.org

To view a full list of courses or to book
onto them, please visit CPD Online.

Our autumn term courses will be available
later this month, so keep an eye out for
these!

In This Issue

  • New Helpdesk Number
  • SFS Training
  • Academies Budget Forecast Return (BFR)
  • Finance Information Group
  • School Led Tutoring Update
  • COVID Workforce claim form
  • Teachers Pension & Pay Grants

Academies Budget Forecast Return (BFR)

The DfE have added the Excel workbooks
to the academies budget forecast return
GOV.UK page. The workbooks are an aid to
help users prepare for completing the
online form.

There are two workbooks this year. You can
choose between a single page format or a
new multi-page format that mirrors the
layout of the BFR form. Both versions have
the same validations and questions; these
are identical to the BFR online form.

Finance Information Group

We're running a Finance Information
Group (FIG) on 8 June, the course
code is SCH 22/510 (closing date for
bookings is 3 June).

Bookings received after this date won't be
processed, therefore please book on as
soon as possible and ensure your CPD
leader approves the booking prior to this
date, to avoid disappointment.

An agenda will be circulated closer to the
date of the Finance Information Group.

School Led Tutoring Update

The DfE have announced an update and an increase to the School Led Tutoring Grant.

They have said that “From May 2022 until the end of the academic year, funding allocations
will be increased by 16 percentage points from 60% to around 76% of pupils that are eligible
for pupil premium in years 1 to 11. This is additional funding for schools to deliver tuition
within the 2021 to 2022 academic year. The number of pupils will be rounded to the nearest
whole number.”

As a result of this, the School Budget Team has updated the Reckoner within Kelsi.

Key things to note are:
-the increase to 76% has not been applied to future years
-the current year numbers have been added, so the need to add them has been removed
as allocations are now final.

COVID Workforce Claim form

The COVID-19 workforce fund claim form is now open. Eligible schools and colleges can now
submit a claim for the cost of absences over a threshold experienced between Monday 22
November 2021 to Friday 8 April 2022.

The ESFA have published guidance on how to complete the claim form. The deadline for
submitting a claim is 11:59pm on Tuesday 24 May.

Further information the COVID-19 Workforce fund is available via the guidance for schools
and colleges.

Teachers Pension and Pay Grants

The ESFA have published the Teacher' Pension Employee Contribution Grant (TPECG)
allocations and conditions of grant for financial year 2022 to 2023, for those institutions
that continue to receive this as a separate grant.

They have also published the Teachers' Pay Grant (TPG) allocations and conditions of grant
for financial year 2022 to 2023, for those institutions that continue to receive this as a
separate grant.

This is for the first instalment of these grants which covers April 2022 to August 2022.

The grants are based on the published per pupil rates set out in the updated TPG and
TPECG methodology.