Latest News and Updates from School Funding Team

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2025-26

16/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Please see message from Secretary of State for Education which can be found on the Early Years page.

16/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION - REMINDER) - Early Years - Spring Term Actual Headcount Task - Thank you to all schools that have submitted their task on the Early Years Provider portal. For those that haven't please can we remind you the deadline for completion of the task is 4pm today, Friday 16 January 2026. Please read the Spring Term Checklist document to ensure awareness of the requirements for the Spring Term submission.

16/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - The Capital Lease and Heritage Assets return is required to be submitted by all maintained schools. The deadline for submission is Friday 30 January 2026. To access the Year End page and template please click HERE.

16/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools that use an external or in house payroll provider (i.e. they do not use Bradford Council Payroll Services) are reminded that they are required to submit the External Payroll Providers return. The deadline for submission is Friday 30 January 2026. To access the Year End page and template please click HERE.

14/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2026/27 Financial Year Primary and Secondary Mainstream Formula Funding update - We have published a table here, which shows INDICATIVE National Funding Formula-based core formula funding allocations for individual mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies in Bradford for the 2026/27 financial year. This indicative information is published to help schools / academies with their 2026/27 budget planning.

12/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - January 2026 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here. Please note, due to an issue with links in the Advances Schedule template, the document has been re-issued at 10am on Tuesday 13 January 2026. If you downloaded the document prior to this, please download it again to ensure you have the latest version.

07/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES WITH EARLY YEARS PROVISION (CONSULTATION) - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2026/27 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. This is being presented to the Schools Forum on 14 January. The deadline for responses is Monday 09 February 2026.

06/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Checking Working Parent Entitlement Codes. Please refer to the guidance published by the Early Education Funding Team which can be found here.

05/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - **REMINDER** Early Years - Spring Term Actual Headcount Task - This Task is now live on the Early Years Provider Portal. The deadline for the completion of the Task is Friday 16 January 2026. The census day for the Spring Term is Thursday 15 January 2026. We urge schools to read the Spring Term Checklist document to ensure awareness of the requirements for the Spring Term submission.

05/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - 2025-26 Year End Guidance - The Council's 2025-26 Year End Guidance document for schools is now available to download from the YE Forms page. Please note, for your planning, that the deadline for the submission of the March Year End Bank Reconciliation return, including assets, liabilities and other required information, is FRIDAY 27 MARCH 2026. Schools are urged to read the guidance document as soon as possible to familiarise themselves with the requirements and deadlines for year end. The March Year End Bank Reconciliation Template, and the Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule, for schools to complete will be published early in March. The templates for Leases & Heritage Assets and External Payroll information have also been published and are available on the YE Forms page. The deadline for submission of these 2 forms (Leases & Heritage Assets & External Payroll Information) is FRIDAY 30 JANUARY 2026.

01/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Q4 (Jan & Feb) Bank Reconciliation Template - is now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Click HERE to access the page. Please see the revised year-end guidance, which will be published on this page shortly. The submission of separate January and February bank reconcilation returns is now mandatory. The January return must be submitted by 16 February 2026 at the latest. The February return must be submitted by 16 March 2026 at the latest. The final March year-end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.

01/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Publication of 2026/27 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Tuesday 10 March, the full S251 Budget Statements for 2026/27 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Wednesday 11 March. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2026-2029, and guidance, should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2026/27 financial year. The deadline for return of governor approved budgets is 31 May 2026.

01/01/26 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of 2026/27 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2026 scenario will be released for maintained schools around 12 /13 March (the 2025 software was released on 12 March). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2026/27’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2026/27 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

01/01/26 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2026 - The Surplus Balances Protocol is in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2026. The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available to view here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 3 budget monitoring.

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2025-26

23/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) 2026-27 - The DfE has published information about the RPA for 2026/27. This can be found here

17/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Grant Rates of Funding 2026/27 - The DfE has published rates of funding for the Pupil Premium Grant for 2026/27 financial year (from April 2026) and has updated its guidance. Information on rates and wider PPG guidance can be found here. PPG rates are increasing by broadly 2.3% on current 25/26 rates.

16/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard and the template for recording Related Party Transactions. These should be emailed to School Funding Team as soon as possible but no later than 31 March 2026. Guidance and templates for 2025-26 can be found here.

15/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding 2026/27 - The DfE has now published the Early Years Block settlement and formula funding operational guidance for early years entitlement funding for 2026/27. These can be found here. The Authority expects to publish a consultation, setting our proposals for funding in Bradford, early in the new year. This will be signalled on this page.

11/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Final Autumn Term Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustment shown in these statements will be applied to the December advance.

11/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q3 LTFM Scorecard. The 2025-26 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

10/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - December 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here. Please note the Final Autumn Term Early Years Adjustments Statements will be published shortly.

09/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Spring Term Actual Headcount Task Please be aware that due to the Christmas break and the Census date for the term, the Spring Term Actual Task will be open for 2 weeks. It will be live from 5 JANUARY 2026 until 16 JANUARY 2026. We ask that you plan ahead to ensure your setting has users set up to submit your claim and schedule in the time to complete it well in advance of the deadline, in case you require any support from the team. The census day for the Spring Term is Thursday 15 January 2026.

04/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - DfE Publication of Maximising Value for Pupils Resources - The DfE has today published a suite of 'maximising value for pupils' resources webpages for schools and academies. Please see here. Supplementary pages are here, here, here, here and here.

02/12/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Codes - Spring Term. Please remember the key information for children accessing Working Parent Entitlement hours in Spring Term. Codes must be checked prior to offering the place.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/12/2025

Validity End Date must be after 01/01/2026

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/01/2026 then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code. Please note, grace periods are for continuation of the funded hours at a provider, children cannot start the Working Parent Entitlement hours when in a grace period. If parents have not yet received a code, they must acquire a code before 31^st December. Please refer them to https://www.beststartinlife.gov.uk/ to apply. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if they are experiencing issues with their application.

28/11/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Indicative 2026/27 Mainstream Primary & Secondary NFF Funding Modelling - The Schools Forum on 3 December will be presented with some indicative modelling of the 2026/27 national funding formula for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies. The Forum reports can be found here. Please see agenda item 10 Document TL and its appendices. We encourage all to read Document TL prior to looking at the modelling that is shown in appendices 1 and 2, as this explains important context and limitations. The modelling is indicative only at this stage, prior to being based on the October 2025 Census dataset. It does not represent final allocations for 2026/27. Updated modelling based on the October 2025 Census dataset will be presented to the Schools Forum on 14 January and this will be used to make final recommendations. The final modelling will be signalled for schools and academies shortly after 14 January.

28/11/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 2024-25 School Fund Audit. For those that haven't yet, please can we remind you of the requirement to arrange the audit of all private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates, or a copy of the audited accounts, should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2024-25 financial year or the end of the 2024-25 academic year. Please advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

21/11/25 - FOR SCHOOL NURSERIES AND NURSERY SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Provider Charges Survey - As we approach the January 2026 implementation deadline, please be reminded that Early Education Providers are required to publish the costs of any chargeable extras in line with the Department for Education’s Statutory Guidance. To confirm your setting’s arrangements, please complete the provider charges survey which can be found here. Deadline for submission: 30 November 2025.

11/11/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - November 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

11/11/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Pupil Premium. Please see latest news from the Early Education Fund Team for information on Early Years pupil premium lists for Autumn term.

06/11/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Autumn Term 2025 Provisional Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustments shown in these statements are provisional and subject to change. The adjustments will be applied to the December 2025 advance.

30/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - DfE Evidence to the STRB on the Teachers' Pay Awards 2026 to 2028 - The DfE today has published its evidence to the STRB covering the teachers' pay awards for September 2026, September 2027 and September 2028. This can be access here. The chapter 'schools budget context' (paragraphs 131 - 172) sets out the DfE's recommendations on the size of the awards. The DfE recommends a total award of 6.5% over the next 3 years, with award weighted towards the latter years. The STRB will now consider this (and other) evidence and will respond to the DfE.

29/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Code Audit. It is important to regularly check all Working Parent Entitlement codes currently in use for children in your setting to ensure they will remain valid for the entitlement hours in the Spring term. Parents must reconfirm their eligibility for the working parent entitlement every 3 months with HMRC. HMRC will send them reminders to reconfirm their eligibility, however if they have failed to do this their code will become invalid, and you will be unable to claim funding for the Working Parent Entitlement hours. To help to prevent any issues, you can recheck the codes in your Portal, and prompt parents to reconfirm.
When - Codes must have been reconfirmed by no later than 31/12/2025 to be able to be used next term, therefore please ensure that you carry out the audit for your setting as soon as possible to give parents enough time to contact HMRC if they need to resolve any issues with their codes.
How to check codes - In the Working Parent Entitlement section, use the Expiration Dashboard on the Early Years Provider Portal: https://oneonline.bradford.gov.uk/ProviderPortal_LIVE
You may need to adjust the filters in the search to show where “eligibility has ended but code is still in grace” Codes highlighted red have passed the reconfirmation date. Ensure that the system shows the most up to date information regarding the code by clicking the “recheck” button.
Children who fall out of eligibility will not be eligible for the Working Parent Entitlement hours. 3 to 4 year olds are able to continue to access the universal 15 hours. You should discuss with the parent their requirements and amend their Parent Agreement if they wish to continue accessing hours at your setting. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if the grace period is due to an issue with their application.

28/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND CONSULTATION) - 2026/27 Mainstream Primary and Secondary Formula Funding - We have written a briefing and early consultation note here, which explains the current position in regard to the development of 2026/27 mainstream primary and secondary formula funding in Bradford and which gives schools and academies the opportunity to begin to absorb this information and to comment and ask questions. This note has been written in the context of the delay in the announcement of the 2026/27 national school funding settlement and formula funding arrangements. We encourage all mainstream schools and academies to read this note.

21/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2025/26 AY have now been published on the Advances page within the Secure Area of BSO. To access this list, click HERE. The 1^st payment will be 50% of the PE & Sports allocation figure shown on the list which will be paid in the November 2025 advance under I06 – Other Government Grants. Conditions of Grant are available HERE and updated guidance on duties for schools HERE.

21/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates or a copy of the audited accounts should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2025, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2024-25 financial year or the end of the 2024-25 academic year. Please advise the date of approval from the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

21/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - We expect that SFVS returns will be required to be submitted by 31 March 2026 and will need to include details of Related Party Transactions. Further details to follow when the guidance has been updated and the template for 25-26 has been released.

21/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION - REMINDER) - The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2025-26 academic year can be viewed here.

20/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Costs for Swimming Transport 2025-26 - costs have now been published for the period September 2025 - July 2026. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Charges will be issued to schools before 31 March 2026. If you have any queries, please contact Debbie Cussans via email Debbie.Cussans@bradford.gov.uk . Schools with queries about cost of pool use should contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274 438791 or bradfordaquatics@bradford.gov.uk

14/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Schools Budget Support Grant (SBSG) 2025 to 2026 Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined. To access a list of the allocations, click here. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. The allocations will be included in the November 2025 advance. SBSG funds may be carried forward past 31 March 2026.

14/10/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - October 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

08/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Budgeting Software Subscription 2026 - Please click here (letter at the top of the page) to access the subscription form for maintained schools to use to purchase budgeting software through the Local Authority for 2026-27. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 31^st October 2025 at the latest.

07/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant and updated Guidance for 2025/26 AY Conditions of Grant are now available HERE and updated guidance on duties for schools HERE. Please note, schools will now receive 50% of their funding allocation in the first payment and 50% in the second payment. Schools are reminded they must complete the digital expenditure reporting return by 31^st July outlining how the school has used the premium and the impact it has on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding. Schools must also publish on its website a report detailing how it has spent its premium by 31^st July, if a school chooses to download a copy of its digital expenditure reporting return and use this as its published report, it must ensure that prior to publishing the digital expenditure reporting return meets accessibility requirements.

02/10/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - REMINDER - Early Years Provider Portal - Headcount Task Thank you to all schools that have submitted their autumn term headcount task. For those that haven't yet submitted, please can we remind you that the deadline for inputting autumn term data, for all nursery entitlements, into the Early Years Provider Portal is Friday 3 October 2025. You can reopen, amend and resubmit your task as many times as necessary before the 5pm deadline. Funding is at risk if you fail to submit a claim or submit a claim that is incorrect or incomplete.

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2025-26

30/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Changes to the YEAR END process - We intend to change the year end process for the 2025-26 financial year. More information is available on the YEAR END page. Please read the information provided and plan your year end timetable accordingly.

25/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) – Education VAT Guide. The Education VAT Guide for schools has been updated and is now available to download from the secure area of BSO. Please refer to the revised guidance on School Lettings, Imports & Exports, Private School Fees and Insurance Premium Tax (IPT). Maintained schools should read all the guidance to ensure compliance with H M Revenue & Customs requirements. Schools are reminded that failure to comply can lead to significant financial penalties, and these will normally be met from the school’s delegated budget. Where further clarification is required, schools should seek day-to-day advice from the School Funding Team and refer more complex queries to the authority’s Principal Taxation Advisor.

16/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2025/26 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

12/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Autumn Term Headcount Task - Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is expected to open on Tuesday 16 September for the completion of the autumn term headcount task. Claims must be submitted before the deadline Friday 3 October 2025. You can see if your data has successfully been submitted by looking for the green button which should show Status:Submitted.
It is important that all eligible children are recorded on the Early Years Provider Portal and the DfE School Census. Please refer to the termly checklist for recording pupil data which can be found here.

11/09/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - September 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

11/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Update on 2026/27 formula funding - Please see here a short note, which updates schools and academies on what is known / not known at this time about 2026/27 formula funding.

11/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q2 LTFM Scorecard. The 2025-26 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

01/09/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Primary PE and sport premium 2024 to 2025 digital expenditure reporting return – All schools who have yet to complete the digital expenditure reporting return for the PE and sport premium, for the 2024 to 2025 academic year, you can make changes to all the sub-forms and resubmit until 5pm on Tuesday 30 September 2025. To do this, you will need to sign in and resubmit the relevant sub-forms. Select the link to the PE and sport premium expenditure reporting return. DfE cannot grant any extensions to the deadline. Please see published guidance on how to use the PE and sport premium.

28/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Swimming Transport Sessions 2025-26 information has been published on the Swimming Transport page within BSO for the number of sessions schools have taken for the 2025/26 academic year. Schools have until Friday 17 October 2025 to notify us of any errors with the number of sessions stated for your school. Please note we do not know the cost for Swimming Transport at this stage however we expect to publish this information later on in the autumn term, once session numbers have been confirmed. To access the Swimming Transport page please click HERE

26/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Code Audit. In preparation for the Autumn term claims, it’s important to check all Working Parent Entitlement codes to ensure they are valid for the relevant hours.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/08/2025
Validity End Date must be after 01/09/2025

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/09/2025 with a Grace Period end date of 31/12/2025, then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code and can only be utilised if the child accessed the Working Parent Entitlement hours in your setting in the Summer term. Working Parent Entitlement codes currently being used in your setting should be regularly checked to ensure that they remain valid for termly claims. Parents must reconfirm their eligibility for the Working Parent Entitlement hours every 3 months with HMRC. HMRC will send them reminders to reconfirm their eligibility, however if they have failed to do this their code will become invalid, and you will be unable to claim funding for the hours.
How to check codes - In the Working Parent Entitlement section, use the Expiration Dashboard on the Early Years Provider Portal: https://oneonline.bradford.gov.uk/ProviderPortal_LIVE . You may need to adjust the filters in the search to show where “eligibility has ended but code is still in grace” Codes highlighted red have passed the reconfirmation date. Ensure that the system shows the most up to date information regarding the code by clicking the “recheck” button. Children who have fallen out of eligibility will not be eligible for the Working Parent Entitlement hours. 3 to 4 year olds are able to continue to access the universal 15 hours. You should discuss with the parent their requirements and amend their Parent Agreement if they wish to continue accessing funded hours at your setting. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if the grace period is due to an issue with their application.

12/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) Early Years - Please click here for an important update from the Early Education Funding Team regarding permissible charges under DfE statutory guidance.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2025, evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2024-25 financial year or the 2024-25 academic year. Further guidance is available here.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - DfE Financial Transparency - We would like to remind schools to continue to ensure that they follow the requirements of the DfE's 'transparency' changes. Schools are required to publish (and update) annually on their websites the required information relating to their CFR statements and high salaries - please click here for further guidance and a model text / template for schools to use. In providing a link to the benchmarking website (for CFR statements), this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page).

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Reminder - 2026/27 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2025 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Reminder - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2025/26 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School and academy colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2026/27 funding arrangements) as these develop over the autumn term. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 17 September.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2026 - The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider alongside quarter 2 budget monitoring.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2025-26 were published on 2 June (please see below). If your school is in Category A, we would like to remind you that we will require Monthly Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns. Once we have received the Quarterly return for Quarter 2, therefore, we will expect both Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns for October by the end of November latest, and monthly after that until the end of the Financial year. If you require further information on monthly monitoring you will find the details on secure area of BSO here.

01/08/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - The 2025/26 Financial Year CFR Framework - is available on GOV.UK. A link to the CFR pages on the GOV.UK site is available on the BSO CFR page here. Maintained schools should read the guidance to ensure compliance when recording income and expenditure throughout the year and when submitting the annual CFR return via COLLECT.

24/07/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - NJC (Support Staff / Officers' Pay Award) April 2025 - Confirmation has been given that the 3.2% NJC pay award for support staff / officers for April 2025 has been agreed.

15/07/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Summer Term 2025 Final Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustment shown in these statements will be applied to the September 2025 advance.

10/07/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - July 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

09/07/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOL AND ACADEMIES - INFORMATION - Friday 11 July - School Funding Team Unavailable - Please note that all members of School Funding Team will be unavailable on Friday 11th July as we are attending a staff away day event. We will not have access to emails or calls during the day. We will respond to emails and telephone messages when we return on Monday 14 July 2025.

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2025-26

27/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2025-26 Confirmed Pupil Premium Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page. To access the allocation table please click here. Schools are advised to check their revised allocation and update budgets accordingly. The adjustments shown will be included in the July 2025 advance.

26/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Scheme Employer Contribution Grant - 5/12ths Allocation for Post 16 schools have now been determined for the period April 2025 to August 2026. These allocations just relate to Post 16. To access a list of the allocations click here. The allocations will be included in the July 2025 advance.

26/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Summer Term 2025 Provisional Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustments shown in these statements are provisional and subject to change. The adjustments will be applied to the September 2025 advance.

25/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) Early Years Working Parents Entitlements - Please click here for important information regarding the expansion of the working parent entitlement for Autumn term.

25/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) UIFSM 2024-25 Final Allocations & 2025/26 Provisional Allocations have now been announced. To access a list of the allocations please visit the Advances Updates page by clicking here. Payments will be included in the July 2025 Advance. Please refer to notes at bottom of page and see link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found here.

19/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2025/26 DFC Allocations - Allocations for Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) have now been confirmed and LA has now received allocations. Payments are to be made to applicable schools by the LA Wednesday 25th June. To access a list of allocations and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 please visit the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO by clicking here.

16/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2026-27 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of monthly payment dates for 2026/27 has been published for schools and academies to download. Please note these dates are provisional and subject to change. To access the list click HERE.

16/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2025/26 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

16/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Reminder - 2026/27 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2025 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

16/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Reminder - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2025/26 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2026/27 funding arrangements) as these develop. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 17 September.

12/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q1 LTFM Scorecard. The 2025-26 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

12/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - PE & Sports Premium Funding 2025/26 Academic Year - The DfE has confirmed the continuation of PE and Sports Premium funding for the 2025/26 academic year. Please see note no. 3 here.

11/06/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - June 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

09/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Primary PE and sport premium 2024 to 2025 digital expenditure reporting return – From July 2025, all schools must complete the digital reporting form. The digital form outlines how the school has used its PE and sport premium and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding. The DfE Indicates to open the digital primary PE and sport return Monday 9 June at 9am and close on Thursday 31 July at 5pm. Please check the DfE guidance for updates on the new reporting tool. All schools must complete the digital reporting form as previously indicated on BSO and the PE and sport publication for maintained schools.

04/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Local Authority Planning Software Update - The software has been updated with the latest information on pay scales for both Teacher (proposed 4% award at September 2025) and NJC Scales (Employer's offer of 3.2% at April 2025). This is a mandatory update and will be applied the next time you log in to the software. A pop up will appear to advise you the update has been applied.

02/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Financial Classification of Schools 2025/26 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2025/26 academic year. This Classification places maintained schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2024/25 outturns and approved 3 year budgets. Please click here to access the document, which explains the Classification Protocol and the requirements placed on maintained schools.

02/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2025/26 - The template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2025/26 is available to download here. Schools should use this template for Q1 / Q2 and Q3 reporting. The deadline for quarter 1 reporting is 31 July 2025.

02/06/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Procurement Advice Maintained Schools - The DfE has published some procurement advice for maintained schools. Please see here.

28/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlements - Code Audit All settings should regularly check the working parent entitlement codes currently in use in their setting to ensure they remain valid for entitlement hours in the Autumn term. Please click here for further information and guidance.

23/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Grant April 2025 to March 2026 Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined. To access a list of the allocations, click here. The allocations will be included in the September /October 2025 advance. This grant does not have to be spent by schools in the financial year beginning April 2025, Schools may carry some or all the grant forward to future years.

23/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Indicative Allocations 2025/26 Early Years National Insurance Contributions and Teachers' Pay Grant - We have published here indicative allocations to schools and academies that deliver early years entitlement provision, following the DfE's announcements regarding NIC and yesterday's announcement on additional Teacher Pay Grant funding. Funding is allocated at the rates set by the DfE and uses January 2024 (spring term 2024) delivery information for the 3&4 year-old entitlements and the 2-year-old FRAS entitlement, and Autumn 2024 delivery information for the 2-year-old and Under 2s working parents entitlements. This is the data that has been used by the DfE to allocate the grant to the Local Authority. Grant allocations are expected to be paid to schools in September or October (depending on the timing of the DfE's payment to the Local Authority).

22/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - September 2025 Teachers' Pay Award and Additional Grant Funding - The DfE has today published its proposal for the September 2025 teachers' pay award, following the STRB's recommendations process. The STRB has recommended a 4% pay award across all points and allowances, and this has been accepted by the DfE. The STRB's recommendations can be found here. The DfE's press release can be found here. In response to this award, for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, the DfE has introduced an additional grant, called the Schools Budget Support Grant (SBSG). This is new additional funding that has not been previously announced. It is funding, in addition to the National Insurance Contributions Grant, which was announced in March. The DfE has published further information about the SBSG, including a ready reckoner for schools and academies to use. This can be found here. The Local Authority has calculated simple estimates of the SBSG allocations for maintained primary and secondary schools for 2025/26, and these can be found here. Please note that the LA's estimate does not include the resourced provision element of the grant. The DfE has also published some information regarding additional grant funding for early years, which the Authority will now consider and will publish further details for schools as soon as possible (alongside publication of information regarding National Insurance Contributions grant funding for early years). The DfE has also published information regarding additional funding for special schools / academies and AP academies, through the expanded Core Schools Budget Grant, again which the Authority will consider and will discuss directly with the sector. Please note that there will not be a post-16 element of the SBSG, but the DfE has stated that 2025/26 post-16 core formula funding will be increased to provide additional budget support. So schools and academies with post-16 provision should expect to see an uplift in their 2025/26 academic year formula funding allocation.

Please note that the Authority will update the budgeting software, for the teachers' award and latest information regarding the NJC (support staff) pay offer, in June, after schools have completed and submitted their budget returns (we do not want to adjust the software whilst schools are finalising these for 31 May). We will alert schools to the update via this webpage.

21/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (OPPORTUNITY AND INFORMATION) - Schools Forum Membership - we are seeking nominations for Schools Forum Membership positions in respect of a) Maintained Primary School Headteachers and b) Academies Members. Please see the hyperlinked documents. The deadline for nominations is Monday 16 June 2025. If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

21/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools 2025/26 - Please see the note published on 27 March below. the following provision has now been inserted into the Scheme for Financing Schools:

6.2.20 The cost of an undisputed invoice for energy where a school has entered into an agreement with the Secretary of State for the supply of energy and failed to pay such an invoice (Regulation 23 of the regulations).

20/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS & ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - New Service provided by DFE - Early Years Qualification Checker - A new service from the DfE is available to early years managers. This new digital tool from the Department for Education (DfE) helps early years managers quickly check whether staff qualifications meet the requirements for staff:child ratios in England. For more informaiton on this service and a link to the website, please visit the Early Years page.

20/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS & ACADEMIES (INFORMATION & ACTION) - Early Years Provider Portal Available For Specific Schools- Due to the unavailability of the Early Years provider portal between Wednesday 14 May and Friday 16 May, a number of schools were unable to submit their summer term headcount task. We have emailed these specific schools this afternoon to alert you that the Early Years Provider Portal is now open again for you to complete the summer term headcount task. The deadline for submission is Friday 23 May 2025 (4pm) Please ensure your return is submitted by this deadline.

A small number of schools contacted Early Education Team to advise they needed to make revisions to their submitted return. These specific schools have also been contacted by email this afternoon to advise that your task has been re-opened for you to make the required amendments. Please note the deadline for amendments is also 4pm Friday 23 May 2025 (4pm).

If you submitted your summer term headcount on the Early Years Provider Portal prior to Wednesday 14 May, and have not requested the opportunity to make any amendments to your submission, you do not need to take any action

19/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS - (ACTION) - CFR 2024-25 Submission Reminder - Schools are reminded that the deadline for the submission of the 2024-25 CFR Return to COLLECT is middday Wednesday 21 May 2025. Please ensure returns are uploaded by the deadline. Please see the news item posted below on 08/05/25 for more informaiton and a link to the 'Important Information For Schools' document.

16/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - IMPORTANT - Early Years Provider Portal - Unavailable

The technical issues preventing the use of the Early Years Provider portal have not yet been resolved and the Portal remains unavailable this morning. We do not expect it to be available today (16.05.25). Those schools that have not yet completed their Summer Term Head Count Task will be contacted during week commencing 19 May 2025 to discuss how the data will be collected. Schools that have submitted their Summer Term Head Count Task but wish to amend the return for new starters since submission should email the Early Education Team to advise you wish to amend your return (please do not include pupil information at this point).You will be contacted in due course to discuss how the amended data will be collected. EarlyEducationFund@bradford.gov.uk

We apologise again for the inconvenience this issue has caused.

13/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - IMPORTANT - Early Years Provider Portal - Please note, due to unforseen circumstances, the Portal will remain unavailable on Thursday 15 May 2025. We anticipate the EYP Portal will reopen on Friday 16 May 2025 for those schools that have not yet completed their Summer Term 2025 Headcount Task. Please check this page regularly for updates.

12/05/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - May 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

12/05/2025 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION & INFORMATION) - 2024-25 CFR Submission on COLLECT - COLLECT is now open for schools to upload their 2024-25 CFR Returns. The deadline for submission is midday - Wednesday 21 May 2025. Please read this document: Important Information For Schools before uploading your return. If you have any questions please contact Dawn Haigh on 01274 433775 or via email at dawn.haigh@bradford.gov.uk.

08/05/2025 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2024-25 CFR Submission on COLLECT - As at today (08/05/25), the CFR blade is still unavailable on COLLECT. We have not received communication from the DfE as to when the blade will open for schools to upload the 2024-25 CFR return. In light of this delay, the deadline of Wednesday 14 May 2025 has been waived, and a new deadline will be advised once the blade has opened. To prepare, schools are advised to check their CFR on FMS6 against the final SAP report (published on BSO on 30/04/25) to ensure balances match those on SAP. Once we have notification from DfE that the CFR blade is open, we will communicate this to schools here on Latest News & Updates. We will also advise of the new deadline for submission in this communication to schools. Please check this page regularly.

02/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2025/26 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

30/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) Final SAP Reports & 2024-25 CFR Return - Final have been uploaded to BSO dropbox. Please check these reports carefully. Please note, as at today (30.04.25), the CFR blade on COLLECT has not yet been opened by the DfE. We will advise schools when the CFR blade is open for the uploading of CFR returns by publishing details here. Please check this page regularly. Schools are advised to check their CFR returns balance to the final SAP total but do not finalise your CFR report at this point.

29/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Summer Term Headcount Task - Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is now live for the completion of the summer term headcount task. Census Day for Summer Term is 15 May. Claims must be submitted before the deadline Friday 16 May at 5pm. You can see whether the data has successfully been submitted by looking for the green button Status:Submitted.
Planned Maintenance The Provider Portal will be closed 12 – 14 May for an upgrade to the system. Please bear this in mind when planning your time. For this reason, we are encouraging all providers to submit claims early, by Friday 9 May.
Key points for completing Headcount Task
• Start date for new children - The system automatically sets the start date as 1st April. Please ensure this is amended to the start date as stated in the Parental Agreement.
• For any new Terrific Twos (2 year old children under the disadvantage entitlement) starting in the Summer term, please remember to carry out a Placement Notification before completing your Headcount Task.
• End dates - End dates for children need to be added if the child has stopped their funded place with you and you are not claiming for them in the Summer term.
• Weeks - Funding for Summer term is 12 weeks. Please ensure 12 weeks is added for all children that you are claiming for (unless you are unable to offer the full 38 weeks funding – please contact us if this applies)
• Hours – Hours claimed should be given as a term time equivalent for any stretched children. If you need any support to calculate the hours, please contact us by email earlyeducationfund@bradford.gov.uk and one of the team will be happy to help.

It is important that all eligible children are recorded correctly on the Early Years Provider Portal and the DfE School Census. Please refer to the termly checklist which can be found here.

28/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2024-25 5/12ths Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. The allocations will be paid with the May advance. Please can we remind schools of the Conditions of Grant, which include the requirement to publish the necessary information (as set out in the Conditions) on their school's website by the 31 July. Please note that there is a re-coding of PE & Sports Premium Grant. This grant has been coded to I18D. From 1 April 2025, this is to be coded to I06 – Other Government Grants.

25/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - The 2024/25 Bank Adjustment calculation is now available for schools on the Advances page. Additional payments, where the Council owes the school, will be made by 31^st May 2025. The published schedule shows where schools owe cash back to the Council. Individual email with letters will shortly be sent by email to these schools. However, we would encourage schools that owe to repay as soon as possible, having viewed the information that has now been published on-line i.e. schools do not have to wait to receive the letter to repay the amounts they owe.

23/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - UIFSM 2025/26 Funding Rate Update - DfE has now confirmed the increase meal rate for both universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) and further education free meals from £2.58 to £2.61 for the academic year 2025 to 2026.

23/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Summer Term Headcount Task - The Headcount (Actual) Task will be launched on Monday 28 April for you to begin submitting your actual claims for the Summer term, with the deadline to submit by 16 May 2025. There will be unavoidable downtime in the system during the final week of the task, from Monday 12 – Wednesday 14 May (inclusive). For this reason, we are encouraging all providers to submit their claims early, by Friday 9 May. Census date is Thursday 15 May, so if you have any children start after submitting your claim, but before the census date, you will be able to amend your headcount claim on Thursday 15or Friday 16May to include these, and resubmit your final claim. This downtime will impact both the Provider Portal, and the Citizen Portal (where parent’s check their eligibility for the Terrific Twos places). Please therefore ensure that parents check their eligibility for a Terrific Twos place well in advance of this downtime, and that Placement Notifications are carried out as soon as possible.

23/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - NJC Pay Offer (support staff) April 2025 - The Employers' (NJC) pay offer for support staff for April 2025 has now been published. This can be found here. The offer is an increase of 3.2% on all scale points and allowances at April 2025. The offer also includes the deletion of SCP2 (meaning that the lowest SCP would be SCP3) at April 2026 (note that this is not at April 2025). This is an offer at this stage, in response to the unions' pay claim, but is described as 'full and final'. We are conscious that maintained schools will currently be using their budgeting software to finalise their budgets for governor approval and that to apply any software update to pay scales at this time may cause complications. The software currently uses an estimate of the NJC pay award (please refer to the budget guidance for an explanation of this estimate) and we advise schools to continue to use this estimate in setting their initial 2025/26 budgets. The Authority will adjust the software at an appropriate time for the final pay scales, when these are agreed, and will notifiy schools of this through this website. This update is likely to take place in good time for quarter 2 budget monitoring. Please note that no further announcements have been made yet regarding the teachers' pay award at September 2025. We would also expect to make any necessary adjustments to teacher pay scales in the budgeting software in good time for quarter 2 budget monitoring.

22/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Final Intended Use of Balances (IUB) Statement for March 2025 balances - The final statement, which shows the position of schools vs. their Intended Use of Excess Balances Thresholds at 31 March 2025 is now available to download here. Schools are advised to review this statement and to share it with their governors.

11/04/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - April 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click here. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click here.

10/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2025-26 CFR Framework - is now available on GOV.UK. A link to the CFR pages on the GOV.UK site is available on the BSO CFR page here. Maintained schools should read the guidance to ensure compliance when recording income and expenditure throughout the year and when submitting the annual CFR return via COLLECT. Please note that there is a re-coding of PE&Sports Premium Grant and Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) Grant. Both these grants have been coded to I18D. From 1 April 2025, however, they are instead to be coded to I06. Advances allocations that will come from the Authority in respect of these two grants during 2025/26 will now code these to I06.

09/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - DfE Energy - the DfE has provided some more information about the new 'DfE Energy' here.

08/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - March 3rd Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox. Please check all postings and ensure that the school's finance system is up to date with all year-end transactions and journals.

01/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Former Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant allocations 2025/26 (former and continuing allocations) - we have published here details of the additional allocations from the Local Authority to special schools / academies, AP academies and school-led resourced provisions for the period April 2025 to March 2026 in respect of the former and continuing Teacher Pay and Teacher Pensions Grants. These monies are allocated by the Authority from the High Needs Block in addition to place and top up funding. These are continuing separate funding streams.

01/04/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - March 2nd Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox. Please check all postings are correct.

31/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2025/26 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

Information from Previous Years

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2024-25

27/03/025 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (CONSULTATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools 2025/26 - Following the publication of the DfE's latest Scheme guidance for local authorities, we propose to amend our Scheme for Financing Schools at provision 6.2 (circumstances in which charges may be made) to insert the following extra provision, which is now included in the DfE Scheme guidance following the creation of ‘DfE Energy’:

This proposed new provision uses the DfE’s wording and provides necessary cover, where a school uses the DfE’s energy scheme (‘DfE Energy’). Schools that use this scheme are responsible for paying their own bills. However, to protect the Secretary of State in the event that a school does not pay a bill for energy that has been supplied, the DfE has added a new regulation to the school finance regulations for 2025/26, which requires local authorities to include in their formula a provision that allows them to deduct money from a school’s budget share when the school has joined ‘DfE Energy’ and when the DfE informs the local authority that the school has failed to pay within 3 months an amount that is properly due under the scheme. This provision also covers cases where a court has ruled that the sum is due. In these circumstances, the DfE will recover the money owed by the school from the Local Authority and the Local Authority will then charge the school’s budget for the owed amount, using the 6.2.20 provision within the Scheme.

This provision is inserted into the Scheme so that the Local Authority’s financial position is protected in these circumstances.

If you have any comments on this proposed revision, please submit these to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk by 10 May 2025.

The Schools Forum will be asked to take a decision on this proposed amendment on 21 May.

27/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DFC 2025-26 Allocations to schools – Provisional allocations for 2025-26 have now been announced. Schools receiving their DFC via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 in the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO. Payments will be made to schools in late June 2025 once the LA has received the grant in full.

25/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2025/26 are now available here. There is also separate policy guidance available here. We would highlight that as part of the pupil premium allocations and conditions of grant for 2025 to 2026, schools are required to:

publish the strategy statement templates on their website each academic year using the DfE template (condition 5.2) schools must spend their PP grant on evidence-informed activities in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by the DfE. The menu of approaches is in the using pupil premium guidance.

25/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlements - Code Audit All settings should regularly check the Working Parent entitlement codes currently in use in their setting to ensure they remain valid for the entitlement hours in the Summer term. Please see the news item from the Early Education Funding Team for further information and guidance.

21/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding Ready Reckoner 2025/26 - Please click here to access the Ready Reckoner, which enables nursery classes and maintained nursery schools to forecast the funding impact of changes to their termly counted early years entitlement pupil numbers during the 2025/26 financial year. The ready reckoner is based on the confirmed indicative budgets that have been published today (21 March - see below).

21/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025-26 Confirmed Indicative Budgets updated for Early Years - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Adjustments to forecasted early years entitlement delivery numbers have been included where requested. To access please click HERE.

19/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 1st Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox.

19/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Thank you to all schools that have already submitted their SFVS and Related Party Transaction returns. Schools that haven't are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2025. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

18/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding Ready Reckoners 2025/26 - The ready reckoners for high needs providers (Special Schools & Special School Academies, Resourced Provisions and Alternative Provision Academies) for the 2025/26 financial year have been published here. These enable providers to estimate their funding allocations incorporating the monthly movement of pupils. There is also a simple mainstream EHCP ready reckoners for primary and secondary schools and academies to use.

18/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding 2025/26 - The Authority's High Needs Funding Guidance for 2025/26 has now been published and can be accessed here. This guidance confirms the rates of EHCP top-up funding that will be allocated via the Authority's Banded Model for the period April 2025 to March 2026.

18/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - National Insurance Contributions Grant Funding 2025/26 - The DfE has now published further information on NIC Grant funding for schools. This can be found here. The Authority has estimated allocations for maintained primary and secondary schools. These estimates can be found here. Please note that the Authority's estimates do not include any post 16 or early years elements of the Grant. Whilst the DfE has published some information in respect of post 16 here, this is still rather vague. The DfE has published some information regarding the early years element (please see the first link above), which the Authority will now consider and will publish further details for schools as soon as possible. Please note that the estimates for maintained primary and secondary schools that are published do not include a small element of NIC funding in respect of resourced provisions (the DfE is now recognising school-led resourced provisions within the grant methodology). However, within the file there is a link to the DfE's publication, which gives access to the DfE's calculator tool, which does show resourced provision allocations.

18/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Grant Rates of Funding 2025/26 - The DfE has now published rates of funding for the Pupil Premium Grant for 2025/26 financial year (from April 2025). Information can be found here. PPG rates are increasing by 2.39% on current 24/25 rates. Maintained schools are reminded that the PPG estimates that are included in the Section 251 Budget statements that were published on 6 March (below) are still based on the 2024/25 funding rates. PPG allocations for individual maintained schools will be adjusted in the monthly advances when the DfE initially confirms 2025/26 allocations and payments, which is normally in July. Wider information about the Pupil Premium Grant and reporting requirements can be found here.

18/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - Changes to Early Years Headcount Estimates for 2025-26 - Schools are reminded the deadline for submitting changes to the estimated headcounts for all free entitlement phases (3-4YO, 2YO Working Parents, 2YO FRAS & Under 2s) is Thursday 20 March 2025. Please email the revised numbers to dawn.haigh@bradford.gov.uk.

13/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 1st Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now due to be issued w/c 17 March 2025 once payroll has been posted. These are early P12 SAP reports, which are principally aimed at part-budget share schools that use Bradford Council payroll, so schools can check their Cost Per Employee (CPE) reports for monthly paid staff.

12/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2025 Budget Software UPDATE - The 2025 software is now live and can be used. Additional guidance notes are available here. Schools are asked to read these notes in full, as they highlight some important set up instructions and amendments that are required within the Software.

11/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - School Contract Standing Orders and the Procurement Act 2023 – Please see interim supplementary note found here, written for maintained schools, to explain the impact of the introduction of the Procurement Act 2023 on the Council’s current Schools Contract Standing Orders (SCSOs). The Procurement Act is implemented from 24 February 2025. All procurement from this date must follow the provisions of the Act. Further information and guidance to learning modules are here, which provide a high-level overview to the Procurement changes. Please continue to keep checking BSO for further updates.

11/03/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - March 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2025 Budget Software UPDATE - Due to a technical error, the 2025 software has not gone live overnight to be available this morning. It is expected that the software will go live for tomorrow morning.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Spring Term 2025 Early Years FINAL Adjustment Statements have been published on the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustment will be applied to the March Advance.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2025 Budget Software - We expect the 2025 year in the Budget Software to be available for schools to access the morning of Tuesday 11 March. Additional guidance notes are available here. Schools are asked to read these notes in full, as they highlight some important set up instructions and amendments that are required within the Software.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Governor Approved Budget Reporting Template 2025-28 (Maintained Schools) - The template for schools to use to report their 2025-2028 Governor Approved Budgets to the Authority is now available for schools to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly, and to share these notes with their governors. The deadline for submission of budgets for 2025/26 is 31 May 2025. The final deadline for submission of 2nd / 3rd year budgets is 30 June 2025. The template includes notification of each maintained school's Intended Use of Excess Balances Threshold that will be applied to revenue balances held at the end of the 2025/26 financial year at 31 March 2026. Schools are notified now of their Threshold so they can plan their 2025/26 budgets on this basis.

07/03/25 - FOR ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025/26 Financial Year Funding Academies- Statements, which give estimates of the funding to be allocated by Bradford Local Authority directly to academies in 2025/26, are now available to download HERE. Academies with early years entitlement provisions have until Thursday 20 March 2025 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Academies are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates. Also published on the same page is a summary of all primary and secondary maintained school and academy core mainstream formula allocations for 2025/26. This file gives academies early sight of their indicative 2025/26 allocations, prior to the ESFA's publication of the GAG statements.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2025/26 Financial Year S251 Budget Statements are now available to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. Schools with early years entitlement provisions have until Thursday 20 March 2025 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Schools are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding 2025/26 Academies - Guidance on Bradford Local Authority's approach to high needs funding in 2025/26 has been published and can be accessed HERE. Published is guidance on the SEND Funding Floor for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, and details of the Notional SEND budgets for mainstream schools and academies for 2025/26.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Delegated Budget Shares 2025/26 - A summary statement showing the 2025/26 Delegated Budget Shares for stand-alone High Needs providers can be accessed HERE. This statement shows the initial funding for the Place-Led Element only and is published in advances of the more detailed monthly calculation statements, which will be available for the new year shortly after 10 April 2025. A Ready Reckoner, which will enable stand-alone high needs settings to estimate their full year 2025/26 high needs funding will be available shortly.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Additional 3.4% High Needs Place-Element Funding - We have published confirmed 2025/26 financial year allocations to special schools / academies and AP academies. These allocations can be viewed on this page. This is funding, which will be allocated in addition to place-element and top-up funding, for the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. The 5/12ths allocations for the period April to August 2025 will be paid in April (and will be shown on the April advances payments schedule). Schedules that show the additional 'Former Teacher Pay and Pensions' allocations and the now combined Core Schools budget Grant allocations will be published shortly.

07/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years (EYSFF) Technical Statement for 2025/26 is now available to download from the Early Years page. The document details how funding for the early years entitlements will be allocated in the 2025/26 financial year.

06/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - CFR - Changes in 2024-25 CFR Framework - additional information regarding the changes in E20/CE04 and I18 has been published on the Consistent Financial Reporting page BSO. Schools will need to take action to comply with the 2024-25 CFR reporting requirements. Please read the information as soon as possible and carry out the required action. Access the CFR page HERE.

06/03/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Post 16 Funding Settlement 2025/26 - the ESFA has now published details of the post 16 funding settlement and funding formula for the 2025/26 academic year (applied from August 2025). The main announcement can be found here. The continuation of the additional Post 16 Teacher Employer Pensions Contribution Grant is confirmed for the 2025/26 academic year. Further details on this Grant can be found here. The Post 16 Budget Grant (the post 16 element of the Core Schools Budget Grant that schools and academies received in 2024/25) will continue as a separate grant only up to the end of July 2025 when the Grant will cease (with the funding having been transferred into the main post 16 funding formula from this point onwards).

28/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Codes- Summer Term. Please remember the key information for children accessing Working Parent Entitlement hours (either extended 30 hours funding for 3-4 yr olds, or 15 hours for 2 yr olds and under 2s) beginning in the Summer term: Codes must be checked prior to offering a place.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/03/2025
Validity End Date must be after 01/04/2025

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/04/2025 then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code. Please note, grace periods are for continuation of the funded hours at a provider, children cannot start the Working Parent Entitlement hours when in a grace period. If parents have not yet received a code, they must acquire a code before 31^st March. Please refer them to https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ to apply. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if they are experiencing issues with their application.

27/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Spring Term 2025 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements have been published on the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. These statements are provisional and subject to change as we have not yet completed all checks.

27/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Statement AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2025. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

24/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - March 2025 Year End Bank Reconciliation Return - is now available to download from the YEAR END page of BSO. The deadline for the submission of this return is Wednesday 2 April 2025 - this includes all external assets and liabilities. The 2024-25 Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule is also now available to download from the same page. The deadline for the submission of the internal assets and liabilities return is also Wednesday 2 April 2025.

13/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Breakfast Club Early Adopters Grant - The DfE has published information on grant funding for the breakfast clubs early adopters programme. Please see here. This includes an explanation of conditions and spending reporting requirements.

13/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q4 LTFM Scorecard. The 2024-25 Quarter 4 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlements - Code Audit All settings should regularly check the Working Parent entitlement codes currently in use in their setting to ensure they will remain valid for the entitlement hours in the Summer term. Please visit the Early Years page to access further information and guidance.

12/02/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - February 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Year End Returns for Early Submission UPDATE - The template for reporting Capital Lease and Heritage Assests has been updated today. If you have not yet submitted your return please use this updated version which can be found HERE. If you have already submitted your return there is no need for you to resubmit it using the revised template .Schools are reminded that the Capital Lease and Heritage Assets return is required to be submitted by ALL maintained schools. The deadline for submission is Friday 21 February 2025. To access the Year End page and template please click HERE.

07/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - DfE Benchmarking and ICFP tools - We'd just like to remind schools and academies that the DfE has recently re-vamped the schools benchmarking website to provide a wider set of 'benchmarking and insights' tools. The website is here. This site includes the usual benchmarking, but also now includes workforce comparisons and an Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning (ICFP) tool, which schools may find helpful. This website replaces the previously separate schools benchmarking and 'view my financial insights' services, which are no longer being updated.

07/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Publication of 2025/26 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 6 March, the full S251 Budget Statements for 2025/26 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 7 March. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2025-2028, and guidance, should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2025/26 financial year. The deadline for the submission of governor approved budgets by maintained schools to the Authority, as was the case last year, is adjusted from 15 May to 31 May 2025.

To support primary and secondary schools, and academies, in their budget planning, we published on 15 January (see note below) further information here, which sets out anticipated mainstream primary and secondary core formula funding (NFF) allocations for 2025/26. These allocations were recommended by the Schools Forum on 15 January and will be presented to the Council on 6 March for ratification. These allocations are also still subject to ratification by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

07/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Release of 2025/26 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2025 scenario will be released for maintained schools mid March (the 2024 software was released on 14 March). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. The Authority is now working on a test 2025/26 update. Schools should not be able to see this, but we are aware in previous years that some schools have been able to. Schools are reminded not to open or use the new year ‘2025/26’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms in mid-March that the new 2025/26 year update is released and is formally 'open' (this is because the software prior to this confirmation will be incomplete and inaccurate and also all scenarios that have been created in 2025/26 prior to final release will be wiped).

03/02/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Intended Use of Excess Balances Reporting 31 March 2025 (IUB reporting) - Please click here to access the information and reporting template for Intended Use of Excess Balances reporting for revenue balances to be held at 31 March 2025. The template includes pre-populated forecasted revenue carry forward balances taken from school Quarter 3 Budget Monitoring returns. The deadline for all IUB submissions is 31 March 2025. You are advised to read the guidance provided within the letter and the template (including the flow chart), as well as the full Surplus Balances Protocol.

24/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Statement AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2025. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

23/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools are reminded that the Capital Lease and Heritage Assets return is required to be submitted by schools early in the year-end process. The deadline for submission is Friday 21 February 2025. ALL maintained schools are required to submit the Capital Lease & Heritage Assets return. To access the Year End page and templates please click HERE.

21/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools are reminded that, as in previous years, the External Payroll Providers return is required to be submitted by schools early in the year-end process. The deadline for submission of this return is Friday 21 February 2025. Only maintained schools that use an external or in house payroll provider (i.e. they do not use Bradford Council Payroll Services) are required to submit the External Payroll Providers Year End return. To access the Year End page and template please click HERE.

17/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - **REMINDER** Early Years Spring Term Headcount Task - There are a number of schools yet to start the spring term headcount task on the Early Years Provider Portal. There are also a number of schools that have started the task but are yet to complete and submit via the EYP Portal. Schools are reminded that the deadline for inputting data for all current nursery entitlements into the Early Years Provider Portal is 5PM TODAY - FRIDAY 17 JANUARY 2025. Funding is at risk if you fail to submit a claim or submit a claim that is incorrect or incomplete.

15/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025/26 Financial Year Primary and Secondary Mainstream Formula Funding update - We have published a table here, which shows INDICATIVE National Funding Formula-based core formula funding allocations for individual mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies in Bradford for the 2025/26 financial year. This indicative information is published to help schools / academies with their 2025/26 budget planning.

14/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - **REMINDER** Early Years Spring Term Headcount Task Schools are reminded that the deadline for inputting spring term data for all nursery entitlements into the Early Years Provider Portal is 5pm Friday 17 January 2025. Please refer to the termly checklist guidance which can be found HERE. We strongly recommend you download a copy of your submission from the portal and double check the entries and hours for each child. You can reopen, amend and resubmit your task as many times as necessary before the 5pm deadline. Funding is at risk if you fail to submit a claim or submit a claim that is incorrect or incomplete.

13/01/25 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - January 2025 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

09/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - December VAT submittals - We are aware that several schools remain closed and are therefore unable to submit their vat returns this week. When school reopens please submit your returns as soon as you are able to.

08/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES WITH EARLY YEARS PROVISION (CONSULTATION) - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2025/26 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. This is being presented to the Schools Forum on 15 January. The deadline for responses is Monday 10 February 2025.

02/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Spring Term Headcount Task - Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is now live for the completion of the spring term headcount task. The deadline for input is 5pm Friday 17 January 2025.
It is important that all eligible children are recorded correctly on the Early Years Provider Portal and the DfE School Census. Please refer to the termly checklist which can be found HERE.

02/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Code Audit. In preparation for the Spring term claims, it’s important to check all Working Parent Entitlement codes to ensure they are valid for the relevant hours.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/12/2024
Validity End Date must be after 01/01/2025

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/01/2025 with a Grace Period end date of 31/03/2025, then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code and can only be utilised if the child accessed the Working Parent Entitlement hours in your setting in the Autumn term. Working Parent Entitlement codes currently being used in your setting should be regularly checked to ensure that they remain valid for termly claims. Parents must reconfirm their eligibility for the Working Parent Entitlement hours every 3 months with HMRC. HMRC will send them reminders to reconfirm their eligibility, however if they have failed to do this their code will become invalid, and you will be unable to claim funding for the hours.

How to check codes
In the Working Parent Entitlement section, use the Expiration Dashboard on the Early Years Provider Portal: https://oneonline.bradford.gov.uk/ProviderPortal_LIVE You may need to adjust the filters in the search to show where “eligibility has ended but code is still in grace” Codes highlighted red have passed the reconfirmation date. Ensure that the system shows the most up to date information regarding the code by clicking the “recheck” button. Children who have fallen out of eligibility will not be eligible for the Working Parent Entitlement hours. 3 to 4 year olds are able to continue to access the universal 15 hours. You should discuss with the parent their requirements and amend their Parent Agreement if they wish to continue accessing funded hours at your setting. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if the grace period is due to an issue with their application.

01/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - 2024-25 Year End Guidance - The Council's 2024-25 Year End Guidance document for schools is now available to download from the YE Forms page. Please note, for your planning, that the deadline for the submission of the March Year End Bank Reconciliation return, including assets, liabilities and other required information, is Wednesday 2nd April 2025. Schools are urged to read the guidance document as soon as possible to familiarise themselves with the requirements and deadlines for year end. The March Year End Bank Reconciliation Template, and the Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule, for schools to complete will be published early in March.

01/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Q4 (Jan & Feb) Bank Reconciliation Template - is now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Click HERE to access the page. School Funding Team requests that the January & February bank reconciliation return is submitted as early as possible in March. Returns can be submitted monthly (at the beginning of February and the at the beginning of March) or for the two months together (at the beginning of March). The final March year-end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.

01/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Publication of 2025/26 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 6 March, the full S251 Budget Statements for 2025/26 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 7 March. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2025-2028, and guidance, should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2025/26 financial year.

01/01/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of 2025/26 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2025 scenario will be released for maintained schools mid March (the 2024 software was released on 14 March). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2025/26’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2025/26 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

01/01/25 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2025 - The Surplus Balances Protocol is in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2025. The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available to view here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 3 budget monitoring.

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2024-25

16/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Pupil Premium Grant 2024/25 - Adjustments to allocations to account for pupils eligible for PPG under both the Free School Meals (FSM) and Looked After children (LAC) criteria have been announced by the ESFA. Where a pupil qualifies for both the school will receive only the Looked After Children element of the funding (£429 summer / Autumn & Spring £428 paid via the LA). Where a school has also already received the FSM allocation in their initial 2024/25 funding allocation for such pupils, the amount is deducted from the grant allocation to avoid double funding. (Primary Adjustment £1,480 per pupil. Secondary Adjustment £1,050 per pupil). A list of revised allocations has been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. To access this page click HERE. Please note deductions will be applied to the January 2025 advance payment.

12/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Autumn Term 2024 FINAL Adjustment Statements are available to download from the EARLY YEARS page of BSO. These adjustments will be applied to the December advance.

12/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q3 LTFM Scorecard. The 2024-25 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

12/12/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - December 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - The Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) 2025-26 - The Dfe has published information about the RPA for 2025/26. This can be found here

10/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding 2025/26 - The DfE has now published the Early Years Block settlement and formula funding operational guidance for early years entitlement funding for 2025/26. These can be found here. The Authority expects to publish a consultation, setting our proposals for funding in Bradford, early in the new year. This will be signalled on this page.

10/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teacher Pay Award September 2025 - This is important information for the development of 2025/26 school budgets. The DfE has published its evidence to the STRB in relation to the national teachers' pay award for September 2025. This can be found here. Whilst other elements are discussed, the core recommendation for the award is covered in pages 23 - 28 of the main evidence document. The DfE suggests that the pay award should be 2.8%. The DfE is also quite clear that the cost of this would need to be met from funding already announced for 2025/26 and that "most schools will need to supplement the new funding for 2025/26 with efficiencies" in order to cover the cost. Therefore, at this time it does not appear that additional funding would be allocated in the form of a Teacher Pay Grant in order to support a pay award at 2.8%. The Authority is aware that most maintained schools currently forecast a 3% pay award, so 2.8% is close to this. This is just at this stage the DfE's evidence to the STRB. The STRB will make its recommendations on the pay award in due course, which may be different from what the DfE suggests. Any further information will be signalled on this page.

04/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - UIFSM 2024/25 Provisional Allocations Update. It has now been confirmed that a further uplift from £2.53 to £2.58 will be implemented for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. This additional payment will be delivered alongside the final allocation for 2024 to 2025 in June/July 2025. This will be backdated to the start of the academic year. Please see link to Conditions of Grant documents HERE.

04/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND CONSULTATION) - Mainstream and High Needs Formula Funding 2025/26 - Further to the briefing and consultation notes that have been published earlier this term, we have written two updated information and discussion documents, one for mainstream primary and secondary formula funding and one for high needs formula funding, which explain the current position in regard to the development of 2025/26 mainstream primary and secondary and high needs formula / EHCP funding in Bradford, and which gives schools and academies the opportunity to comment, provide feedback and ask questions. We encourage all mainstream schools and academies to read these notes. These notes were presented to the Schools Forum on 4 December. The Authority will move forward towards asking the Schools Forum to make its final recommendations on formula funding matters for 2025/26 at the meeting scheduled for 15 January. If you have comments or feedback on either of the discussion documents, please submit these to andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk by 10 January if possible (so that this feedback can be considered by the Schools Forum on 15 January). Please note that we still await details from the DfE on early years entitlement funding for 2025/26 and expect to publish a consultation on this early in the new year.

03/12/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Working Parent Entitlement Codes for nursery children - Spring Term.
Please note the key information for children accessing Working Parent Entitlement hours (either the extended 30 hours funding for 3-4 yr olds, or the 15 hours for 2 yr olds and under 2s) beginning in the Spring term. Codes must be checked prior to offering the place.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/12/2024

Validity End Date must be after 01/01/2025

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/01/2025 then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code. Please note, grace periods are for continuation of the funded hours at a provider, children cannot start the Working Parent Entitlement hours when in a grace period. If parents have not yet received a code, they must acquire a code before 31^st December. Please refer them to https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ to apply. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if they are experiencing issues with their application.

29/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 2023-24 School Fund Audits. For those that haven't yet, please can we remind you of the requirement to arrange the audit of all private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates, or a copy of the audited accounts, should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2024 evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2023-24 financial year or the end of the 2023-24 academic year. Please advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

15/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Core Schools Budget Grant Allocations 2024-25 Update – Please be aware due to the grant not being paid to the LA the Core Schools Budget Grant will be paid in the December Advances. Schools receiving the CSBG via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document, CSBG funds may be carried forward past 31 March 2025. Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

13/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Please see this note on the actioning of confirmed pay awards.

12/11/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - November 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025/26 Mainstream School & Academy Funding - Further to the news note published below on 4 November, we have published a short briefing note to update on 2025/26 mainstream formula funding. This note can be found here. It is important that primary and secondary schools and academies review this note to inform the development of their 2025/26 budgets. Further guidance will be provided as more information is announced by the DfE on the 2025/26 funding settlement.

08/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard and the template for recording Related Party Transactions. These should be emailed to School Funding Team as soon as possible but no later than 31 March 2025. Guidance and templates for 24-25 can be found HERE.

08/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Autumn Term 2024 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements have been published on the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. These statements are provisional and subject to change as we have not yet finalised the duplicates or Cross Border checks.

04/11/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION - 2025/26 School Funding - The Chancellor in the Budget last week announced £2.3bn for the national core schools budget in 2025/26 with £1bn of this to be allocated to support SEND. We do not have sufficient information yet to enable us to assess what this means for Bradford and schools / academies funding for 2025/26. Further information is expected in late November. The ESFA has provided an update on the overall framework for the mainstream National Funding Formula. This can be found here. We would also like to remind schools of the early consultation information that was published in October - please see the news note from 11 October below.

30/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates or a copy of the audited accounts should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2024, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2023-24 financial year or the end of the 2023-24 academic year. Please advise the date of approval from the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

29/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Working Parent Entitlement Code Audit. All settings should regularly check the Working Parent entitlement codes currently in use in their setting to ensure they will remain valid for the entitlement hours in the Spring term. Please visit the Early Years page to access further information and guidance.

28/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION ) - Transforming Public Procurement Update – Please see Briefing Note on Transforming Public Procurement here which provides general information on the Procurement Act and specific details on provisions for Schools. Further information and guidance to learning modules are here, which provide a high-level overview to the Procurement changes that are due to go live February 2025. We will continue to update schools as more information becomes available please continue to keep checking BSO for further updates.

25/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Budgeting Software Update for NJC Pay Award - Further to our news item of 23/10/24 (see below), an update to apply the new salary values on each point of the NJC scale has now been applied. This is a mandatory update to the software. When you next login you will receive an onscreen prompt to alert you to the update. We recommend you login to your software as soon as possible to update your system and current scenarios.

25/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant 2024/25 - 7/12ths Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period Sept 2024 to March 2025. To access a list of the allocations, click HERE. The allocations will be included in the November 2024 advance. This grant does not have to be spent by schools in the financial year beginning April 2024, Schools may carry some or all the grant forward to future years.

25/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant - 7/12ths Allocation for Post 16 schools have now been determined for the period Sept 2024 to March 2025. These allocations just relate to Post 16. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the November 2024 advance.

24/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Teachers' Pay Additional Grant 2024/25 7/12ths Allocation – 7/12ths allocations have been announced for Teachers' pay additional grant 24/25 to be made in November 24/25 Advances. Schools receiving the TPAG grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. TPAG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2024. Maintained schools may carry some or all of the TPAG funds forward to future financial years.

24/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2024/25 AY have now been published on the Advances page within the Secure Area of BSO. To access this list click HERE. The 7/12ths figure shown on the list will be paid in the November 2024 Advance under I18D - Additional Grant for Schools.

23/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years - Additional New Entitlement Headcount Task - Schools were alerted, via the 2024-25 EYSFF Technical Statement, of an Additional New Entitlement Head Count task in summer term. This additional head count is to capture those schools delivering the new 2 Year Old Working Parent Entitlement and the Under 2's Working PArent Entitlement where a child took up a place after the Autumn Term Census and was therefore not included on that return. i.e. where a child started after 3 October 2024.This additional head count is a requirement set out by the DfE.This additional headcount task will take place on Wednesday 6 November 2024. A claim template has been published for schools to use to submit this pupil information.

Please visit the Early Years page to access the template and for further information on the pupil level detail required. The deadline for submission is Friday 8 November 2024 (4pm).

23/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - NJC (Support Staff) Pay Award April 2024 - The Employer's pay offer for April 2024 (£1,290 increase on SCPs 2 - 43; 2.5% increase on higher SCPs and on all allowances) has now been accepted by the Unions. For maintained schools that use the Authority's budgeting software, this software will now be updated for the confirmed award. We will signal on this webpage when the software has been updated.

22/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - We expect that SFVS returns will be required to be submitted by 31 March 2025 and will need to include details of Related Party Transactions. Further details to follow when the guidance has been updated and the template for 24-25 has been released.

22/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2025-26 academic year can be viewed here.

18/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Costs for Swimming Transport 2024-25 - costs have now been published for the period September 2024 - July 2025. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Charges will be issued to schools before 31 March 2025. If you have any queries, please contact Debbie Cussans via email Debbie.Cussans@bradford.gov.uk . Schools with queries about cost of pool use should contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274 438791 or bradfordaquatics@bradford.gov.uk

18/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant for 2024/25 AY are now available HERE. Schools are reminded, to publish the required report by 31 July, where a school fails to comply with the grant conditions, it may be required to repay the Premium wholly or in part. All schools from July 2025 must complete the digital form outlining how the school has used its PE and sport premium and the impact it has had on achieving the aims and objectives of the funding.

16/10/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - October 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND CONSULTATION) - 2025/26 Mainstream Primary and Secondary Formula Funding - We have written a briefing and early consultation note here, which explains the current position in regard to the development of 2025/26 mainstream primary and secondary formula funding in Bradford and which gives schools and academies the opportunity to begin to absorb this information and to comment and ask questions. This note has been written in the context of the delay in the announcement of the 2025/26 national school funding settlement and formula funding arrangements, meaning that our more detailed consultation (which we would normally begin mid-October) will also be delayed. We encourage all mainstream schools and academies to read this note.

01/10/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2024/25 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2024-25

26/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Core Schools Budget Grant Allocations 2024-25 – Allocations have been announced for the Core Schools Budget Grant 2024/25 September to March. Schools receiving the CSBG via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document, CSBG funds may be carried forward past 31 March 2025. Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

25/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Post 16 Schools Budget Grant 2024/25 - The DfE has today published further details about the 2024/25 financial year Post 16 Schools Budget Grant here. This Grant is the Post 16 element of the Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) that is being allocated to schools following the September 2024 teachers' pay award.

23/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DfE National Tutoring Programme 2023-24 year-end statement – This is a reminder the NTP year-end statement is live, please see guidance here to help you report on the use of the 2023/24 NTP grant. You need to submit the year-end statement, even if you did not spend any of your NTP funding. The deadline is 5:00pm on Thursday, 26 September 2024.

18/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Autumn Term Headcount Task - Due to an issue with the schools’ MIS data pulling through to the Early Years Provider Portal, you may notice that some of your new starters for the Autumn term are not showing on your Headcount Task list. As we are unsure if this issue will be fixed before the deadline for submitting your Early Years Headcount Task, Friday 4 October, we recommend that you add any of the children who are missing to your Headcount Task. If you need any support in how to do this, please contact earlyeducationfund@bradford.gov.uk
Over the past couple of days we have also experienced intermittent issues in accessing the site due to the volume of traffic. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes, but if you are having difficulties, please try again later.

17/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Estimated Core Schools Budget Grant Allocations 2024-25 - To help with quarter 2 budget monitoring we have published estimated Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) allocations for 2024/25 for maintained primary and secondary schools. These can be found here. Please see the news note below on 30 July for more information.

17/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Autumn Term Headcount Task - Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is now live for the completion of the autumn term headcount task for 3&4 Year Old-Universal & Extended, 2 Year Old Disadvantage, 2 Year Old Working Parents, and the new Under 2's Working Parents delivered hours. The deadline for input is Friday 4 October 2024.
It is important that all eligible children are recorded on the Early Years Provider Portal and the DfE School Census. Please refer to the termly checklist for recording pupil data on the Early Years Provider Portal and the DfE Census which can be found HERE.

13/09/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - September 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

12/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q2 LTFM Scorecard. The 2024-25 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

11/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025/26 Formula Funding and Schools Forum (developing proposals) - Prior to the publication of more formal consultations later this term, we would like to highlight now for schools and academies the developing proposals affecting formula funding for 2025/26 that were presented to the Schools Forum on 11 September. The documents that were presented to this meeting can be found here. In particular, we highlight the reports presented under agenda item 8 (Schools Block to High Needs Block transfer) and agenda item 9 (High Needs Block formula funding mitigations). Having read these documents, if you have any questions or any immediate comments or feedback, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

02/09/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DfE National Tutoring Programme 2023-24 year-end statement – The NTP year-end statement has now gone live, please see guidance here to help you report on the use of the 2023/24 NTP grant. You need to submit the year-end statement, even if you did not spend any of your NTP funding. The deadline is 5:00pm on Thursday, 26 September 2024.

28/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2025-26 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of monthly payment dates for 2025/26 has been published for schools and academies to download. Please note these dates are provisional and subject to change. To access the list click HERE.

28/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Teacher Payscales Software Update - For maintained schools that use the Authority's budgeting software, this software has now been updated for the latest information on teacher payscales. Please see the note below (30/7/24). The update is a 'mandatory' update to the software. Please note that that NJC payscales have not been updated (these are still set at the original estimates). The NJC pay award has not yet been agreed.

28/08/24 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Budgeting Software Subscription 2025 - Please click here (letter at the top of the page) to access the subscription form for maintained schools to use to purchase budgeting software through the Local Authority for 2025-26. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 25^th October 2024 at the latest.

27/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Swimming Transport Costs 2024-25 information has been published on the Swimming Transport page within BSO for the number of sessions schools have taken for the 2024/25 academic year. Schools have until Friday 18 October 2024 to notify us of any errors with the number of sessions stated for your school. Please note we do not know the cost for Swimming Transport at this stage however we expect to publish this information later on in the autumn term once session numbers have been confirmed. To access the Swimming Transport page please click HERE

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2024, evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2023-24 financial year or the 2023-24 academic year. Further guidance is available here.

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - DfE Financial Transparency - We would like to remind schools to continue to ensure that they follow the requirements of the DfE's recent transparency changes. Schools are required to publish (and update) annually on their websites the required information relating to their CFR statements and high salaries - please click here for further guidance and a model text / template for schools to use. In providing a link to the benchmarking website (for CFR statements), the ESFA has clarified that this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page).

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - REMINDER - 2025/26 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2024 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2024/25 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School and academy colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2025/26 funding arrangements) as these develop over the autumn term. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 11 September.

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2025 - The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider alongside quarter 2 budget monitoring.

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2024-25 were published on 24 June (please see below). If your school is in Category A, we would like to remind you that we will require Monthly Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns. Once we have received the Quarterly return for Quarter 2, therefore, we will expect both Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns for October by the end of November latest, and monthly after that until the end of the Financial year. If you require further information on monthly monitoring you will find the details on secure area of BSO HERE.

19/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - The 2024/25 Financial Years CFR Framework - A link to the CFR pages on the GOV.UK site is available on the BSO CFR page HERE. Maintained schools should read the guidance to ensure compliance when recording income and expenditure throughout the year and when submitting the annual CFR return via COLLECT following the close of the 2024/25 financial year. Please note that new sub-headings for E20 (A to G) and CE04 (A-E) have been added to better breakdown ICT expenditure. This is explained in the what's new section. Schools will need to apportion their spending on these respective codes as per the DfE guidance.

01/08/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2025/26 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

30/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers' Pay Award September 2024 and Additional Grant - The DfE has published: a statement on the September 2024 Teachers' Pay Award, the STRB Recommendations Report, and details of a further Teacher Pay Grant for 2024/25, known as the Core Schools Budget Grant, which accompanies the pay award. This grant comes in addition to the existing Pay Grant that schools are already receiving in support of the September 2023 pay award. The DfE has announced that it accepts the STRB's recommendations for a 5.5% pay award across all scale points and allowances at September 2024 and has put in place a new grant to support the additional cost of this award (the additional cost roughly above 3%). Further details on the grant in respect of early years and post 16 are still to be provided. For early years, however, we expect to follow the approach that we took for the 2023/24 grant, by allocating this in March 2025 using the entitlement delivery information confirmed for the autumn and spring terms. For high needs providers (special schools and AP) we expect to use the same methodology that we have agreed for the allocation of the existing Teacher Pay and Pensions Grants.

For maintained schools that use the Authority's budgeting software, this software will be updated for the new expected september 2024 teacher pay scale and allowances values during the summer and in time for quarter 2 budget monitoring and revision to 3 year budget forecasts. We will signal when this update has taken place via this website. Please note that, at this time, we have not amended the estimates of NJC (officer and support staff) pay scales.

18/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - September 2024 Teachers' Pay Award - we wish to make schools aware of the DfE's announcement regarding the delay in announcing the September 2024 Teachers' Pay Award. This can be viewed here

16/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Fraud Awareness - We have been made aware of incidents of cheque fraud in one of our schools. Please be extra vigilant when checking bank statements. If you suspect fruadulent activity has occurred on the school bank account please contact your bank immediately. If you are a maintained school and fraud has occurred please contact School Funding Team at schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk immediately.

12/07/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - July 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

08/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - EARLY YEARS. Please see Working Parent Entitlement Key Update from the Early Years Team which can be found here.

05/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2024-25 Confirmed Pupil Premium Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page. To access the allocation table please click HERE. Schools are advised to check their revised allocation and update budgets accordingly. The adjustments shown will be included in the July 2024 advance.

01/07/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2024/25 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2024-25

27/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Summer Term 2024 Final Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the EARLY YEARS page in the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustments shown in these statements will be applied to the September 2024 advance.

27/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) PE and Sports Premium – We previously highlighted on BSO Latest news & updates and in the PE and Sports Publications that the DfE has an upcoming Digital Tool for the reporting of the PE and sport premium, this is open to all schools on a voluntary basis for reporting on the 2023 to 2024. Information on how to complete the PE and sport premium grant funding assurance form for academic year 2023 to 2024 please see here. The deadline for submitting the PE and sport premium grant funding assurance form is 5pm on Wednesday, 31 July 2024. This will become a mandatory requirement for schools to complete from the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

27/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Final Payment) – allocations have been announced for the final payment to be made in July 24-25 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2023 to 2024 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered by the DfE where it is identified that a school has not spent all its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

25/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) UIFSM 2023-24 Final Allocations & 2024/25 Provisional Allocations have now been announced. To access a list of the allocations please visit the Advances Updates page by clicking HERE. Payments will be included in the July 2024 Advance. Please refer to notes at bottom of page and see link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found HERE.

25/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - 2025/26 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2024 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

25/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2024/25 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2025/26 funding arrangements) as these develop. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 11 September.

24/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Financial Classification of Schools 2024/25 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2024/25 academic year. This Classification places maintained schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2023/24 outturns and approved 3 year budgets. Please click here to access the document, which explains the Classification Protocol and the requirements placed on maintained schools.

18/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2024/25 DFC Allocations - Allocations for Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) have now been confirmed and LA has now received allocations. Payments are to be made to applicable schools by the LA by Friday 21st June. To access a list of allocations and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 please visit the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO by clicking HERE.

13/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q1 LTFM Scorecard. The 2024-25 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

11/06/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - June 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

04/06/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - EARLY YEARS Working Parent Entitlement Code Audit. It is important to regularly check all Working Parent Entitlement codes currently in use for children in your setting to ensure they will remain valid for the entitlement hours in the Autumn term. Please see news item from the Early Years Team which can be found here.

31/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2024/25 - The template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2024/25 is available to download here. Schools should use this template for Q1 / Q2 and Q3 reporting. The deadline for quarter 1 reporting is 31 July 2024.

28/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2024/25 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

28/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - EARLY YEARS - ADDITIONAL NEW ENTITLEMENT HEADCOUNT TASK - Schools were alerted, via the 2024-25 EYSFF Technical Statement, of an Additional New Entitlement Head Count task in summer term. This additional head count is to capture those schools delivering the new 2 Year Old Working Parent Entitlement where a child took up a place after the Summer Term Census and was therefore not included on that return. i.e. where a child started on or after 17 May 2024.This additional head count is a requirement set out by the DfE.This additional headcount task will take place on Wednesday 12 June 2024. A claim template has been published for schools to use to submit this pupil information.

Please visit the Early Years page to access the template and for further information on the pupil level detail required.

23/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Teachers' Pay Additional Grant 2024/25 5/12ths Allocation - allocations have been announced for Teachers' pay additional grant 24/25 to be made in June 24/25 Advances. Schools receiving the TPAG grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. TPAG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2024. Maintained schools may carry some or all of the TPAG funds forward to future financial years.

23/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant 2024/25 - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2024 to August 2024. To access a list of the allocations, click HERE. The allocations will be included in the June 2024 advance. This grant does not have to be spent by schools in the financial year beginning April 2024, Schools may carry some or all the grant forward to future years.

22/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant - 5/12ths Allocation for Post 16 schools have now been determined for the period April 2024 to August 2024. These allocations just relate to Post 16. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the June 2024 advance.

22/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (OPPORTUNITY AND INFORMATION) - Schools Forum Membership - we are seeking nominations for Schools Forum Membership positions in respect of a) Maintained Primary School Headteachers and b) Academies Members. Please see the hyperlinked documents. The deadline for nominations is Wednesday 12 June 2024. If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

22/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (CONSULTATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools 2024/25 - Following the consultation and Schools Forum approval, our Scheme for Financing Schools at provision 3.6 (borrowing by schools) has been amended as proposed in response to the adoption of IFRS 16 (leases). The new Scheme is applicable from today.

14/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Maintained schools are reminded that the deadline for the submission of the 2023-24 CFR Return on COLLECT is WEDNESDAY 15 MAY 2024. Please ensure your return is uploaded and SUBMITTED.

14/05/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - May 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

13/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - **REMINDER** Early Years Summer Term Headcount Task - There are a number of schools yet to start the summer term headcount task on the Early Years Provider Portal. There are also a number of schools that have started the task but are yet to complete and submit via the EYP Portal.

Schools are reminded that the deadline for inputting the summer term data for all current nursery entitlements into the Early Years Provider Portal is FRIDAY 17 MAY 2024.

07/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - The 2023/24 Bank Adjustment calculation is now available for schools on the Advances page. Additional payments, where the Council owes the school, will be made by the end of May 2024. The published schedule shows where schools owe cash back to the Council. Individual letters will shortly be sent by email to these schools. However, we would encourage schools that owe to repay as soon as possible, having viewed the information that has now been published on-line i.e. schools do not have to wait to receive the letter to repay the amounts they owe.

07/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) COLLECT is now open for Schools to upload CFR Returns. The deadline to submit your CFR Return is Wednesday 15th May. Please read the IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS document carefully and visit the CFR page for more guidance. If your School is no longer using FMS or using a system that cannot produce a file format compatible with COLLECT, please contact Dawn Haigh by email at dawn.haigh@bradford.gov.uk or by phone on 01274 433775. Schools can also access an I18 2023-24 Funding Breakdown Table on the Advances Updates page of BSO to assist with the apportionment and checking. Please note Final SAP Reports were uploaded to BSO on Tuesday 7 May 2024.

07/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) FINAL SAP REPORTS have now been uploaded to the dropbox area of BSO. Please check these reports.

07/05/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Final Intended Use of Balances (IUB) Statement for March 2024 balances - The final statement, which shows the position of schools vs. their Intended Use of Excess Balances Thresholds at 31 March 2024 is now available to download here. Schools are advised to review this statement and to share it with their governors.

02/05/25 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - National Tutoring Programme (Final Payment) 2023/24 Academic Year - allocations have been announced for the 3^rd and final Payment to be made in May Advances. Schools receiving the National Tutoring Programme via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK here. Please see notes on document and read this guidance carefully. This grant is ring-fenced and the conditions include strict spending requirements and do not permit the carry-over of monies that are not spent in the 2023/24 academic year. The conditions also require additional reporting of spend (through the termly censuses and via an additional online return to be submitted Summer 2024)

29/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - **REMINDER** Early Years Summer Term Headcount Task Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is live for the completion of the summer term headcount task for 3&4 Year Olds Universal & Extended, 2 Year Olds Disadvantage and the new 2 Year Olds Working Parents Entitlement delivered hours. The deadline for input is Friday 17 May 2024. For information on checking 30 Hour eligibility codes, please see the news item below published on 8 April 2024.

Schools are reminded there will be an additional headcount taken in late May. This additional headcount is solely for the purpose of capturing those children in the new 2 Year Olds Working Parent Entitlement category who started AFTER census date.

We will release further information on Monday 28 May as to how this data will be collected and the deadline for submission.

26/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2023-24 5/12ths Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. The allocations will be paid with the May advance. Please can we remind schools of the Conditions of Grant, which include the requirement to published the necessary information (as set out in the Conditions) on their school's website by the 31 July.

17/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Working Parent Entitlement Key Information - An update has been issued by Bradford Early Years Team. To access this document please click HERE.

15/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - March 3rd Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox.

12/04/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - April 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

11/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Summer Term Head Count Task - Schools are reminded the summer term headcount for 3-4 Year Olds, 2 Year Old Disadvantage and 2 Year Olds of working parents will again be collected via the Early Years Provider Portal. The EYP Portal will open on Monday 29 April 2024 and closes on Friday 17 May 2024. Schools must ensure their pupil data is input by Friday 17 May 2024. For information on checking eligibility codes, please see the news item published on 08/04/24.

08/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION - Working Parent Entitlement Codes for Summer Term. In preparation for the Summer term claims, it’s important to check all Working Parent Entitlement codes to ensure they are valid for the relevant hours.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/03/2024
Validity End Date must be after 01/04/2024

If the validity end date is prior to 01/04/2024 with a Grace Period end date of 31/08/2024, then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code and can only be utilised if the child accessed the Working Parent Entitlement hours in your setting in the Spring term. Working Parent Entitlement codes currently being used in your setting should be regularly checked to ensure that they remain valid for termly claims. Parents must reconfirm their eligibility for the Working Parent Entitlement hours every 3 months with HMRC. HMRC will send them reminders to reconfirm their eligibility, however if they have failed to do this their code will become invalid, and you will be unable to claim funding for the hours.
How to check codes - In the Working Parent Entitlement section, use the Expiration Dashboard on the Early Years Provider Portal: https://oneonline.bradford.gov.uk/ProviderPortal_LIVE

You may need to adjust the filters in the search to show where “eligibility has ended but code is still in grace” Codes highlighted red have passed the reconfirmation date. Ensure that the system shows the most up to date information regarding the code by clicking the “recheck” button.
Children who have fallen out of eligibility will not be eligible for the Working Parent Entitlement hours. 3 to 4 year olds are able to continue to access the universal 15 hours. You should discuss with the parent their requirements and amend their Parent Agreement if they wish to continue accessing funded hours at your setting. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if the grace period is due to an issue with their application.

04/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2024/25 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

03/04/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - March 2nd Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox.

02/04/024 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (CONSULTATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools 2024/25 - Following the news note below on the introduction of IRFS16 leases (see 28/03/24), and following the publication of the DfE's latest Scheme guidance for local authorities, we propose to amend our Scheme for Financing Schools at provision 3.6 (borrowing by schools) to insert the following words, which are taken directly from the DfE’s new Scheme guidance. We have copied the full 3.6 provision below in italics, with the proposed inserted words underlined:

This provision does not apply to loan Schemes run by the Authority (see section 4.9).

Governing Boards may borrow money only with the written permission of the Secretary of State.

Borrowing includes the use of finance leases. The introduction of IFRS16 for local authorities from 1 April 2024 ends the distinction between operating and finance leases at maintained schools for accounting purposes. Under the Education Act 2002, all leases will be classes as borrowing and will require the Secretary of State’s consent. The Secretary of State has, however, agreed to provide blanket consent to a range of the most common leasing activities, as set out in the IRFS16 Maintained Schools Finance Lease Class Consent 2024. Leases not included in this Order still require the written consent of the Secretary of State.

Schools can use both debit cards and credit cards provided the balance is cleared each month. Schools are encouraged to use procurement cards, as these cards can be a useful means of facilitating electronic purchase.

This revision is proposed so that we reflect required practice in relation to leasing and borrowing over which there is no local flexibility.

If you have any comments on this proposed revision, please submit these to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk by 10 May 2024. The Schools Forum will be asked to take a decision on this proposed amendment on 22 May.

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2023-24

28/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - DfE Leases Guidance IRFS16 - Maintained schools must now ensure they are aware of and comply with the following guidance. Please note that this comes into force on 1 April 2024 and does not affect the 2023/24 financial year-end closedown (there is specific guidance on leases reporting in our year-end guidance). From 1 April 2024, a new international financial reporting standard (IFRS 16 leases) is being introduced for maintained schools, which will change the way that local authorities recognise in their accounts leases entered into by their maintained schools. IFRS 16 leases will end the distinction between operating and finance leases for accounting purposes. Currently maintained schools are permitted to enter into operating leases without Secretary of State consent. Finance leases require Secretary of State consent (because these are a form of borrowing). Under the Education Act 2002, all leases will from 1 April 2024 be classed as borrowing and will require the Secretary of State's consent. However, the DfE has set out that governing bodies will not need to make a specific request for consent where a lease falls under the general consent granted by the Secretary of State for Education. The types of assets that are granted general consent are now listed in DfE's ‘The IFRS16 Maintained Schools Finance Lease Class Consent 2024’ document. Any leased assets that are not included in the document will need to be submitted to the Secretary of State for consent. This may include leases relating to land and buildings. The DfE has also updated the guidance for academies and this can be found here.

27/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2024/25 are now available here. There is also separate policy guidance available here. We would highlight that as part of the pupil premium allocations and conditions of grant for 2024 to 2025, schools are required to:

publish the strategy statement templates on their website each academic year using the DfE template (condition 4) schools must spend their PP grant on evidence-informed activities in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by the DfE. The menu of approaches is in the using pupil premium guidance.

26/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2024-25 CFR Framework - is now available on GOV.UK. A link to the CFR pages on the GOV.UK site is available on the BSO CFR page HERE. Maintained schools should read the guidance to ensure compliance when recording income and expenditure throughout the year and when submitting the annual CFR return via COLLECT. Please note that new sub-headings for E20 (A to G) and CE04 (A-E) have been added to better breakdown ICT expenditure. This is explained in the what's new section. Schools will need to apportion their spending on these respective codes as per the DfE guidance.

26/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DFC 2024-25 Allocations to schools – Provisional allocations for 2024-25 have now been announced. Schools receiving their DFC via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 in the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO. Payments will be made to schools in late June 2024 once the LA has received the grant in full.

26/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant allocations 2024/25 (former and continuing allocations) - we have published here details of the additional allocations from the Local Authority to special schools / academies, PRUs / AP academies and school-led resourced provisions for the period April 2024 to March 2025 in respect of the former and continuing Teacher Pay and Teacher Pensions Grants. These monies are allocated by the Authority from the High Needs Block in addition to place and top up funding. These are continuing funding streams. They are separate from the new funding streams that are still to be calculated and published for high needs providers in respect of the September 2023 pay award (for which there is a new Teacher Pay Grant) and increase in the employer's contribution to teacher pensions from April 2024 (for which there is a new Teacher Pensions Grant).

26/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Third Payment) – allocations have been announced for the 3^rd Payment to be made in April 24-25 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2023 to 2024 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered by the DfE where it is identified that a school has not spent all its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

22/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding Ready Reckoner 2024/25 - Please click here to access the Ready Reckoner, which enables nursery classes and maintained nursery schools to forecast the funding impact of changes to their termly counted early years entitlement pupil numbers during the 2024/25 financial year. The ready reckoner is based on the confirmed indicative budgets that have been published today (22 March - see below).

22/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2024-25 Confirmed Indicative Budgets updated for Early Years - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Adjustments to forecasted early years entitlement delivery numbers have been included where requested. To access please click HERE.

21/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Thank you to all schools that have already submitted their SFVS and Related Party Transaction returns. Schools that haven't are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2024. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

21/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Changes to Early Years Estimates for 2024-25 - Schools are reminded they have until close of play today (4pm Thursday 21 March 2024) to advise of changes to the 3-4YO and 2YO disadvantage estimates. Schools can also use this opportunity to advise of take up numbers for the 2 new entitlements (2YO Working Parents and Under 2's Working Parents). Please email dawn.haigh@bradford.gov.uk to advise of revisions. Please note, requests received after 4pm today will not be considered.

19/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - March 1st Interim SAP Reports - These reports are now available to download from BSO Dropbox.

18/03/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Changes to Early Years Estimates for 2024-25 - Schools are reminded the deadline for requesting changes to the estimates for 3-4YO universal and extended delivery, 2YO disadvantage and the 2YO new entitlements is Thursday 21 March 2024. to request changes please email dawn.haigh@bradford.gov.uk.

14/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2024 Budget Software - We expect the 2024 year in the Budget Software to go live later tonight (Thursday 14th March). It should be available for schools to access first thing tomorrow morning. Additional guidance notes are available here. Schools are asked to read these notes in full, as they highlight some important set up instructions and amendments that are required within the Software.

14/03/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - March 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

14/03/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Budgeting Software 2024-25 – We are still working on the Budgeting Software for 2024-25 and we are aware 1 school has been able to access this, but we are still in the testing phase. Please can we remind schools not to go into 24.25 scenarios as they will be wiped, and you will have to start it all again. We will let you know when the final release will be soon.

12/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers Pensions Grant 2024/25 Financial Year - The DfE has now published information setting out the additional Teacher Pensions Grant for the 2024/25 financial year, which is allocated to support the cost of the increase in the employer's contribution to teacher pensions (increasing from 23.68% to 28.68% at 1 April 2024). The details of the grant can be found here. We have calculated an estimate of allocations for maintained primary and secondary schools. This estimate can be found here. Information on allocations to special schools / special school academies and PRUs / Alternative Provision academies will be published shortly.

11/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding Ready Reckoners 2024/25 - The ready reckoners for high needs providers (Special Schools & Special School Academies, Resourced Provisions and PRUs & Alternative Provision Academies) for the 2024/25 financial year have been published here. These enable providers to estimate their funding allocations incorporating the monthly movement of pupils. There are also two mainstream EHCP related ready reckoners for primary and secondary schools and academies to use. One ready reckoner can be used to estimate EHCP banded funding and the other can be used to estimate SEND Funding Floor allocations. Both these funding streams will change during the year following changes to EHCPs (and new EHCPs) and following the movement of pupils with EHCPs between schools.

11/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Additional 3.4% High Needs Place-Element Funding - We have published confirmed 2024/25 financial year allocations to special schools / academies and PRUs / AP academies. These allocations can be viewed on this page. This is funding, which will be allocated in addition to place-element and top-up funding, for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. The 5/12ths allocations for the period April to August 2024 will be paid in April (and will be shown on the April advances payments schedule).

08/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Working Parent Entitlement Codes for Summer Term Please note the key information for Working Parent Entitlement codes for extended/expanded hours beginning in the Summer term. Codes must be checked prior to offering the place.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/03/2024
Validity End Date must be after 01/04/2024

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/04/2024, then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code. Please note, grace periods are for continuation of the extended funded hours at a provider, children cannot start the additional hours when in a grace period. If parents have not yet received a code, they must acquire a code before 31^st March. Please refer them to https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ to apply. Please refer the parent directly to HMRC Tel 0300 123 4097 if the grace period is due to an issue with their application.

08/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Governor Approved Budget Reporting Template 2024-27 (Maintained Schools) - The template for schools to use to report their 2024-2027 Governor Approved Budgets to the Authority is now available for schools to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly, and to share these notes with their governors. The deadline for submission of budgets for 2024/25 is 31 May 2024. The final deadline for submission of 2nd / 3rd year budgets is 30 June 2024. The template includes notification of each maintained school's Intended Use of Excess Balances Threshold that will be applied to revenue balances held at the end of the 2024/25 financial year at 31 March 2025. Schools are notified now of their Threshold so they can plan their 2024/25 budgets on this basis.

08/03/24 - FOR ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2024/25 Financial Year Funding - Statements, which give estimates of the funding to be allocated by Bradford Local Authority directly to academies in 2024/25, are now available to download HERE. Academies with early years entitlement provisions have until Thursday 21 March 2024 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Academies are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates. Please email Dawn Haigh with the revised numbers for each term as appropriate. Also published on the same page is a summary of all primary and secondary maintained school and academy core mainstream formula allocations for 2024/25. This file gives academies early sight of their indicative 2024/25 allocations, prior to the ESFA's publication of the GAG statements.

08/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2024/25 Financial Year S251 Budget Statements are now available to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. Schools with early years entitlement provisions have until Thursday 21 March 2024 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Schools are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates. Please email Dawn Haigh with the revised numbers for each term as appropriate. Please see the note on 1 January below on the timetable for the release of the Software update and the warning not to open or transfer scenarios into the 2024/25 year within the Software.

08/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding 2024/25 - Guidance on Bradford Local Authority's approach to high needs funding in 2024/25 has been published and can be accessed HERE. Also published here is guidance on the SEND Funding Floor for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, and details of the Notional SEND budgets for mainstream schools and academies for 2024/25.

08/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Delegated Budget Shares 2024/25 - A summary statement showing the 2024/25 Delegated Budget Shares for stand-alone High Needs providers can be accessed HERE. This statement shows the initial funding for the Place-Led Element only and is published in advances of the more detailed monthly calculation statements, which will be available for the new year shortly after 10 April 2024. A Ready Reckoner, which will enable stand-alone high needs settings to estimate their full year 2024/25 high needs funding will be available towards the end of March (the March 10th monthly headcount census and the final full year 2023/24 allocations, are needed in order to finalise the 2024/25 funding calculations).

08/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years (EYSFF) Technical Statement for 2024/25 is now available to download from the Early Years page. The document details how funding for the early years entitlements will be allocated in the 2024/25 financial year.

06/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - School Funding Team Officers Assigned To Schools - an updated list of contact officers for each school is available HERE.

01/03/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers' Pay Award September 2024 - The DfE has now published its evidence to the STRB regarding the September 2024 teachers' pay award. These can be found here.

29/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2024. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

29/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Spring Term 2024 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements - These statements are provisional and are subject to change. We have not yet completed all the cross border checks. To access the statements please visit the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. We will publish Final Spring Term Statements once all data has been verified.

28/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - March 2024 Year End Bank Reconciliation Return - is now available to download from the YEAR END page of BSO. The deadline for the submission of this return is Wednesday 10 April 2024 - this includes all external assets and liabilities. The 2023-24 Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule is also now available to download from the same page. The deadline for the submission of the internal assets and liabilities return is also Wednesday 10 April 2024.

22/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2024/25 are now available here. There is also separate policy guidance available here. We would highlight that as part of the pupil premium allocations and conditions of grant for 2024 to 2025, schools are required to:

Spend their PP grant (excluding SPP) on evidence-informed activities in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by the Department for Education (DfE). The menu of approaches is in the using pupil premium guidance.
Use the strategy statement templates to publish their pupil premium strategy (condition 4). The template requires schools to report on their use of PPG in line with the 3-tiered approach set out in section 3.

16/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - EARLY YEARS Preparation for summer term. Schools are required to carry out checks on Working Parent Entitlement Codes (formerly known as 30 Hour codes) on existing and new children for summer term 2024. Please read the guidance HERE.

14/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q4 LTFM Scorecard. The 2023-24 Quarter 4 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Post 16 Funding Formula 2024/25 Academic Year - The ESFA has today published details of the 2024/25 16-19 Funding Formula, showing rates of funding and changes. Please see here.

13/02/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - February 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

06/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Working Parent Entitlement Key Information - Update has been issued by Bradford Early Years Team regarding temporary 30 Hour eligibility codes. To access this document please click HERE.

06/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Change of date of the publication of formula funding and budget information for 2024/25 - Further to the note below on 24/1/24 - Following the change of date of the Council’s annual budget setting meeting, from 22 February to 7 March, the date of publication on this website of budget and formula funding information for 2024/25, including the S251 Budget Statements for maintained schools, has also changed, from Friday 23 February to Friday 8 March. This is two weeks later than previously indicated. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2024-2027 will also be published on 8 March. This change will affect the publication of the final Confirmed Indicative Budgets (for early years funding) for nursery and primary schools, which we anticipate will now be published on Friday 22 March, in order to give schools and academies with early years provision some time to check and amend their estimates of delivery numbers. For schools that use the Authority’s budgeting software, we still aim to release the 2024 version by the end of the week commencing 11 March, as previously indicated. We expect that the ready reckoners for early years and for high needs for 2024/25 will also still be published towards the end of March, as usual. If there is any change in this timetable, we will notify schools via this page on Bradford Schools Online.

Recognising that the budget and funding information for maintained schools will be published two weeks later than previously indicated, the deadline for the submission of governor approved budgets by maintained schools to the Authority is adjusted this year from 15 May to 31 May.

To support primary and secondary schools, and academies, in their budget planning, we have published further information here, which sets out expected mainstream primary and secondary core formula funding (NFF) allocations for 2024/25. These allocations were recommended by the Schools Forum on 10 January and will be presented to the Council on 7 March for ratification. These allocations are also still subject to ratification by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

Please can we apologise for any inconvenience or difficulty that this change causes. Please contact a member of School Funding Team if you would like further advice.

01/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Intended Use of Excess Balances Reporting 31 March 2024 (IUB reporting) - Please click here to access the information and reporting template for Intended Use of Excess Balances reporting for revenue balances to be held at 31 March 2024. The template includes pre-populated forecasted revenue carry forward balances taken from school Quarter 3 Budget Monitoring returns. The deadline for all IUB submissions is 31 March 2024. You are advised to read the guidance provided within the letter and the template (including the flow chart), as well as the full Surplus Balances Protocol.

01/02/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Parent Agreement Form 2024-25 - The revised Parent Agreement Form for 2024-25 is now available to download HERE. This has been updated to gather the required details for claims beginning in April. Guidance for completing the Parent Agreement form is available through a short 10 minute eLearning session on Skills4Bradford:

https://skills4bradford.co.uk/T219198

The Early Years Provider Portal has also been updated - the “30 hour codes” section has been replaced to cover “Working Parent Entitlement”.The checks for the Working Parent Entitlements codes works in the same way as the 30 hour code checks.

24/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Statement AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2024. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

24/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Liabilities Under Lease/Heritage Asset Forms and Employee Emoluments returns - are due for submission by Friday 23rd February 2024. All maintained schools must return Liabilities Under Leases/Heritage Asset forms. Only schools not using BMDC payroll services need to submit the Employee Emoluments form. To access these forms please visit the YEAR END FORMS page.

24/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION - REMINDER) - Publication of 2024/25 Formula Funding Information - Subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 22 February, formula funding information for 2024/25, including the S251 Budget Statements for maintained schools, will be published on this website on Friday 23 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2024-2027 should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

23/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Extended Entitlement - DfE today issued additional guidance on the issue some parents have experienced in applying for the new 2YO entitlement where they already have a Tax-Free Childcare account. To access this additional information click HERE.

15/01/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Budgeting Software 2024-25 – The charge for all schools (including Full Budget Share) purchasing the 2024-25 Budgeting Software has been processed as a journal entry to E22 and will be shown on the January SAP reports, which will be available in the first week of February. Schools will not be invoiced. The journal should be processed as a central transaction on FMS6 in the same way as Rates and de-delegated.

15/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Key Information regarding the Working Parent Entitlement has been released by the Early Years Service. Schools may find this information helpful. To access this information click HERE.

15/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - **REMINDER** Early Years Spring Term Headcount Task Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is live for the completion of the spring term headcount task for 3&4 Year Old and 2 Year Old delivered hours. The deadline for input is Friday 19 January 2024. For information on checking 30 Hour eligibility codes, please see the news item below published on 2 January 2024.

12/01/24 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - January 2024 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE. Please note the message on the High Needs Funding page regarding the occupancy data used to calculate the January funding.

10/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES WITH EARLY YEARS PROVISION (CONSULTATION) - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2024/25 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. The deadline for responses is Monday 5 February 2024. Please note, there is now the facility to submit a response using an online survey website. The link to this website is contained within the Consultation document. Nursery schools and schools with nursery classes can also access the EYSFF Consultation document and 2024-25 EYSFF Ready Reckoner on the EARLY YEARS FUNDING page in the Secure Area of BSO.

05/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Spring Term Head Count Task on Portal - Schools are reminded to check pupil names and hours data are accurately stated in the Early Years Provider Portal for the spring term head count task, especially for January 2024 new starters. If you need to amend your return, you have until Friday 19 January 2024 to do so. Please remember to click 'Re-Submit' on your amended return.

03/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Pupil Premium Grant 2023/24 - Adjustments to allocations to account for pupils eligible for PPG under both the Free School Meals (FSM) and Looked After children (LAC) criteria have been announced by the ESFA. Where a pupil qualifies for both the school will receive only the Looked After Children element of the funding (£422 summer & Autumn £421 Spring paid via the LA). Where a school has also already received the FSM allocation in their initial 2023/24 funding allocation for such pupils, the amount is deducted from the grant allocation to avoid double funding. (Primary Adjustment £1,455 per pupil. Secondary Adjustment £1,035 per pupil). A list of revised allocations has been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. To access this page click HERE. Please note deductions will be applied to the January 2024 advance payment.

02/01/224 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - Early Years Spring Term Headcount Task & Code Checking Guidance - Please note the Early Years Provider Portal is now live for the completion of the spring term headcount task for 3&4 Year Old and 2 Year Old delivered hours. The deadline for input is Friday 19 January 2024. Please note the following advice on checking 30 Hour eligibility codes.

In preparation for the Spring term claims, it’s important to check all 30 hour codes to ensure they are valid for the extended hours.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/12/2023
Validity End Date must be after 01/01/2024

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/01/2024 with a Grace Period end date of 31/03/2024, then the code is in the Grace Period.

Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code and can only be utilised if the child accessed the extended hours in your setting in the Autumn term.
30 hour codes currently being used in your setting should be regularly checked to ensure that they remain valid for termly claims.Parents must reconfirm their eligibility for 30 hours every 3 months with HMRC. HMRC will send them reminders to reconfirm their eligibility, however if they have failed to do this their code will become invalid, and you will be unable to claim funding for any extended hours.

How to check codes
In the 30 hour section, use the Expiration Dashboard on the Early Years Provider Portal: https://oneonline.bradford.gov.uk/ProviderPortal_LIVE You may need to adjust the filters in the search to show where “eligibility has ended but code is still in grace” Codes highlighted red have passed the reconfirmation date. Ensure that the system shows the most up to date information regarding the code by clicking the “recheck” button. Any child whose grace period ended 31/12/2023 will be entitled to access the universal 15 hours only from 01/01/2024.You should discuss with the parent their requirements and amend their Parent Agreement if they wish to continue accessing funded hours at your setting.

02/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - 2023-24 Year End Guidance - The Council's 2023-24 Year End Guidance document for schools is now available to download from the YE Forms page. Please note, for your planning, that the deadline for the submission of the March Year End Bank Reconciliation return, including assets, liabilities and other required information, is Wednesday 10th April 2024. Schools are urged to read the guidance document as soon as possible to familiarise themselves with the requirements and deadlines for year end. The March Year End Bank Reconciliation Template, and the Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule, for schools to complete will be published early in March.

02/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools are reminded that, as in previous years, the Liabilities Under Lease and Heritage Assets return, and the External Payroll Providers return, are required to be submitted by schools early in the year-end process. The deadline for submission of these returns this year is Friday 23rd February 2024. ALL maintained schools are required to submit the Liabilities Under Lease & Heritage Assets return. Only maintained schools that use an external or in house payroll provider (i.e. they do not use Bradford Council Payroll Services) are required to submit the External Payroll Providers Year End return. To access the Year End page where these templates are held, please click HERE.

01/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Q4 (Jan & Feb) Bank Reconciliation Template - is now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Click HERE to access the page. School Funding Team requests that the January & February bank reconciliation return is submitted as early as possible in March. Returns can be submitted monthly (at the beginning of February and the at the beginning of March) or for the two months together (at the beginning of March). The final March year-end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.

01/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Publication of 2024/25 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 22 February, the S251 Budget Statements for 2024/25 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 23 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2024-2027, and guidance, should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2024/25 financial year.

01/01/24 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of 2024/25 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2024 scenario will be released for maintained schools mid March (the 2023 software was released on 10 March). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2024/25’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2024/25 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

01/01/24 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2024 - The Surplus Balances Protocol is in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2024. The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available to view here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 3 budget monitoring.

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2023-24

19/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers Pensions Grant 2024/25 - The DfE has confirmed that a new Teachers Pensions Grant will be established to support the increase in the employer's contribution to teacher pensions at April 2024. The employer's contribution is increasing by 5%. The details of this new grant are still to be provided by the DfE. This is grant funding, allocated in addition to core formula funding in 2024/25.

19/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers Pay Grant 2024/25 - The DfE has announced details of the Teachers Pay Grant in 2024/25, including rates of funding. This is grant funding, allocated in addition to core formula funding in 2024/25. Please see here

19/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Grant 2024/25 - Pupil Premium Grant rates of funding for 2024/25 have been announced by the DfE. These are available here. Rates are increasingly broadly by 1.5%.

18/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years - Key Information regarding the Working Parent Entitlement has been released by the Early Years Service. Schools may find this information helpful. To access this information click HERE.

14/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - SFVS Training for School Staff - The Internal Audit team are running a session to assist maintained school staff in completing the SFVS document for 2024. There will be an in-person session on Tuesday 16 January 2024 from 10 am -12.00 noon. Bookings can be made through www.skills4bradford.co.uk or email school.governor@bradford.gov.uk. Further details HERE.

13/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2023 to 2024 (Second Payment) – allocations have been announced for the second Payment to be made in January 2024 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2023 to 2024. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered where it has identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

12/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - National Tutoring Programme (Second Payment) 2023/24 Academic Year - allocations have been announced for the 2nd Payment for Autumn made in January Advances. Schools receiving the National Tutoring Programme via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK here. Please see notes on document and read this guidance carefully. This grant is ring-fenced and the conditions include strict spending requirements and do not permit the carry-over of monies that are not spent in the 2023/24 academic year. The conditions also require additional reporting of spend (through the termly censuses and also via an additional online return to be submitted Summer 2024)

11/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q3 LTFM Scorecard. The 2023-24 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

08/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Autumn Term 2023 FINAL Adjustment Statements - Final statements have now been published and are available to download from the EARLY YEARS page of BSO. The adjustments shown will be applied to the December advance.

08/12/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - December 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE. Please note the message on the High Needs Funding page regarding the occupancy data used to calculate the December funding.

06/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - The DfE's Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) - The Local Authority has this week written to maintained schools regarding insurance arrangements. Details of the DfE's RIsk Protection Arrangement for schools can be found here.

01/12/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 2022-23 School Fund Audits. For those that haven't yet, please can we remind you of the requirement to arrange the audit of all private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates, or a copy of the audited accounts, should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2023 evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2022-23 financial year or the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Please advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

30/11/23 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Budgeting Software Subscription 2024 - Please click here (letter at the top of the page) to access the subscription form for maintained schools to use to purchase budgeting software through the Local Authority for 2024-25. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 12 January 2024 at the latest.

30/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years 2024-25 Funding Rates for Extended Entitlement - the DfE published updated information regarding the funding rates for 2024/25. A message to schools and providers regarding our work on this is available on the Early Years page.

20/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard and the template for recording Related Party Transactions. These should be emailed to School Funding Team by 31 March 2024. Guidance and templates for 23-24 can be found HERE.

17/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Key Information when checking 30 Hour Codes for Spring Term Census. Codes must be checked prior to offering the place.

Validity Start Date must be before 31/12/2023
Validity End Date must be after 01/01/2024

If the validity end date is prior to the 01/01/2024, then the code is in the Grace Period. Grace Periods become active if parents fall out of eligibility or fail to reconfirm their code. Please note, grace periods are for continuation of the extended funded hours at a provider, children cannot start the additional hours when in a grace period. If parents have not yet received a code, they must acquire a code before 31^st December. Please refer them to https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/ to apply.

15/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2024-25 academic year can be viewed here.

14/11/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years Provider Portal Update - we have published an update on the use of the Early Years Provider Portal to date. The document also contains important information schools and academies should be aware of. To access this document click HERE.

13/11/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - November 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

09/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Autumn Term 2023 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements have been published on the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. These statements are provisional and subject to change as we have not yet finalised the Cross Border checks.

03/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Outcome of the valuation of the Teachers' Pension Scheme - Please see here for a DfE news item regarding the valuation of the teachers' pensions scheme and the change (increase) in the employer's contribution to teacher pensions at April 2024. The employer's contribution is set to increase from 23.6% to 28.6%. The article states that the DfE will provide extra funding to schools in support of this increase in 2024/25. We anticipate (though the DfE has not stated this) that this will be in the form of an additional Teachers Pension Grant, which is what happened in response to the last review and increase in Sept 2019. Further details are to be announced, but this is important information for budget planning.

02/11/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - April 2023 (2023/24) Local Government Employers (NJC) Pay Award Agreement - The NJC April 2023 (2023/24) pay award was agreed yesterday. The agreed award is as per the offer that was made in February, of a £1,925 increase on all scale points (with a minimum increase of 3.88%). For maintained schools that use the budgeting software, this software already forecasts support staff (E03 - E07) costs incorporating this pay award and no changes to the software are required.

31/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - 2024/25 FUNDING CONSULTATIONS - Schools are reminded the Primary & Secondary Formula Funding Consultation and the High Needs Consultation documents are live and available for review and response. Deadline for submission of responses is Tuesday 28 November 2023. To access the documents, please visit the BSO Consultations page HERE.

31/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2023/24 AY have now been published on the Advances page within the Secure Area of BSO. To access this list click HERE. The 7/12ths figure shown on the list will be paid in the November 2023 Advance under I18D - Additional Grant for Schools.

30/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Teachers' Pay Additional Grant 2023/24 - allocations have been announced for Teachers' pay additional grant 23/24 to be made in November 23/24 Advances. Schools receiving the TPAG grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. TPAG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2023. Maintained schools may carry some or all of the TPAG funds forward to future financial years.

30/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Mainstream schools additional grant 2023/24 - allocations have been announced for the 2nd Payment to be made in November 23.24 Advances. Schools receiving the MSAG grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. MSAG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2023. Maintained schools may carry some or all of the MSAG funds forward to future financial years.

30/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates or a copy of the audited accounts should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2023, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2022-23 financial year or the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Please advise the date of approved by the school's Governing Board. Further guidance is available here.

24/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - InControl Internal Audit Newsletter - The latest edition of InControl (Autumn 2023), the Internal Audit Newsletter for schools can be viewed HERE in the secure area of BSO.

24/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - SFVS Training for School Staff and Governors - The Internal Audit team are running two sessions to assist maintained school staff and governors in completing the SFVS document for 2024. There will be a webinar for governors on Monday 30 October 2023 from 6pm to 7.00pm and an in-person session for school staff on Tuesday 16 January 2024 from 10 am -12.00 noon. Bookings for both sessions can be made through www.skills4bradford.co.uk or email school.governor@bradford.gov.uk. Further details HERE.

23/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) – Connect the Classroom - Please can we make schools aware that when receiving Connect the Classroom Grant this should be coded to CI01 and CE04 expenditure as this is Capital Funding. This funding must be used exclusively for capital expenditure to purchase assets for use by the organisation and/or improve assets owned by the organisation and/or secured by a long-term lease. It is not to be spent for revenue purposes.

17/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant - 7/12ths Allocation for Post 16 schools has now been determined for the period September 2023 to March 2024. These allocations just relate to Post 16. The Early Years, Main Reception to Year 11 allocations are now included in core formula funding. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the November 2023 advance.

13/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2023/24 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - We expect that SFVS returns will be required to be submitted by 31 March 2024 and will need to include details of Related Party Transactions. Further details to follow when the guidance has been updated and the template for 23-24 has been released.

11/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2024/25 Primary & Secondary Schools Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the CONSULTATIONS page. The closing date for responses is 28 November 2023. Responses can also now be submitted using an online survey tool. Links to this online tool are contained within the Consultation document.

11/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2024/25 High Needs Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the CONSULTATIONS page. The closing date for responses is 28 November 2023. Responses can also now be submitted using an online survey tool. Links to this online tool are contained within the Consultation document.

11/10/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - October 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

10/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DfE seeking help with research - DfE are conducting research into their Eligibility Checking Service and are asking for input from School Business Managers and Admin Officers involved in the checking process. If you think you would be interested in helping with this research and want to know more, you can access more information HERE.

7/10/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - DfE Error in 2024-25 Schools Block National Funding Formula Calculations - We signalled on 25 July (please see below) the DfE's publication of the national school funding settlement for the 2024/25 financial year, alongside the details of the National Funding Formula that will be used to calculate mainstream primary and secondary school and academy formula funding allocations. The headline was a settlement in 2024/25 of 2.7% per pupil (meaning that, at national level, per pupil funding is expected to increase by 2.7% next year). The DfE late yesterday afternoon published a revised settlement and National Funding Formula for 2024/25, explaining that the DfE has used incorrect pupil numbers in calculating the settlement figures that were published in July. The result of this is that, on a national basis, the 2024/25 settlement is expected to be 1.9% per pupil rather than 2.7%. Whilst the Local Authority has not yet published its formula funding consultation and modelling for 2024/25 (anticipated to be published next week), schools and academies may have begun to plan their budgets for 2024/25 on the basis of the 2.7% settlement. Unfortunately, this now needs to be revised. The Authority is meeting with the Schools Forum on 11 October and anticipates that we will agree consultation proposals for wider publication. These proposals have up to now been based on the DfE's July announcement. However, the Authority will now quickly turn around revised modelling so that this, as well as the consultation document, can be published asap so that mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies have a clear basis on which to plan funding for next year in the light of the DfE's revision of the National Funding Formula. To stress, this issue relates to next year's (2024/25) not to the current year's (2023/24) funding. Also to stress, this issue relates to mainstream primary and secondary formula funding (it doesn't relate to other funding streams: high needs funding, early years funding, grant funding etc).

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2023-24

28/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2023 to 2024 (First Payment) – allocations have been announced for the first Payment to be made in October 2023 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2023 to 2024. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered where it has identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

25/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - National Tutoring Programme (First Payment) 2023/24 Academic Year - Provisional allocations have been announced with the 1^st Payment for Autumn made in October Advances. Schools receiving the National Tutoring Programme via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK here. Please see notes on document and read this guidance carefully. This grant is ring-fenced and the conditions include strict spending requirements and do not permit the carry-over of monies that are not spent in the 2023/24 academic year. The conditions also require additional reporting of spend (through the termly censuses and also via an additional online return to be submitted Summer 2024)

25/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant for 2023/24 AY are now available HERE. Schools are reminded, to publish the required report by 31 July, where a school fails to comply with the grant conditions, it may be required to repay the Premium wholly or in part.

15/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2024-25 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of monthly payment dates for 2024/25 has been published for schools and academies to download. Please note these dates are provisional and subject to change. To access the list click HERE.

14/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMAITON AND ACTION) - Autumn Term Early Years Headcount for 3&4 Year olds and 2 Year Olds. Schools are reminded the Autumn term headcount for 3&4 Year Olds and 2 Year Olds will again be collected via the Early Years Provider Portal. The pupil and code data submitted via the Portal will be used to calculate the Autumn term early years funding adjustment. Please note the Early Years Provider Portal opens for data input on Monday 18 September 2023 and closes on Friday 6 October 2023. Schools must ensure their data is input by Friday 6 October 2023. The pupil and code data input into the Early Years Provider Portal should be the same as that submitted via the autumn term census.

13/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q2 LTFM Scorecard. The 2023-24 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

12/09/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - September 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

04/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Payscales Software Update - For maintained schools that use the Authority's budgeting software, this software has now been updated for the latest information on payscales. Please see the note below (13/7/23). The update is a 'mandatory' update to the software.

04/09/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) DfE National Tutoring Programme year-end statement – The NTP year-end statement has now gone live, please see guidance here to help you report on the use of the 2022/23 NTP grant. You need to submit the year-end statement, even if you did not spend any of your NTP funding. The deadline is 2:00pm on Friday, 29 September 2023.

31/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Business Rates 2023-24 Rates have now been processed on Sap and you will see this on your August SAP reports on E17. Please be aware that they are still based on estimates and will be confirmed later in the term. Please continue to check BSO for updates.

21/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Swimming Transport Costs 2023-24 information has been published on the Swimming Transport page within BSO for the number of sessions schools have taken for the 2023/24 academic year. Schools have until Friday 20 October 2023 to notify us of any errors with the number of sessions stated for your school. Please note we do not know the cost for Swimming Transport at this stage however we expect to publish this information later on in the autumn term once session numbers have been confirmed. To access the Swimming Transport page please click HERE

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2023, evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2022-23 financial year or the 2022-23 academic year. Further guidance is available here.

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - ACTION) - DfE Financial Transparency - We would like to remind schools to continue to ensure that they follow the requirements of the DfE's recent transparency changes. Schools are required to publish (and update) annually on their websites the required information relating to their CFR statements and high salaries - please click here for further guidance and a model text / template for schools to use. In providing a link to the benchmarking website (for CFR statements), the ESFA has clarified that this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page).

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2024/25 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - REMINDER - 2024/25 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2023 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2023/24 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School and academy colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2024/25 funding arrangements) as these develop over the autumn term. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 13 September. A full list of Schools Forum members at September 2023 is available here.

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2024 - The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider alongside quarter 2 budget monitoring.

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2023-24 were published on 29 June (please see below). If your school is in Category A, we would like to remind you that we will require Monthly Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns. Once we have received the Quarterly return for Quarter 2, therefore, we will expect both Monitors and Bank Reconciliation returns for October by the end of November latest, and monthly after that until the end of the Financial year. If you require further information on monthly monitoring you will find the details on secure area of BSO HERE.

15/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - The DfE's CFR Online Guidance for 2023/24 can be viewed here.

09/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - SAP Reports - Revised SAP Reports for July have been published today.

03/08/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Supplementary Grant (EYSG) - Guidance on how the EYSG will be allocated and distributed has been published on the Early Years page. Please click HERE to access this page.

25/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2024/25 School Funding and National Funding Formula - We just wish to highlight that the DfE has published here further information regarding the National Funding Formula (NFF) for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies for 2024/25. This publication, in particular, gives further information about the increases in the NFF for 2024/25 - giving sight of the levels of increases in per pupil formula funding that schools and academies may receive in 2024/25. Schools and academies will shortly be able to download their NFF reports from COLLECT. The Authority will begin to discuss this information with the Schools Forum in September. The Authority's local consultations on Bradford's 2024/25 formula funding arrangements will then take place in the autumn (from mid-October), as usual.

20/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) PE and Sports Premium - The DfE has made an announcement on the continuation of the PE and Sports Premium for the next 2 academic years here. Please see updated guidance here which shows schools how to use the funding more effectively and highlights the importance of sustainability and equal access for all pupils. There is also a new section on the upcoming digital tool to be piloted May/June 2024, further information to be updated. As per Conditions of Grant 2023/24, schools must publish a report detailing how they have spent their PE and sport premium funding allocation on their school website by 31 July 2024. Schools cannot roll over any 2023/24 unused funding into the following academic year. They must spend the funding before 31 July 2024.

13/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers' Pay Award September 2023 and New Teacher Pay Grant - The DfE has today published: a statement on the September 2023 Teachers' Pay Award, the STRB Recommendations Report, and details of a new additional Teacher Pay Grant for 2023/24, which accompanies the pay award. These announce a 6.5% minimum pay award at September 2023 and a new grant to support the cost of this award. Further details on the grant in respect of early years, post 16 and special schools and AP provision are still to be provided.

12/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DfE National Tutoring Programme year-end statement - For warning and planning purposes, the ESFA has now confirmed that the NTP grant 2022-23 academic year-end reporting statement will open on Monday 4 September, with a deadline of Friday 29 September. All organisations that received the 2022-23 NTP grant are required to complete this year-end statement. Failure to submit the statement will result in full funding being recovered by the ESFA. You must complete the statement even if you did not use any of your NTP grant funding.

12/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION - REMINDER) - Please can we remind all schools in receipt of the PE and Sport Premium that reports must be published by 31 July 2023 for the 2022 to 23 academic year. Further details of what must be included in your report can be found on GOV.UK. If you choose to, you can use the recommended reporting template produced by Association for PE and Youth Sport Trust. Please be aware that DfE officials will commence checks of PE and Sport Premium reports for the 2022 to 2023 academic year shortly after 31 July.

11/07/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - July 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

05/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2023-24 Confirmed Pupil Premium Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page. To access the allocation table please click HERE. Schools are advised to check their revised allocation and update budgets accordingly. The adjustments shown will be included in the July 2023 advance.

01/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2023/24 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

01/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2024/25 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

01/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - 2024/25 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2023 Census. This note gives more information on (link to) the data that is expected to be used for Schools Block (Reception - Year 11) formula funding allocations, and gives a reminder of the importance of ensuring census data is accurate.

01/07/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2023/24 academic year can be found here along with a link to agendas and reports. School colleagues are encouraged to keep up to date with the School Forum's discussions (in particular on 2024/25 funding arrangements) as these develop over the autumn term. The first meeting of the Schools Forum in the new academic year takes place on Wednesday 13 September.

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2023-24

30/6/023 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - Reporting of Spending Post 16 - The DfE has published here guidance on reporting spending of the 16-19 additional hours funding, and post 16 and tuition fund, for the 2022-23 academic year, which is to be completed by 13 October.

29/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Financial Classification of Schools 2023/24 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2023/24 academic year. This Classification places maintained schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2022/23 outturns and approved 3 year budgets. Please click here to access the document, which explains the Classification Protocol and the requirements placed on maintained schools.

29/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) UIFSM 2022-23 Final Allocations & 2023/24 Provisional Allocations have now been announced. To access a list of the allocations please visit the Advances Updates page by clicking HERE. Payments will be included in the July 2023 Advance. Please refer to notes at bottom of page and see link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found HERE.

28/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Summer Term 2023 Final Early Years Adjustment Statements are now available to download from the EARLY YEARS page in the Secure Area of BSO. Please note the occupancy data used for these calculations has been sourced from the the Early Years Provider Portal. The adjustments shown in these statements will be applied to the September 2023 advance.

26/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Final Payment) – allocations have been announced for the final payment to be made in July 23.24 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered by the DfE where it is identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

22/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - REVISED Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2023/24 - We have uploaded an amended version of the template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2023/24 here. Schools should use this template for Q1 / Q2 and Q3 reporting. The deadline for quarter 1 reporting is 31 July 2023. The original template, published on 15 June (see below), contained a cell formatting issue in the main monitoring sheet (where forecast cells were highlighting red in error when actual information is entered into cells on other rows). This has now been corrected. Any schools that have begun to use the original template, please switch to the new one. We apologise for any inconvenience.

16/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2023/24 DFC Allocations - Allocations for Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) have now been confirmed and LA has now received allocations. Payments are to be made to applicable schools by the LA by Friday 23rd June. To access a list of allocations and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 please visit the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO by clicking HERE.

15/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2023/24 - The template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2023/24 is available to download here. Schools should use this template for Q1 / Q2 and Q3 reporting. The deadline for quarter 1 reporting is 31 July 2023.

14/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q1 LTFM Scorecard. The 2023-24 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/06/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - June 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

12/06/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers’ Pension Employer Contribution Grant- 5/12ths Allocation for Post 16 schools has now been determined for the period April 2023 to August 2024. These allocations just relate to Post 16. The Early Years, Main Reception to Year 11 allocations are now included in core formula funding. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the June 2023 advance.

26/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - National Tutoring Programme - the DfE has published information and guidance on the National Tutoring Programme for the 2023/24 academic year.

17/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (OPPORTUNITY AND INFORMATION) - Schools Forum Membership - we are seeking nominations for Schools Forum Membership positions in respect of a) Maintained Primary School Headteachers and b) Academies Members. Please see the hyperlinked documents. The deadline for nominations is Monday 12 June 2023. If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

15/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Summer Term 2023 Early Years Headcount - Schools and academies with nursery classes and maintained nursery schools are reminded that the summer term headcount will be collected via the Bradford Early Years Provider Portal and not via the Summer Census submission. Schools must ensure your summer term nursery occupancy numbers are input onto the Portal in order to access funding. The deadline for the input of headcount information for both 3&4 years olds and 2 year olds (where applicable) onto the Portal is close of play on Friday 19 May 2023. Please refer to the emails and training videos issues by Early Years' Service for guidance on how to populate the Portal. The Portal does not replace the census. Schools must continue to complete the termly census for DFE/ESFA purposes.

11/05/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - May 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

10/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - The 2022/23 Bank Adjustment calculation is now available for schools on the Advances page. Additional payments, where the Council owes the school, will be made by the end of May 2023. The published schedule shows where schools owe cash back to the Council. Individual letters will shortly be sent by email to these schools. However, we would encourage schools that owe to repay as soon as possible, having viewed the information that has now been published on-line i.e. schools do not have to wait to receive the letter to repay the amounts they owe.

10/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) COLLECT is now open for Schools to upload CFR Returns. The deadline to submit your CFR Return is Wednesday 17th May. Please read the information for Schools Document carefully and head over to the CFR page for more guidance. If your School is no longer using FMS or using a system that cannot produce a file format compatible with COLLECT, please visit the CFR page and read the guidance note carefully. Schools can also access an I18 2022-23 Funding Breakdown Table on the Advances Updates page of BSO to assist with the apportionment and checking. Please note Final SAP Reports were uploaded on 9th May.

09/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) FINAL SAP REPORTS have now been uploaded to the dropbox area of BSO. Please check these reports carefully and make sure the transactions are correct.

08/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Final Intended Use of Balances (IUB) Statement for March 2023 balances - The final statement, which shows the position of schools vs. their Intended Use of Excess Balances Thresholds at 31 March 2023 is now available to download here. Schools are advised to review this statement and to share it with their governors.

02/05/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2022-23 5/12ths Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. The allocations will be paid with the May advance. Please can we remind schools of the Conditions of Grant, which include the requirement to published the necessary information (as set out in the Conditions) on their school's website by the 31 July.

28/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Mainstream schools additional grant 2023/24 - allocations have been announced for the 1st Payment to be made in May 23.24 Advances. Schools receiving the MSAG grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document for Conditions of grant and methodology. MSAG funds do not have to be spent by maintained schools in the financial year beginning 1 April 2023. Maintained schools may carry some or all of the MSAG funds forward to future financial years.

27/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2023/24 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

17/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) – March VAT 2023 – March VAT 2023 will not be paid out with the April Advances, this will be in school bank accounts by no later than 28^th April.

14/04/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - April 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

12/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) – March Second Interim Reports (UPDATE) – The Second Interim Reports have now been uploaded onto BSO. Apologies for the delay.

06/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) – March Second Interim Reports – We are experiencing technical issues in producing the second interim reports. We are working to get this resolved and published as soon as we can. Please continue to check BSO for updates.

04/04/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2023/24 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2022/23

31/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools - We have re-issued the Scheme for Financing Schools, applicable from 1 April 2023, to a) update the list of maintained schools at Annex A, and b) on the DfE's advice, to add wording to provision 5.4 ii (income from sale of assets), which clarifies (but does not alter from the current requirement) that the retention of funds from the sale of land assets requires the consent of the Secretary of State. There are no other changes to the Scheme for Financing Schools in this update.

31/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Third Payment) – allocations have been announced for the 3^rd Payment to be made in April 23.24 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered by the DfE where it is identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

30/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant allocations 2023/24 - we have published here details of the additional allocations from the Local Authority to special schools / academies, PRUs / AP academies and school-led resourced provisions for the period April 2023 to March 2024 in respect of the former Teacher Pay and Teacher Pensions Grants. These monies are allocated by the Authority from the High Needs Block in addition to place and top up funding.

30/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2023/24 are now available here. There is also separate policy guidance available here. We would highlight that as part of the pupil premium allocations and conditions of grant for 2023 to 2024, schools are required to:

demonstrate how their spending decisions are informed by research evidence (condition 4)
use the strategy statement templates to publish their pupil premium strategy (condition 5). The template requires schools to report on their use of PPG in line with the 3-tiered approach set out in section 3.

29/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DFC 2023-24 Allocations to schools – Provisional allocations for 2023-24 have now been announced. Schools receiving their DFC via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 in the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO. Payments will be made to schools in late June 2023 once the LA has received the grant in full.

29/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2023-24 CFR Framework - is now available on GOV.UK. A link to the CFR pages on the GOV.UK site is available on the BSO CFR page HERE. Maintained schools should read the guidance to ensure compliance when recording income and expenditure throughout the year and when submitting the annual CFR return via COLLECT.

23/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - March 2023 Year End Bank Reconciliation Return - is now available to download from the YEAR END page of BSO. The deadline for the submission of this return is Wednesday 19 April 2023 - this includes all external assets and liabilities. The 2022-23 Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule is also now available to download from the same page. The deadline for the submission of the internal assets and liabilities return is also Wednesday 19 April 2023.

21/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Final Adjustment Statements Spring 2023 - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page within the Secure Area of BSO.

14/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding Ready Reckoner 2023/24 - Please click here to access the Ready Reckoner, which enables nursery classes and maintained nursery schools to forecast the funding impact of changes to their termly counted early years pupil numbers during the 2023/24 financial year. The ready reckoner is based on the confirmed indicative budgets that have been published today (14 March - see below).

14/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2023-24 Confirmed Indicative Budgets updated for Early Years - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Adjustments to forecasted early years entitlement delivery numbers have been included where requested. To access please click HERE.

14/03/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - March 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

13/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding Ready Reckoners 2023/24 - The ready reckoners for high needs providers (Special Schools & Special School Academies, Resourced Provisions and PRUs & Alternative Provision Academies) for the 2023/24 financial year have been published here. These enable providers to estimate their funding allocations incorporating the monthly movement of pupils. There are also two mainstream EHCP related ready reckoners for primary and secondary schools and academies to use. One ready reckoner can be used to estimate EHCP banded funding and the other can be used to estimate SEND Funding Floor allocations. Both these funding streams will change during the year following changes to EHCPs (and new EHCPs) and following the movement of pupils with EHCPs between schools.

13/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Additional 3.4% High Needs Place-Element Funding - We have published confirmed 2023/24 financial year allocations to special schools / academies and PRUs / AP academies, as required by the DfE. These allocations can be viewed on this page. This is funding, which will be allocated in addition to place-element and top-up funding, for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. It is intended by the DfE to be broadly equivalent to the Mainstream Schools Additional Grant (MSAG) that mainstream schools and academies will receive. The 5/12ths allocations for the period April to August 2023 will be paid in April (and will be shown on the April advances payments schedule).

10/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2023 Budget Software - We expect the 2023 year in the Budget Software to go live later tonight (Friday 10th March). It should be available for schools to access first thing tomorrow morning. Additional guidance notes are available here. Schools are asked to read these notes in full, as they highlight some important set up instructions and amendments that are required within the Software.

08/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - PE and Sports Premium - The DfE has made an announcement today on the continuation of the PE and Sports Premium for the next 2 academic years. Please see here. We expect further information, on the values of grant allocations and on the spending conditions, to be published in due course.

06/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Changes to estimated nursery age pupil numbers - Schools and Academies are reminded that the deadline for requesting changes to the 2023-24 estimated nursery numbers contained in the S251 Budget (published 24.02.23) is MONDAY 13 MARCH 2023. Schools wishing to change their estimates should email dawn.haigh@bradford.gov,uk detailing the changes you require.

02/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Spring Term 2023 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements - These statements are provisional and are subject to change. We have not yet applied deductions for duplicate pupils or invalid 30 Hour Codes. We have yet to receive the census data for a number of schools. If we have not received your data you will see a message informing you of this on your statement. To access the statements please visit the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. We will publish Final Spring Term Statements once all data has been received and verified.

01/03/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2023. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

24/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Governor Approved Budget Reporting Template 2023-26 (Maintained Schools) - The template for schools to use to report their 2023-2026 Governor Approved Budgets to the Authority is now available for schools to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly, and to share these notes with their governors. The deadline for submission of budgets for 2023/24 is 15 May 2023. The final deadline for submission of 2nd / 3rd year budgets is 30 June 2023. The template includes notification of each maintained school's Intended Use of Excess Balances Threshold that will be applied to revenue balances held at the end of the 2023/24 financial year at 31 March 2024. Schools are notified now of their Threshold so they can plan their 2023/24 budgets on this basis.

24/02/23 - FOR ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2023/24 Financial Year Funding - Statements, which give estimates of the funding to be allocated by Bradford Local Authority directly to academies in 2023/24, are now available to download HERE. Academies with early years entitlement provisions have until Monday 13 March 2023 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Academies are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates. Please email Dawn Haigh with the revised numbers for each term as appropriate. Also published on the same page is a summary of all primary and secondary maintained school and academy core mainstream formula allocations for 2023/24. This file gives academies early sight of their indicative 2023/24 allocations, prior to the ESFA's publication of the GAG statements.

24/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2023/24 Financial Year S251 Budget Statements are now available to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. Schools with early years entitlement provisions have until Monday 13 March 2023 to request amendments to the estimates of early years entitlement delivery numbers that will be used to calculate the Confirmed Indicative Budgets. Schools are asked specifically to review the accuracy of these estimates. Please email Dawn Haigh with the revised numbers for each term as appropriate. Please see the note on 2 January below on the timetable for the release of the Software update and the warning not to open or transfer scenarios into the 2023/24 year within the Software.

24/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding 2023/24 - Guidance on Bradford Local Authority's approach to high needs funding in 2023/24 has been published and can be accessed HERE. Also published here is guidance on the SEND Funding Floor for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, and details of the Notional SEND budgets for mainstream schools and academies for 2023/24.

24/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Delegated Budget Shares 2023/24 - A summary statement showing the 2023/24 Delegated Budget Shares for stand-alone High Needs providers can be accessed HERE. This statement shows the initial funding for the Place-Led Element only and is published in advances of the more detailed monthly calculation statements, which will be available for the new year shortly after 10 April 2023. A Ready Reckoner, which will enable stand-alone high needs settings to estimate their full year 2023/24 high needs funding will be available towards the end of March (the March 10th monthly headcount census and the final full year 2022/23 allocations, are needed in order to finalise the 2023/24 funding calculations).

24/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years (EYSFF) Technical Statement for 2023/24 is now available to download from the Early Years page. The document details how funding for the early years entitlements will be allocated in the 2023/24 financial year.

22/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teachers' Pay Award September 2023 - The DfE has published its recommendations to the STRB on the teachers' pay award for September 2023. This will be an important piece of information for schools and academies to consider in establishing their 2023/24 budgets. The recommendations report can be found here.

14/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q4 LTFM Scorecard. The 2022-23 Quarter 4 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

14/02/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - February 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

02/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION - REMINDER) - Early Years Provider Portal - a significant number of schools delivering free entitlement hours to 2 YO and 3&4 YO have yet to provide user details for the Early Years Provider Portal. The deadline for providing details was 31 January 2023. Schools are reminded that the Early Years Provider Portal will be used to collect delivered hours data from Summer Term 2023. We will no longer use the termly census for early years delivered hours data collection from summer term 2023. If you deliver free entitlement hours you must sign up to use the Early Years Provider Portal. If you have not yet signed up please do so by Monday 6 February 2023. For more information please visit the EARLY YEARS page.

01/02/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Intended Use of Excess Balances Reporting 31 March 2023 (IUB reporting) - Please click here to access the information and reporting template for Intended Use of Excess Balances reporting for revenue balances to be held at 31 March 2023. The template includes pre-populated forecasted revenue carry forward balances taken from school Quarter 3 Budget Monitoring returns. The deadline for all IUB submissions is 31 March 2023. You are advised to read the guidance provided within the letter and the template (including the flow chart), as well as the full Surplus Balances Protocol.

26/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Maintained schools are reminded of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Statement AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2023. Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

26/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Liabilities Under Lease/Heritage Asset Forms and Employee Emoluments returns - are due for submission by Friday 24th February 2023. All maintained schools must return Liabilities Under Leases/Heritage Asset forms. Only schools not using BMDC payroll services need to submit the Employee Emoluments form. To access these forms please visit the YEAR END FORMS page.

26/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION - REMINDER) - Publication of 2023/24 Formula Funding Information - Subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 23 February, formula funding information for 2023/24, including the S251 Budget Statements for maintained schools, will be published on this website on Friday 24 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2023-2026 should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2023/24 financial year.

24/01/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Budgeting Software 2023-24 – The charge for all schools (including Full Budget Share) purchasing the 2023-24 Budgeting Software has been processed as a journal entry to E22 and will be shown on the February SAP reports, which will be available in the first week of February. Schools will not be invoiced. The journal should be processed as a central transaction on FMS6 in the same way as Rates and de-delegated.

24/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - EARLY YEARS PROVIDER PORTAL - Further to the news item released on 12.01.23, schools are now able to register users for the Early Years Provider Portal. All schools and academies delivering free entitlement hours must register users for the Early Years Provider Portal. For a link to the online survey tool to enter user details and for other information regarding the Portal, please visit the Early Years page in the Secure Area.

13/01/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) – Bank Reconciliation Reporting Routes for Education Finance (ACCESS) Schools using the Education Finance package, can now access guidance on the reporting routes for completing the Bank Reconciliation returns, as well as a “how to” guide on inputting certain transactions onto the system. Guidance can be found by clicking HERE.

13/01/23 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - January 2023 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

12/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Provider Portal - Information has now been issued by Early Years Service regarding the implementation of the Early Years Provider Portal for the collection of the termly data for 2YO and 3&4YO pupils in receipt of free entitlement hours. All schools offering free entitlement hours will be required to use the Early Years Provider Portal. Please read the information carefully. Click HERE to access.

12/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Additional Capital Allocation (Energy) (published 03.01.23) have now been paid to schools and should reach bank accounts on or around the 17 January 2023. The remittance advice will state 'JAN CAP ENERGY'. To access the allocation list on the Capital page click HERE. This allocation must be recorded as income and not as funding.

11/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - 2022-23 Year End Guidance - The Council's 2022-23 Year End Guidance document for schools is now available to download from the YE Forms page. Please note, for your planning, that the deadline for the submission of the March Year End Bank Reconciliation return, including assets, liabilities and other required information, is Wednesday 19th April 2023. Schools are urged to read the guidance document as soon as possible to familiarise themselves with the requirements and deadlines for year end. The March Year End Bank Reconciliation Template, and the Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule, for schools to complete will be published early in March.

11/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools are reminded that, as in previous years, the Liabilities Under Lease and Heritage Assets return, and the External Payroll Providers return, are required to be submitted by schools early in the year-end process. The deadline for submission of these returns this year is Friday 24th February 2023. ALL maintained schools are required to submit the Liabilities Under Lease & Heritage Assets return. Only maintained schools that use an external or in house payroll provider (i.e. they do not use Bradford Council Payroll Services) are required to submit the External Payroll Providers Year End return. To access the Year End page where these templates are held, please click HERE.

11/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES WITH EARLY YEARS PROVISION (CONSULTATION) - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2023/24 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. The deadline for responses is Monday 6 February 2023. Please note, there is now the facility to submit a response using an online survey website. The link to this website is contained within the Consultation document

10/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Government's Energy Costs Protection Scheme - We wish to highlight that the Government has announced details of the continuation of the energy costs protection scheme, up to 31 March 2024. This announcement can be found here. We generally understand that the scale and scope of the protection is reduced on that which has been provided up to the end of March 2023.

09/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Post 16 Funding 2023/24 Academic Year - The ESFA has published details of Post 16 funding for the 2023/24 academic year, including information about rates of funding. Please see here.

04/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - SFVS Training for School Staff and Webinar for Governors. The Internal Audit team are running two sessions to assist maintained school staff and governors in completing the SFVS document. There will be a face to face session for school staff on Wednesday 18 January 10 am -12.00 noon and a webinar for governors on Tuesday 17 January from 6.00 pm - 7.15 pm. The face to face session is currently booked for City Hall Bradford but the venue will be confirmed before the date. It will be led by Bradford Council Internal Audit staff and will support school officers in understanding the expectations of the SFVS process, explaining key questions on the checklist, taking the audience through the six areas of resource management requiring attention. The session will include insight into the pitfalls and common errors made and how to avoid them. It will be aimed at Business Managers, Finance Officers and Heads, to support them in their roles of confirming that their school has effective financial management procedures and practices in place, to ensure the optimal use of resources. The governor webinar will also support governors in understanding the process and their role and will give governors an opportunity to ask questions and discuss issues. Bookings for both sessions can be made through www.skills4bradford.co.uk or email school.governor@bradford.gov.uk

04/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Pupil Premium Grant 2022/23 - Adjustments to allocations to account for pupils eligible for PPG under both the Free School Meals (FSM) and Looked After children (LAC) criteria have been announced by the ESFA. Where a pupil qualifies for both the school will receive only the Looked After Children element of the funding (£402 summer & Autumn £401 Spring paid via the LA). Where a school has also already received the FSM allocation in their initial 2022/23 funding allocation for such pupils, the amount is deducted from the grant allocation to avoid double funding. (Primary Adjustment £1,385 per pupil. Secondary Adjustment £985 per pupil). A list of revised allocations has been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. To access this page click HERE. Please note deductions will be applied to the January 2023 advance payment.

03/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Additional Capital Funding for Schools to Improve Energy Efficiency in 2022-23. Payments should be made to schools by 31^st January 2023. A further news item will be published in January to advise when the payment has been made along with what the remittance advice will state. To access a list of allocations and guidance notes on how to post the DFC income on FMS6 please visit the Capital page in the Secure Area of BSO by clicking HERE.

02/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Q4 (Jan & Feb) Bank Reconciliation Template - is now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Click HERE to access the page. School Funding Team requests that the January & February bank reconciliation return is submitted as early as possible in March. Returns can be submitted monthly (at the beginning of February and the at the beginning of March) or for the two months together (at the beginning of March). The final March year-end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.

02/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Publication of 2023/24 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 23 February, the S251 Budget Statements for 2023/24 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 24 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2023-2026, and guidance, should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2023/24 financial year.

02/01/23 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of 2023/24 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2023 scenario will be released for maintained schools mid March (the 2022 software was released on 10 March 2022). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2023/24’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2023/24 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

02/01/23 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2023 - The Surplus Balances Protocol is in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2023. The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available to view here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 3 budget monitoring.

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2022/23

16/12/22 - FOR MAINSTREAM PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - New Additional Grant for 2023/24 - The DfE has announced today, for the 2023/24 financial year (from April 2023), a new Additional Grant for mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, known as the MSAG. The summary details of how the Grant will be calculated and allocated are here. This will be a grant allocation that is calculated by the ESFA, using a national methodology. It comes from the additional £2bn that was announced by the Chancellor on 17 November. It is a grant, that will be allocated in addition to core formula funding allocations in 2023/24.

16/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Grant Rates of Funding for 2023/24 - The DfE has today announced the values of uplifted rates of funding for the Pupil Premium Grant for the 2023/24 financial year (from April 2023). Please see here. In summary, the PPG rates for 2023/24 are

Primary ever 6 FSM pupils: £1,455

Secondary ever 6 FSM pupils: £1,035

Looked-after children: £2,530

Children who have ceased to be looked-after: £2,530

Service children: £335

15/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2022 to 2023 (Second Payment) – allocations have been announced for the 2nd payment to be made in January 2023 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. Please refer to notes at the bottom of the document in particular that Schools must spend all of the RPG they receive in the 2022 to 2023 academic year. RPG must not be carried forward to future academic years. Funding will be recovered by the DfE where it is identified that a school has not spent all of its RPG. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

13/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant (Second Payment) 2022/23 Academic Year - allocations have been announced for the 2nd Payment made in January Advances. Schools receiving the School-Led Tutoring via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK here. Please see notes on document and read this guidance carefully. This grant is ring-fenced and the conditions include strict spending requirements and do not permit the carry-over of monies that are not spent in the 2022/23 academic year. The conditions also require additional reporting of spend (through the termly censuses and also via an additional online return to be submitted in June 2023.

12/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q3 LTFM Scorecard. The 2022-23 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

12/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Autumn Term 2022 FINAL Adjustment Statements - Final statements have now been published and are available to download from the EARLY YEARS page of the Secure Area of BSO. The adjustments shown will be applied to the December advance.

12/12/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - December 2022 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

07/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Additional Capital Allocation (Energy) - The DfE has announced an additional capital allocation for schools and academies, which is focused on improving energy efficiency. This is an additional capital allocation in the 2022/23 financial year. Headline details of this additional funding can be found here. We will post further information here for maintained schools once the allocation and payment dates are confirmed by the DfE.

02/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - 30 Hour Code Lists - The final 30 Hour Code list for the Autumn Term has been issued to schools today. Schools are urged to check their code list and take the required action by Tuesday 6 December. Any codes that have not been checked by this date will not be funded for the Autumn Term.

01/12/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 21-22 School Fund Audit. For those that haven't yet, please can we remind you of the requirement to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates, or a copy of the audited accounts, should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2022 evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2021-22 financial year or the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Please advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board in your email. Further guidance is available here.

14/11/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - November 2022 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

10/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Autumn Term 2022 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements - These statements are currently provisional and subject to change. We have not yet applied the deductions for Duplicate Pupils, Invalid 30 Hour Codes and Staggered Intakes. We have yet to receive the census data for a number of schools. If we have not received your data you will see a message informing you of this on your statement. To access the statements please visit the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO.
We will publish Final Statements once all data has been received and verified.

08/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Costs for Swimming Transport 2022-23 - costs have now been published for the period September 2022 - July 2023. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Charges will be issued to schools before 31 March 2023. If you have any queries, please contact Debbie Cussans via email Debbie.Cussans@bradford.gov.uk . Schools with queries about cost of pool use should contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274 438791 or bradfordaquatics@bradford.gov.uk

07/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant for 2022/23 AY are now available HERE. Schools are reminded, to publish the required report by 31 July, where a school fails to comply with the grant conditions, it may be required to repay the Premium wholly or in part.

04/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2023/24 academic year can be viewed here.

02/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2022/23 AY have now been published on the Advances page within the Secure Area of BSO. To access this list click HERE. The 7/12ths figure shown on the list will be paid in the November 2022 ADVANCE under I18D - Additional Grant for Schools. Please note Conditions of Grant for 22.23 have yet to be published please keep checking BSO for updates.

01/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of ALL private and voluntary accounts. Audit certificates or a copy of the audited accounts should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2022, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2021-22 financial year or the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Please advise the date that the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board. Further guidance is available here.

01/11/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Schools Supplementary Grant for 2022/23 (second payment) – The DfE has announced second payment allocations for Schools Supplementary Grant, for the 2022/23 Financial year. Maintained schools receiving the Schools Supplementary Grant via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. This grant is focused on supporting the cost of the Social Care Levy and continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidance and methodology details of how this grant has been calculated and allocated are here.

31/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) Teachers PAY Grant 2022/23 - 7/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period September 2022 to March 2023. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the main reception to year 11 allocations are included in core formula funding. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the November 2022 advance. Please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE.

31/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) Teachers PENSIONS Grant 2022/23- 7/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period September 2022 to March 2023. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the main reception to year 11 allocations are included in core formula funding. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the November 2022 advance. Please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE.

17/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2022/23 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/10/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - October 2022 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE.

13/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (CONSULTATION) Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2023/24 High Needs Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the CONSULTATIONS page. The closing date for responses is 29 November 2022. Responses can also now be submitted using an online survey tool. Links to this online tool are contained within the Consultation document.

13/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (CONSULTATION) Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2023/24 Primary & Secondary Schools Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the CONSULTATIONS page. The closing date for responses is 29 November 2022. Responses can also now be submitted using an online survey tool. Links to this online tool are contained within the Consultation document.

11/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2023-24 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of monthly payment dates for 2023/24 has been published for schools and academies to download. Please note these dates are provisional and subject to change. To access the list click HERE.

06/10/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION - REMINDER) - PE and Sport Premium - Please can we remind all schools in receipt of the PE and Sport Premium the deadline for using PE and sport premium allocated in the 2021 to 2022 academic year was 31 July 2022. The exceptional permissions for schools to carry forward PE and sport premium funding which was granted during the COVID-19 pandemic has now ended. Any schools with unspent funding from 2021 to 2022 academic year should make arrangements to contact and return this to the DfE. DfE will continue to sample school PE and sport premium reports. Where unspent 2021 to 2022 funding is identified, DfE will seek to recover any monies which have not already been returned.

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