Latest News and Updates from School Funding Team

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.

 

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2022/23

30/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - School Budgeting & National Insurance Levy funding - We have become aware, following the announcement of the removal of the 1.25% National Insurance Levy, that the continuation of the additional funding that has been allocated to schools to support its cost is being reviewed by the DfE. For mainstream primary and secondary schools and academies, this funding is included in the Schools Supplementary Grant. For high needs providers, this funding is being allocated within top up funding. We understand that the DfE will make an announcement on this in due course; on whether the 2023/24 settlement, which has already been announced, will be adjusted. We do not anticipate that funding for the current 2022/23 financial year will be affected. It is the continuation of this funding from April 2023 that is not currently clear. At this time, we just wish to warn schools that the removal of the Levy may be accompanied by the removal of the funding, meaning that the impact is more neutral to schools budgets than would be was the funding to continue without the Levy. The illustrative modelling for 2023/24 for primary and secondary schools, that we published earlier this month, is based on the DfE settlement figures that were published in July and that continue in full the Supplementary Grant funding. Was the Supplementary Grant funding to be recovered, this modelling will need to be adjusted. We would also need to adjust our rates of high needs top up funding. We will confirm the position as soon as possible following further information from the DfE. In the meantime, for budget forecasting for 2023/24, it will be prudent for schools to retain a 15.05% National Insurance contribution, rather than to reduce this contribution to 13.80%.

29/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant (First Payment) 2022/23 Academic Year - Provisional allocations have been announced with the 1^st Payment for Autumn made in October 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 / July 2023.

29/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2022 to 2023 (First Payment) – allocations have been announced for the first Payment to be made in October 2022 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. 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.

27/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - National Insurance Levy - The Government confirmed last week that the 1.25% "National Insurance Levy", which was introduced at 1 April 2022, will be removed from 6 November 2022. This means that the employer's National Insurance contribution will reduce from 15.05% back to 13.80% from this date. Schools and academies will wish to review their staffing costs in the light of this change.

27/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Energy Relief Scheme - Please can we draw your attention to this news note.

26/09/22 - 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 additional Related Party Transaction template. These should be emailed to School Funding Team   by 31 March 2023.  Guidance and templates for 22-23 can be found HERE.  

21/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (ACTION) - DfE School Led Tutoring Grant Return - Please can we remind all schools and academies that they are required to submit their School Led Tutoring Grant returns to the DfE using the online form. This is a mandatory return, even if the school has chosen not to use the SLT Grant. Please note that the deadline for submission has been extended to the 30 September. The DfE warns that failure to submit a return will result in the SLT Grant being recovered.

20/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Budget Review - Key Messages and Illustrative 2023/24 Primary & Secondary mainstream formula funding - Please click here to access a key messages document and some early illustrative modelling of 2023/24 financial year primary and secondary mainstream formula funding allocations. Please ensure that you read both the key messages document and the additional guidance, which is contained within the excel spreadsheet. The illustrative modelling has been published to help primary and secondary schools review their 3 year (and especially their 2023/24 financial year) budget forecast. Referring to our earlier messaging (see below), it is essential that all schools review, as soon as possible, both their 2022/23 financial year budgets, and their 3 year budget forecasts, in the light of the most recent information that is now available, especially regarding pay awards and formula funding. Please note that the key messages document is also relevant to special schools, nursery schools and PRUs.

14/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Help with the Cost of Living - We just wished to highlight the Council's webpages for help with the cost of living here and here. Schools and academies may find this a helpful resource in advising the parents of their pupils.

13/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q2 LTFM Scorecard. The 2022-23 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/09/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) -  September 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.

07/09/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - We expect that SFVS returns will be required to be submitted by 31 March 2023 and will need to include details of Related Party Transactions.  Further details to follow when the guidance has been updated and the template for 22-23 has been released.

30/08/22 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Budgeting Software Subscription 2023 - 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 2023/24. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 21 October 2022 at the latest.

30/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Swimming Transport Costs 2022-23 information has been published on the Swimming Transport page within BSO for the number of sessions schools have taken for the 2022/23 academic year.  Schools have until Friday 21 October 2022 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

25/08/22 - 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 (27/7/22). The update is a 'mandatory' update to the software.

18/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - The DfE's CFR Online Guidance for 2022/23 can be viewed here.

18/08/22 - 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 2022, evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2021-22 financial year or the 2021-22 academic year. Further guidance is available here.

18/08/22 - 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).

18/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2023/24 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

18/08/22 -  FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION AND ACTION) - 2023/24 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2022 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.

18/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER - INFORMATION)  - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2022/23 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 2023/24 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 14 September. A full list of Schools Forum members at September 2022 is available here.

18/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2023 - The Surplus Balances Protocol document is available here. This will be important for maintained schools to consider alongside quarter 2 budget monitoring.

18/08/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER - INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2022-23 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.

29/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION & ACTION) - 2023/24 Minimum Funding Guarantee and Minimum Levels of Funding (for school budgeting) - Further to the note below (25 July) on the announcement of the National Funding Formula settlements for 2023/24, in advance of providing more detailed information and modelling for schools within our consultations to come, we wish to immediately highlight the following for mainstream primary and secondary schools that are currently funded on either the Minimum Funding Guarantee (MFG) or on the DfE's Minimum Levels of Funding per pupil (MFLs). Schools will be able to identify this from their S251 Budget Statements. Most maintained schools that are currently funded on the MFG will be estimating that the MFG will continue at 1.5% in 2023/24 i.e. 2022/23 formula funding per pupil overall will increase by 1.5% in 2023/24. The DfE has confirmed however, that the maximum % that the MFG can be set at in 2023/24 is 0.5% i.e. 2022/23 formula funding per pupil overall, for schools that are on the MFG, will increase by a maximum 0.5%, not by 1.5%, in 2023/24. Similarly, most maintained schools that are currently funded on the MFLs (currently £4,265 primary and £5,525 secondary) will be estimating that their funding per pupil will increase by 2.0% in 2023/24. The DfE has confirmed however, that the MFLs, excluding the transfer of the Supplementary Grant, are increasing only by 0.5% in 2023/24 i.e. 2022/23 formula funding per pupil for schools that are on the MFLs will increase by 0.5% overall, not by 2.0%, in 2023/24. This tightening by the DfE of the MFG and the MFLs will have budget implications for maintained schools, which schools should now immediately begin to consider as they review their 3 year budget forecasts. Please contact School Funding Team if you wish to discuss this further.

27/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION & ACTION) - Pay Awards (for school budgeting) - Further information is now available on the currently proposed / offered teachers' pay award at September 2022 and the officers' / support staff pay award at April 2022. These pay awards will have budgetary implications for schools, in 2022/23 and across the current 3 year forecasting period. We strongly recommend that all maintained schools, alongside their quarter 2 budget monitoring reports, present to their governing boards in October an updated 3 year budget forecast, which includes the new costs of the pay awards. It is likely that schools will need to revisit their budget forecasts and spending plans. For maintained schools that use the Authority's budgeting software, this software will be updated shortly for the latest information, which is summarised below. The software will notify when this update is available and we will highlight this on this webpage.

Further information on the teachers' pay award at September 2022 is available here. This is a link to the STRB's report, which sets out this Body's recommendations. The STRB's recommendations for September 2022 have been accepted by the DfE in full. The further movement to the minimum £30,000 MPS salary is confirmed within the STRB's recommendations. Most maintained schools will already be budgeting for this. However, the STRB recommends that all other scale points and allowances increase at September 2022 by 5%, which is 2% more than the 3% the DfE suggested in its evidence submitted in February. Most maintained schools will currently be budgeting for a 3%, not a 5%, pay award at September 2022. The DfE has indicated that no additional funding will be allocated to schools to support the cost of the September 2022 pay award. Whilst the DfE has not yet accepted any recommendations on the pay award for September 2023, and this will be subject to the annual review process, the STRB currently recommends a basic increase of 3% at September 2023. Most maintained schools will currently be budgeting for a basic increase of only 2%. We recommend at this time that schools adjust their 2022/23 budgets and 2022-2024 forecasts, and spending plans, to incorporate 5% (September 2022) and 3% (September 2023) basic pay awards. Schools should continue to budget for the further movement (final step) to the £30,000 minimum MPS salary at September 2023.

Further information on the officers' / support staff pay award at April 2022 is available here. This is a link to the offer, which has now been made. Whilst this is still an offer (although stated as a 'final' offer), it is now appropriate for schools to adjust their budgets and forecasts, replacing previous estimates. The offer is that all scale points at April 2022 will increase by £1,925. This means that scale points will increase in % terms by between 10.5% (scale point 1) and 4% (scale point 43). Most schools currently will be budgeting only for a 2% blanket increase in salaries at April 2022. As such, the pay award as currently offered will have budget implications. This is an award offer covering 2022/23 only. Most maintained schools will currently be budgeting for a continuing 2% annual pay award from April 2023. Whilst we do not know yet what the pay award for April 2023 will be, we do recommend that schools now budget for more than a 2% award - at least 3% going forward.

25/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2023/24 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 2023/24. This publication, in particular, gives further information about the increases in the NFF for 2023/24 - giving sight of the levels of increases in per pupil formula funding that schools and academies may receive in 2023/24. 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 2023/24 formula funding arrangements will then take place in the autumn (from mid-October), as usual.

25/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES DELIVERING THE EARLY YEARS ENTITLEMENTS (INFORMATION) - DfE Early Years Funding Consultation - The DfE has recently launched a consultation, which seeks views on proposals for the update of the national early years entitlement funding formulae and the maintained nursery school supplement, for the 2023/24 financial year (from April 2023). This consultation can be found here. Whilst this consultation is rather technical, and sets out proposals for authority-level (rather than provider-level) funding, what the DfE proposals will have direct implications for early years entitlement provider funding levels in Bradford in 2023/24. The DfE currently proposes that Bradford’s funding rates (2-year-old as well as 3&4-year-old) increase by 1% in 2023/24. If this is confirmed, 1% is likely to represent the maximum increase in rates of funding that Bradford Local Authority will be able to pass through to providers for the delivery of the entitlements in 2023/24. We wish to ensure that you are aware of this as early as possible. The Local Authority will submit a response to the DfE’s consultation. If you wish to respond to directly to the DfE’s consultation, the deadline is 16 September.

15/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Summer 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 September advance.

14/07/22 - 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 2022 for the 2021 to 22 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 2021 to 2022 academic year shortly after 31 July.

13/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Advice has been issued to schools by Early Education Funding Team regarding the checking of 30 Hour codes for autumn term eligibility to 15 hours extended provision. You can access this guidance HERE. We strongly recommend schools read this guidance. 

12/07/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) -  July 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.

11/07/22 -  FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) -  COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2022/23 - New guidance regarding ‘menu of approaches’ - any activities funded by Recovery Premium must align with the ‘menu of approaches’ from the start of the 2022 to 2023 academic year. Please see here guidance - page 7. The menu includes tutoring, but recovery premium CoG 2022/23 state that schools must not use the grant to meet their portion of the costs of tuition provided through the NTP. Schools should meet those costs from other sources of funding, including pupil premium. Recovery premium is additional funding to provide further education recovery support on top of the subsidised NTP offer.

08/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - National Tutoring programme - This document here provides information and guidance about the National Tutoring programme (NTP) for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. 

04/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2022/23 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 Thursday 7^th July. 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.  

04/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2023/24 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

04/07/22 -  FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - 2023/24 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2022 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.

04/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2022/23 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 2023/24 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 14 September.

04/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2022/23 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

01/07/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) UIFSM 2021-22 Final Allocations & 2022/23 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 2022 Advance. Please refer to notes at bottom of page and see link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found HERE.

 

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2022/23

30/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) 2022-23 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 2022 advance. 

30/06/22 - 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 Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the academic year beginning 1 September 2021. Some or all of it may be carried forward to future Financial years. Any funding that is carried forward must be spent according to the conditions in the document. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

29/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements Summer Term 2022 - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page within the Secure Area of BSO. Schools are advised to read the information regarding these statements on the Early Years page (shown in italics above the links to the Statements). 

29/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Financial Classification of Schools 2022/23 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2022/23 academic year. This Classification places maintained schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2021/22 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.

28/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-led tutoring 2021/22 - School-led tutoring year-end statement form and guidance is now open, see link HERE. You will need to complete this form if you have received School-led tutoring funding. The deadline to submit your form is 6:00pm on Friday, 16 September 2022. If your school is not providing SLT over the summer holidays, then we strongly recommend that you complete the Year-End Statement by the end of July. Please note, if your school does not submit the Year-End Statement, as per guidance it will be understood that your school have not carried out any SLT and your full allocation will be recovered as an overpayment.

27/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - This DfE press release indicates the continuation of the PE and Sport Premium in the 2022/23 academic year. We expect the DfE to publish further information, allocations and conditions of grant shortly.

15/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (OPPORTUNITY) - The DfE has scheduled some free 'Buying for schools' support webinars for School Business Professionals. Please see here. The DfE is also offering some free 1:1 procurement advice and support sessions. Please see here. 

14/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q1 LTFM Scorecard. The 2022-23 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

14/06/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) -  June 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.

10/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - the DfE has published a new strategy document for school resources management. Please see here.

10/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - A BSO news note giving an update about energy costs has been published here.

10/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The DfE has updated its guidance on providing free school meals to families with no recourse to public funds, and also for claiming Pupil Premium Grant in respect of this. Please see the DfE's guidance and PPG application process here.

06/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2022/23 - The template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2022/23 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 2022.

26/05/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Schools Supplementary Grant for 2022/23 – The DfE has announced 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.

26/06/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium 2022/23 – DfE have published indicative Recovery Premium funding rates for 2022/23, this can be viewed on the Gov.co.uk website here.

18/05/22 - 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 13 June 2022. If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

17/05/22  - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - The 2021/22  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 2022. 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.

12/05/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) -  May 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.

04/05/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Final Intended Use of Balances (IUB) Statement for March 2022 balances - The final statement, which shows the position of schools vs. their Intended Use of Excess Balances Thresholds at 31 March 2022 is now available to download here. Schools are advised to review this statement and to share it with their governors.

03/05/22 - 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. 

29/04/22 - 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 May Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the academic year beginning 1 September 2021. Some or all of it may be carried forward to future Financial years. Any funding that is carried forward must be spent according to the conditions in the document. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website Here, Conditions of grant can be viewed HERE.

29/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers PAY Grant 2022/23 - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2022 to August 2023. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 May 2022 advance. Please note for Post 16 the Teachers Pay Grant will be rolled into core 16 to 19 funding from the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

29/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Teachers PENSIONS Grant - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2022 to August 2023. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 May 2022 advance.

29/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) I18 Apportionment in CFR Return for 2021-22  - COLLECT is now open for Schools to upload CFR Returns. The deadline to submit your CFR Return is Wednesday 18th 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 2021-22 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 3rd May.

28/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2021-22 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. 

28/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant (Final Payment) 2021/22 Academic Year - allocations have been announced for the final Payment in May 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 2021/22 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 2022 - further guidance to follow. Please note funding allocations will be increased by 16 percentage points from 60% to around 76% of pupils that are eligible for pupil premium in years 1 to 11. This is additional funding for schools to deliver tuition within the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

27/04/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools (update) – The coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund guidance and online claim form for workforce absences between 22 November 2021 and 8 April 2022 will be available this week -  How to submit a claim/Guidance please click here. For further information click here .

19/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2022/23 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

14/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Changes to SAP Report layout for I08a & I08b - Schools will now see slight changes to the KSB1 and SALR 11 Report. The reports have been enhanced to show the split on bank reconciliation postings for I08a and I08b. This now largely mirrors the split schools see on the CFR report and in the quarterly bank reconciliation template. Schools do not need to do anything different when checking or posting transactions. This change is for LA reporting purposes to ensure consistency and clearer reporting. 

13/04/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) April 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.

06/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (FOR INFORMATION) - CFR 2021-22 - If your School has changed finance systems from 1st April 2022, FMS cannot be used to generate your final CFR report for upload to COLLECT. We will publish further guidance for those Schools with the release of the Final SAP reports at the beginning of May.

05/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2022/23 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

01/04/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Scheme for Financing Schools - We have re-issued the Scheme for Financing Schools, applicable from 1 April 2022, to a) update the list of maintained schools at Annex A, and b) on the DfE's advice, to remove the reference to the Salix Scheme from provision 3.6 (borrowing by schools), due to the ending of this scheme. There are no other changes to the Scheme for Financing Schools in this update.

 

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2021/22

31/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant allocations 2022/23 - 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 2022 to March 2023 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. 

29/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Final Adjustment Statements Spring 2022 - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page within the Secure Area of BSO. Schools are advised to read the information at the bottom of the statement regarding the adjustment which may be applied to the second April Advance.

29/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - DFC 2022-23 Allocations to schools – Provisional allocations for 2022-23 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 2022 once the LA has received the grant in full.

29/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2022-23 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.

28/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2022/23 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 2022 to 2023, schools are required to:

• demonstrate, how their spending decisions are informed by research evidence (condition 3)
• 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 2.1 from the start of the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

28/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium – The DfE have updated Information on pupil premium funding and how school leaders can use it effectively. There’s separate guidance for school leaders about using pupil premium here.

22/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - 30 HOUR CODE LISTS - The final 30 Hour Code list for the Spring Term has been published today. Schools are urged to check their code list and where action is needed, please take the required action by 5pm Thursday 24 March. Any codes not checked by this date will not be funded for the Spring Term.

22/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - New Leases - Where your school enters into a new lease that starts before the 31st March 2022 and this was not already disclosed on the lease collection template, you must inform of the details of the lease by completing the Capital Lease collection template and returning to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk. A copy of the lease collection template is available to download from the secure area of BSO. This information is required as part of the whole authority accounts preparation process.

22/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Schools Financial Value Standard - SFVS. Thank you to all schools that have submitted their SFVS & RPT. For those that haven't yet, please can we remind you of the requirement to complete the Schools Financial Value Statement AND the additional Related Party Transaction template by 31 March 2022.  Guidance and templates can be found HERE.

18/03/22 - FOR SCHOOLS PURCHASING ENERGY THROUGH BMDC / YPO CONTRACT - The Energy Team released further information on BSO News regarding the energy price situation. To read this information please click HERE.  

15/03/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) March 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.

15/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding Ready Reckoners 2022/23 - The ready reckoners for high needs providers (Special Schools & Special School Academies, Resourced Provisions and PRUs & Alternative Provision Academies) for the 2022/23 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.

11/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Academic mentors programme grant. The DfE has updated Further information on the conditions of the grant here. To further support schools and meet increasing demand, the eligibility for recruiting Academic Mentors and schools has been updated, with minimum A level requirements replacing the requirement for a degree, along with increasing the rate of pay for all graduate mentors looking to enrol and support the programme.

10/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of the 2022 Budget Software - We expect the 2022 year in the Budget Software to go live later tonight (Thursday10 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.

09/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Separate Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant Funding for Early Years and Post 16 - The ESFA has today confirmed, in its weekly newsletter to local authorities (please see the 9 March newsletter), that the separate grants for Teacher Pay and Pensions will continue in 2022/23 for early years entitlement provision in schools and academies. The ESFA has also confirmed, for post 19 provision, that the Teacher Pay Grant is being merged into the 2022/23 academic year post 16 funding formula from August 2022 (this was previously announced), but that the Teacher Pensions Grant will continue as a separate allocation to schools and academies with post 16 provision in 2022/23.

08/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years Entitlement Funding Ready Reckoner 2022/23 - 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 2022/23 financial year. The ready reckoner is based on the confirmed indicative budgets that have been published today (8 March - see below).

08/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2022-23 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.

08/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Support Staff Pay Award 2021/22 (April 2021) - The support staff (NJC scale) pay award for 2021/22 has now been confirmed. A note from payroll is published here. For maintained schools that use Bradford Council payroll, this pay award, including back pay to April 2021, will be actioned in the March payroll. These schools therefore, will not need to accrue, for any additional pay costs relating to this award, within their year-end returns. Maintained schools that do not use Bradford Council payroll now need to take action to implement the pay award. If this pay award is not actioned before 31 March 2022, these schools will need to accrue (as external liabilities) for the pay award costs within their March year-end bank reconciliation returns. 

07/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Teacher Pay Award - The DfE has published evidence for the STRB to consider in making its recommendations on the teacher pay award for September 2022 and September 2023. This evidence includes a proposal from the DfE on how to implement the minimum £30,000 MPS1 salary by September 2023 and, therefore, provides useful information for schools to consider in their 3 year budget planning.

07/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Information on the checking of 30 Hour Codes for summer term 2022 has been been issued by the Early Years Service. To access this information click HERE.

03/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements Spring 2022 - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page within the Secure Area of BSO. Schools are advised to read the information regarding these statements on the Early Years page (shown in italics above the links to the Statements).  

03/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grant Funding – The DfE has updated Further information on the conditions of the grant for 2022-2023 and links to the relevant guidance and resource. To find out more about this grant, how to apply and how to access training, please read the Conditions of Grant document and further information by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE. 

02/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) -  Changes to estimated nursery age pupil numbers - Schools are reminded that the deadline for requesting changes to the 2022-23 estimated nursery numbers contained in the S251 Budget (published 18.02.22) is MONDAY 7 MARCH 2022. Schools wishing to change their estimates should email dawn.haigh@bradford.gov,uk detailing the changes you require. 

02/03/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - The DfE's View My Financial Insights tool and guidance has been updated for maintained schools to include 2020/21 Financial year information.

02/03/22 - 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 2022.  Guidance and templates can be found HERE. 

01/03/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Coronavirus (COVID-19) no recourse to public funds: free school meals. The summary details of how to make a claim for additional pupil premium funding see guidance here. You must not make a claim for any pupils who do not meet the criteria or were not on the school roll on 7 October 2021. You should only include pupils who were not counted as eligible for free school meals in the October 2021 census. The deadline to submit your claim is 01 April 2022.

28/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - March 2022 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 Tuesday 5 April 2022 - this includes all external assets and liabilities. The 2021-22 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 Tuesday 5 April 2022. 

18/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Governor Approved Budget Reporting Template 2022-25 (Maintained Schools) - The template for schools to use to report their 2022-2025 Governor Approved Budgets to the Authority is now available for schools to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. The deadline for submission of budgets for 2022/23 is 15 May 2022. The final deadline for submission of 2nd / 3rd year budgets is 30 June 2022. 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 2022/23 financial year at 31 March 2023. Schools are notified now of their Threshold so they can plan their 2022/23 budgets on this basis. 

18/02/22 - FOR ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2022/23 Financial Year Funding - Statements, which give estimates of the funding to be allocated by Bradford Local Authority directly to academies in 2022/23, are now available to download HERE. Academies with early years entitlement provisions have until Monday 7 March 2022 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 2022/23. This file gives academies early sight of their indicative 2022/23 allocations, prior to the ESFA's publication of the GAG statements.

18/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - 2022/23 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 7 March 2022 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 3 January below on the timetable for the release of the Software update and the warning not to open or transfer scenarios into the 2022/23 year within the Software. 

18/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Funding 2022/23 - Guidance on Bradford Local Authority's approach to high needs funding in 2022/23 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 2022/23.

18/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - High Needs Providers Delegated Budget Shares 2022/23 - A summary statement showing the 2022/23 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 2022. A Ready Reckoner, which will enable stand-alone high needs settings to estimate their full year 2022/23 high needs funding will be available towards the end of March (the March 10th monthly headcount census and the final full year 2021/22 allocations, are needed in order to finalise the 2022/23 funding calculations).

18/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Early Years (EYSFF) Technical Statement for 2022/23 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 2022/23 financial year.

17/02/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools (update) – The COVID-19 workforce fund has been further extended to 8 April 2022. The DfE have updated guidance here.

15/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q4 LTFM Scorecard. The 2021-22 Quarter 4 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

14/02/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) February 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.

10/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Where Maintained Schools are considering or committed to changing their Financial Ledger software and moving away from SIMS FMS, please let us know by emailing schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk as early in the process as possible and your estimated timeframe for transfer.

09/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (TRAINING) - Integrated Curriculum Financial Planning (ICFP) - We would like highlight a training opportunity. The DfE is funding some school resource management webinars, covering a number of important topics, including ICFP. ICFP is a crucial aspect of effective budget setting and planning. Please see here for training course opportunities in March.

02/02/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Intended Use of Excess Balances Reporting 31 March 2022 (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 2022. 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 2022. 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.

31/01/22 - 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 2022.  Guidance and templates can be found HERE. 

28/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION - REMINDER) - Liabilities Under Lease/Heritage Asset Forms and Employee Emoluments returns - are due for submission by Friday 25th February 2022. 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. 

28/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION - REMINDER) - Publication of 2022/23 Formula Funding Information - Subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 17 February, formula funding information for 2022/23, including the S251 Budget Statements for maintained schools, will be published on this website on Friday18 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2022-2025 should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2022/23 financial year.

14/01/22 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) January 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.

05/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - School Fund Audits -Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 2020-21 audits. For those schools that haven't yet, please can we remind you that all private and voluntary accounts must be audited up to either the end of the 2020-21 financial year, or the 2020-21 academic year, and an audit certificate or copy of the audited accounts submitted to the School Funding Team. Please also advise the date the accounts were approved by the school's Governing Board. Further guidance is available here.

05/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION AND GUIDANCE) - 2021-22 Year End Guidance - The Council's 2021/22 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 Tuesday 5 April 2022. 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.

05/01/22 - 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 25 February. 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.

04/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Pupil Premium Grant 2021/22 - 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 (£391 summer & Autumn £390.50 Spring paid via the LA). Where a school has also already received the FSM allocation in their initial 2021/22 funding allocation for such pupils, the amount is deducted from the grant allocation to avoid double funding. (Primary Adjustment £1,345 per pupil. Secondary Adjustment £955 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 2022 advance payment. 

04/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant (Second Payment) 2021/22 Academic Year - allocations have been announced for the 2^nd 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 new 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 2021/22 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 / July 2022.

04/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Second Payment) – allocations have been announced for the 2^nd Payment made in January Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the academic year beginning 1 September 2021. Some or all of it may be carried forward to future Financial years. Any funding that is carried forward must be spent according to the conditions in the document. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website HERE.

04/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - SFVS 2022 – Training – Schools Financial Value Standard. Bradford Council Internal Audit is hosting a one hour Microsoft Teams information session on Tuesday, 11^th January 2022 at 11am. To be invited, supply your name and individual email address to Karl Pease, Assistant Audit Manager at karl.pease@bradford.gov.uk

03/01/22 - 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 the January & February bank reconciliation return is submitted as early as possible in March. Returns can be submitted monthly or for the two months together. The March year end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.

03/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Publication of 2022/23 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 17 February, the S251 Budget Statements for 2022/23 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 18 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2022-2025, 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 2022/23 financial year.

03/01/22 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Release of 2022/23 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2022 scenario will be released for schools mid March (the 2021 software was released on 11 March 2021). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2022/23’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2022/23 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

03/01/22 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2022 - We stated in our budget setting guidance for maintained schools (published at the end of February) that the Surplus Balances Protocol will be in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2022, but that additional flexibility will be provided within this Protocol for schools to manage any on-going Financial implications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Surplus Balances Protocol document was republished earlier in the year here to include this flexibility. Please see section 5.1 of the document. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 3 budget monitoring.

 

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2021/22

20/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - The DfE's STRB Remit Letter - The DfE has now published the School Teachers' Review Body (STRB) remit letter for 2022, which does give an indication of the direction of travel of teachers' pay, useful for budget considerations. The letter can be found here

17/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Post 16 Funding 2022/23 Academic Year - the ESFA has announced today details of the Post 16 funding formula for the 2022/23 Academic Year (from August 2022). Please see here.

16/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - New Additional Supplementary Grant for 2022/23 - The DfE has announced today, for the 2022/23 Financial year (from April 2022), a new additional Supplementary Grant for mainstream schools and academies, focused on supporting the cost of the Social Care Levy and continued recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The summary details of how this grant will be calculated and allocated are here. This will be a grant allocation that is calculated by the ESFA, using a national methodology. Different arrangements will apply for special schools / special school academies / PRUs and Alternative Provision academies, which the Authority will discuss with these settings in the new year after further guidance has been provided by the DfE (for high needs block funded settings, rather than receiving an ESFA-led grant, the Local Authority will be allocated a single sum of money from which to provide additional Financial support).

16/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Pupil Premium Grant Rates of Funding for 2022/23 - The DfE has today announced the values of uplifted rates of funding for the Pupil Premium Grant for the 2022/23 Financial year (from April 2022). Please see here. In summary, the PPG rates for 2022/23 are

Primary ever 6 FSM pupils: £1,385

Secondary ever 6 FSM pupils: £985

Looked-after children: £2,410

Children who have ceased to be looked-after: £2,410

Service children: £320

16/12/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools (update) – The COVID-19 workforce fund that has been re-introduced to provide Financial support to settings with the greatest staffing and funding challenges has been further extended from 22 November to 18 February 2022. The DfE have updated guidance here. Eligible schools and academy trusts will be able to make claims for costs for reimbursement through this fund in Spring 2022.

13/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q3 LTFM Scorecard. The 2021-22 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - FINAL Early Years Autumn Term Adjustment Statements - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page of the Secure Area of BSO. the adjustments detailed in the statements have been applied to the December advance. 

13/12/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) December 2021 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.

08/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES WITH EARLY YEARS PROVISION (CONSULTATION) - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2022/23 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. The deadline for responses is Monday 24 January 2022.

06/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - 30 HOUR CODE LISTS - The final 30 Hour Code list as been issued to schools today. For a number of academies, this is the first list issued as the DfE did not release all academy census returns until Friday 3 December. Schools are urged to check their code list and where action is required, please take the required action by Wednesday 8 December. Any codes still not checked by the end of Wednesday 8 December 2021 will not be funded for the autumn term. 

02/12/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Reduced VAT Rate 12.5% - Schools are reminded that if they receive any invoices showing the reduced 12.5% rate they must provide a breakdown to School Funding and to Stephen Richmond in the VAT team (stephen.richmond@bradford.gov.uk). Further guidance is available HERE.

30/11/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools – The COVID-19 workforce fund has been re-introduced to provide Financial support to settings with the greatest staffing and funding challenges from 22 November to 31 December 2021. The DfE have updated guidance here. Eligible schools and academy trusts will be able to make claims for costs for reimbursement through this fund in Spring 2022.

30/11/21 - 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 2021, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2020-21 financial year or the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Please also advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board. Further guidance is available here.

30/11/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) (COVID-19) DfE 2021 Qualifications funding – The DfE has published updated guidance here for eligible schools on how to reclaim for fees and costs associated with disrupted exams between October 2021 to March 2022. The form is now live, see instructions on the Form guidance to understand how to submit a claim and deadline dates that are specific to your school.

15/11/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Coronavirus (COVID-19) mass testing – Eligible schools can now claim for premises-related exceptional costs to support coronavirus (COVID-19) mass testing carried out between 23 August to 17 September 2021. See instructions and guidance here which will help claim exceptional costs on this form.The deadline for submitting your claim for premises costs related to coronavirus (COVID-19) mass testing is on 5 December 2021.

15/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - In preparation for changes to the way rates will be paid from April 2022, Schools and Academies with buildings on site that are not used for the provision of education need to register these buildings separately with the Valuation Office Agency. To do this, please contact the VOA to register. Valuation Office Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

12/11/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) November 2021 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.

12/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Autumn Term 2021 Early Years PROVISIONAL Adjustment Statements - These statements are currently provisional and subject to change. We have not yet applied the deductions for duplicate pupil, invalid 30 Hour code claims and staggered intake. In addition, we have yet to receive the census data for a significant number of academies and so cannot as yet fully determine the 3&4YO adjustments for those schools. If we have not received your data you will see a message informing you of this on your statement. To access these 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. 

10/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) -  The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2022/23 academic year can be viewed here.

08/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Costs for Swimming Transport 2021-22 - costs have now been published for the period September 2021 - July 2022. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Charges will be issued to schools before 31 March 2022.  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

08/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) Teachers PAY Grant 2021/22 - 7/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period September 2021 to March 2022. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 2021 advance. Please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE.

08/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) Teachers PENSIONS Grant 2021/22- 7/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period September 2021 to March 2022. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 2021 advance. Please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE.

02/11/21 - 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 2021, evidencing that the accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2020-21 financial year or the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Please also advise the date the accounts have been approved by the school's Governing Board. Further guidance is available here.

01/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - InControl - Autumn 2021 edition. The Internal Audit Team newsletter for schools is now available to download from the secure area of BSO under Guidance for Schools, Audit Guidance. The newsletter includes articles on forthcoming changes to SFVS and other relevant topics. Click here.

01/11/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (CONSULTATION) - DfE Consultation on School Improvement Grant Funding & De-Delegation - The DfE has published a consultation document, which proposes to reduce (from April 2022) and then cease (at April 2023) the School Improvement Support, Monitoring and Brokering Grant (SIMB) that local authorities currently receive in support of their maintained schools. The DfE proposes that funding to replace the grant can be sourced through de-delegation from maintained schools. The DfE's consultation can be found here. This change will potentially mean a greater value of charge being levied on maintained schools for their contributions to de-delegated services from April 2022. Our response to this change (and whether and how much we de-delegate) will be considered with our Schools Forum in December and January. Maintained schools members of the Schools Forum take decisions about the de-delegation of funding from maintained school budgets. We encourage maintained schools to take note of this consultation and to respond as appropriate.

28/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2021/22 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 2021 ADVANCE under I18D - Additional Grant for Schools. Please refer to foot of the list which gives further information on the conditions of grant.

27/10/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Budgeting Software 2022-23 – The charge for all schools (including Full Budget Share) purchasing the 2022-23 Budgeting Software has been processed as a journal entry to E22 and will be shown on the November SAP reports, which will be available in the first week of November. 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.

22/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant - The DfE has published further guidance and a tracker tool for schools and academies to use to record their use of the Grant during the 2021/22 academic year. Completion of this tool during the year will aid the completion of the final year-end return. Please see here.

18/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - 30 Hour Code Reports for 3-4YO Extended Provision - the 30 hour Code reports will be issued weekly from week beginning 18 October 2021. Schools will receive an email alert when a report has been issued for your school. Please ensure you check the report and take action for any codes that do not have a status of 'OK'. Academies, please note, if you deliver the extended provision but you do not receive a 30 Hour Code report it is because the census return for your school has not yet been released by the ESFA via COLLECT. Once released, reports will be released for your school. This may not be until November / early December.  

13/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - 2022-23 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of monthly payment dates for 2022/23 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.

13/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2021/22 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

13/10/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) October 2021 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.

13/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (CONSULTATION) - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2022/23 High Needs Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the Consultations page. The closing date for responses is 30 November 2021.

14/10/20 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (CONSULTATION) - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2022/23 Primary & Secondary Schools Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the Consultations page. The closing date for responses is 30 November 2021.

08/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grant Funding – The DfE has updated Further information on the conditions of the grant and links to the relevant guidance and resource. To find out more about this grant, how to apply and how to access training, please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE. Extended guidance on the training program can be accessed HERE.

04/10/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) G2FP &Schools Contract Standing Orders - Two minor amendments have been made to the School Contract Standing Orders (SCSOs) & G2FP. The documents can be found here. On the G2FP Paragraph 2.8.1/ 4.3.13 and SCSO Paragraph 19.5 has been added to give further guidance and links to updated documents. Schools are required to comply with the additional responsibilities in the management, recording and reporting of Related Party Transactions as a result of the DFE's transparency reforms.

04/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Reduced VAT Rate 12.5% - Schools are reminded that if they receive any invoices showing the reduced 12.5% rate they must provide a breakdown to School Funding and to Stephen Richmond in the VAT team (stephen.richmond@bradford.gov.uk). Further guidance is available HERE.

04/10/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - School-Led Tutoring Grant (Autumn) 2021/22 Academic Year - Provisional allocations have been announced with the 1^st Payment for Autumn made in October 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 new 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 2021/22 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 / July 2022.

 

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2021/22

28/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - COVID 19 Recovery Premium (Autumn) – Provisional allocations have been announced with the 1^st Payment for Autumn made in October Advances. Schools receiving the Recovery Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant does not have to be completely spent by schools in the academic year beginning 1 September 2021. Some or all of it may be carried forward to future Financial years. Any funding that is carried forward must be spent according to the conditions in the document. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website HERE.

21/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Senior Mental Health Lead Training Grant Funding - The Department for Education (DfE) is offering a grant for senior mental health lead training to around a third of all state-funded schools and colleges in the 2021-2022 Financial year. To find out more about this grant, how to apply and how to access training, please read the Conditions of Grant document by visiting the GOV.UK site by clicking HERE. Extended guidance on the training program can be accessed HERE.

15/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - The Local Authority's response to the DfE's National Funding Formula Consultation. At this morning's Schools Forum meeting, we presented our drafted response to the DfE's consultation on the final movement over the next few years to the 'hard' National Funding Formula within the Schools Block (for primary and secondary school and academy mainstream formula funding). The Forum supported the Authority's response and wished for the Authority to share this response with schools and academies for their awareness and also to ensure that schools and academies have the opportunity either a) to comment on the Authority's response or b) to submit their own response by the deadline of the 30 September. The Authority's response can be viewed here under agenda item 7 and Document NG Appendix 2. If you have any queries or comments please contact Jonty Holden. If you would like comment on the Authority's response please do so by Monday 27 September.

15/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - COVID-19 Summer Schools Funding Claim Form - The DfE has published guidance for schools and academies on the completion of the COVID-19 summer schools funding form. This guidance can be accessed here.

14/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Q2 LTFM Scorecard. The 2021-22 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

14/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) Swimming Transport Costs 2021-22 information has been published on the Swimming Transport page within BSO for the number of sessions schools have taken for the 2021/22 academic year.  Schools have until Friday 22 October 2021 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

14/09/21 – FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) September 2021 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.

06/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - Recovery Premium Funding 2021/22 Academic Year - The DfE has published details and guidance regarding a one-off Recovery Premium Funding for 2021/22. These can be found here. All maintained schools and academies should read this guidance. Schools must show how they are using their recovery premium effectively by reporting on their use of recovery premium as part of their pupil premium strategy statement or through inspections by Ofsted.

06/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Change in how Business Rates are paid from April 2022 - The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has now confirmed that the national changes proposed to how payments to billing authorities from mainstream primary and secondary maintained schools and academies for business rates (NNDR) are managed will be implemented from April 2022. The outcomes of the ESFA’s consultation, and a summary of next steps, is published here. These are directed changes, that have implications for how rates charges are physically paid to billing authorities, how the ‘cash moves around the system’, and in Bradford most significantly for academies (that will not be physically required to pay their business rates charges). Guidance will be provided in due course on how the business rates payment changes will be managed in Bradford from April 2022 and we encourage all schools and academies now to read the ESFA’s consultation outcomes document.

03/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (INFORMATION) - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - We expect that SFVS returns will be required to be submitted by 31 March 2022 and will need to include details of Related Party Transactions.  Further details to follow when the guidance has been updated and the template for 21-22 has been released.

03/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION) - Schools Forum Membership Update - A full list of Schools Forum members at September 2021 is available here.

02/09/21 - FOR MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (INFORMATION AND ACTION) - New School-Led Tutoring Grant 2021/22 Academic Year - The DfE has published further details, guidance and conditions regarding the new 2021/22 academic year School-Led Tutoring Grant. These can be found here. All maintained schools and academies must read this guidance carefully and respond. This new 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 2021/22 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 / July 2022. 

01/09/21 - 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 should be submitted to the School Funding Team by email before 31 December 2021, evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2020-21 financial year or the 2020-21 academic year. Further guidance is available here.

31/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - Budgeting Software Subscription 2022 - 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 2022/23. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 22 October 2021 at the latest.

26/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (ACTION) - DfE Financial Transparency - We would like to remind schools to continue to ensure they are following the requirements as per the DfE's transparency changes. Schools must ensure that the information is reflective of the current position with accurate data provided. Transparency actions came into effect 01/01/21 and schools are required to publish 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, the ESFA has clarified that this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page). 

24/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS - The DfE's CFR Online Guidance for 2021/22 has been updated (on 10 August) to move the guidance on federated schools and holding money on behalf of other schools to separate sections. Please see here.

24/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2022/23 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

24/08/21 -  FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER) - 2022/23 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2021 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.

24/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES (REMINDER)  - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2021/22 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 2022/23 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 15 September.

24/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2022 - We stated in our budget setting guidance for maintained schools (published at the end of February) that the Surplus Balances Protocol will be in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2022, but that additional flexibility will be provided within this Protocol for schools to manage any on-going Financial implications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Surplus Balances Protocol document has been republished here to include this flexibility. Please see section 5.1 of the document. This will be important for maintained schools to consider at quarter 2 budget monitoring.

24/08/21 - FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION MAINTAINED SCHOOLS (REMINDER) - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2021-22 were published on 30 June July (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.

26/07/21 - Pupil Premium Reporting Templates for the 2021/22 AY - The DfE has updated the templates, which schools must use in reporting PPG information for the 2021/22 academic year. These templates can be found here. 

22/07/21 - Teacher Pay September 2021 - The report from the STRB concerning teacher pay at September 2021, and the DfE's response to this report, has now been published and can be found here. To confirm, the Authority's budgeting software already incorporates the adjustments to the unqualified teacher pay scale that have been accepted by the DfE (and are now subject to consultation) and so no teacher pay scale amendments are needed at this time. Please note that the position of the pay award for support staff (NJC scale staff) for April 2021 is still to be confirmed. The NJC pay scale in the software may need to be adjusted once the pay award is confirmed.

22/07/21 - Movement to National Funding Formula (DfE consultation) - The DfE has recently published a consultation, which sets out the outline plan over the next few years for the further movement towards, and final full implementation of, the 'hard' National Funding Formula for mainstream primary and secondary school formula funding. The document can be found here.

22/07/21 - 2022/23 Schools Formula Funding - The DfE made an announcement on 19 July concerning arrangements for school formula funding for 2022/23. A summary document can be found here. There are other pages on the DfE's website that provide some high level funding figures. Whilst this document is a little complex (and more helpful for us in developing our 2022/23 arrangements), it does give an overview of the position for 2022/23. As normal, we will begin discussing our funding proposals for 2022/23 with the Schools Forum in September, and we then anticipate publishing our consultation documents as usual in October. Please note that the DfE has not yet announced anything regarding early years entitlement funding (or the funding of maintained nursery schools) in 2022/23; this is not expected until the autumn.

21/07/21 - Early Years Summer Term 2021 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 September advance. 

19/07/21 Update Swimming Transport Costs Period 2 - February 2021 – July 2021 - Costs have now been published for the period February 2021 - July 2021. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Please see note here explaining the confirmed approach to the charging of period 2 swimming transport for the 2020/21 academic year. Please contact School Funding Team schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk if you have any queries on this note or on how the charges have been calculated. Schools with queries about cost of pool use should contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274  438791 or bradfordaquatics@bradford.gov.uk

13/07/21 – July 2021 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.

12/07/21 - Early Years 30 Hour Code Checks - Schools delivering the extended 30 hours provision are reminded to check the weekly code list issued weekly via BSO. Where a code requires checking on the BSO Online Code Checker Tool or where parental confirmation is required, schools should take action immediately to address the issue. Failure to do so may lead to those extended hours not being funded. 

08/07/21 - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2021/22 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO

05/07/21 - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2022/23 financial year budget (formula funding) information for maintained schools here

05/07/21 -  REMINDER - 2022/23 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2021 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.

05/07/21 - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2021/22 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 2022/23 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 15 September.

05/07/21 - Pupil Premium Website Publications - Please can we remind schools that Condition 8 of the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG)  now requires schools to use the DfE statement template in publishing PPG information on the school's website.

01/07/21 - Provisional Early Years Summer Term Adjustment Statements - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page of BSO. Please note the statements are provisional and subject to change as not all checks have yet been completed. We are also awaiting the release of a number of academy census returns by the DFE. If the census data for your school has not yet been released, you will receive a message to advise of this when you open your statement. 

 

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2021/22

30/06/21 - Surplus Balances Protocol (Maintained Schools) March 2022 - We stated in our budget setting guidance for maintained schools (published at the end of February) that the Surplus Balances Protocol will be in place for the control of revenue balances held by maintained schools at 31 March 2022, but that additional flexibility will be provided within this Protocol for schools to manage any on-going Financial implications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Surplus Balances Protocol document has been republished here to include this flexibility. Please see section 5.1 of the document. 

30/06/21 - Financial Classification of Schools 2021/22 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2021/22 academic year. This Classification places maintained schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2020/21 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.

30/06/21 2021-22 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 2021 advance. 

30/06/21 - Bradford Schools' Local Benchmarking - Following the recent expansion of benchmarking data and tools available for schools (View My Financial Insights, SFVS Data Dashboard and the National Benchmarking website), as well as the continued conversion of maintained schools to academy status in Bradford, we have decided not to continue to calculate the Bradford specific school benchmarking (where we separate Bradford maintained schools into clusters for comparison only with other Bradford schools). The local benchmarking from previous years will still be available through this website here.

29/06/21 - UIFSM 2020-21 Final Allocations & 2021/22 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 2021 Advance. Please refer to notes at bottom of page and see link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found HERE.

25/06/21 - National Tutoring Programme - Managing VAT on invoices. Not all suppliers will charge VAT but those that do should charge 20% Standard Rate on the FULL costs before the subsidy is applied.  In order to input the invoice correctly, schools will need to input the full cost along with an internal credit note for the value of the subsidy.  This credit note should be equal to 75% of the full costs and be coded as Non-Business.  For further guidance please click HERE or contact Lynda Steventon on 01274 437061

17/06/21 - PE & Sports Premium - It has today been confirmed the PE & Sports Premium will continue for the 2021-22 Academic Year. To read the announcement on GOV.UK click HERE. Full information, including a link to the Conditions of Grant documents can be found HERE. Restrictions on what the grant can be used for remain in place and full details are contained within the Conditions of Grant document. It has been confirmed that underspends from the 2019-20 academic year grant and the 2020-21 academic year grant can be carried forward but must be fully spent by 31 July 2022.

17/06/21 - 2021/22 DFC Allocations - Allocations for Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) have now been confirmed and payment will be made to applicable schools by the LA on Thursday 24th June 2021. 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.  

14/06/21 - June 2021 Advances Schedule & High Needs Funding Statements are now available to download from the Advances page and from the High Needs page respectively.

11/06/21 - The 2021-22 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

09/06/21 - Quarterly Budget Monitoring Template 2021/22 - The template for schools to use to report their quarterly budget monitoring during 2021/22 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 2021.

02/06/21 - COVID 19 Catch Up Premium Summer 2020-21 - Allocations for the summer term (Tranche 3) have now been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. Allocations will be included in the June 2021 advance. 

27/05/21  - The 2020/21  Bank Adjustment calculation is now available for schools on the Advances page. Additional payments, where the Council owes the school, will be made June 1^st 2021. 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 online ie schools do not have to wait to receive the letter to repay the amounts they owe.

26/05/21 - Schools Forum Membership Vacancies - we are seeking nominations for currently vacant Schools Forum Membership positions in respect of a) 1 Maintained Primary School Headteacher and b) 6 Academies Members. Please see the hyperlinked documents. The deadline for nominations is Monday 21 June 2021. If you have any queries, or would like further information, please contact andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk.

21/05/21 - DfE Tool for Maintained Schools - View My Financial Insights (VMFI) - this tool is now available for maintained schools. For more information on what the tool can do and to set up a login, please visit the Benchmarking page in the Secure Area of BSO for more information. Schools are also able to book onto a DfE webinar to see a demonstration of the software. Dates of the webinars and how to book on are included in the information on the Benchmarking page. 

20/05/21 - FINAL Early Years Spring Term 2021 Adjustment Statements - The final statements have now been published on the Early Years page in the Secure Area of BSO. It is our intention to include the adjustments shown in the statement to the June 2021 advance. 

18/05/21 - The deadline to submit your final CFR to COLLECT is Wednesday 19th May (tomorrow). Please make sure to read the IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS document carefully and head over to the CFR page for more guidance. If you anticipate that you will not be able to meet this deadline, please contact Jonty Holden (01274 431927) before Wednesday.

12/05/21 – May 2021 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.

06/05/21 - 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. 

COLLECT is now open for Schools to upload CFR Returns. The deadline to submit your CFR Return is Wednesday 19th May. Please read the IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS document carefully and head over to the CFR page for more guidance.

05/05/21 - Schools Financial Value Standard deadline Friday 28 May – Maintained schools are reminded to submit their SFVS returns as soon as possible to the Council’s School Funding Team, when these have been completed and authorised by governors.

Apart from those schools with exemptions applying, the DfE expects all maintained schools to comply, and any returns not received by the end of May will be pursued. LTFM Scorecard will operate, and results will be affected by late returns.

If you have any questions, remote advice and support is available from Assistant Audit Manager, Karl Pease on 07929 780092 or email him at: karl.pease@bradford.gov.uk

You might wish to visit GOV.UK for the current documentation.

04/05/21 - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2021/22 has been re-issued today and available to download from the secure area of BSO. If you have downloaded the template before today, schools should download the revised copy and discard the original.

30/04/21 - PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2020-21 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. 

29/04/21 - DFC 2021-22 Allocations to schools - allocations for 2021-22 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 2021 once the LA has received the grant in full.

29/04/21 - Teachers PAY Grant 2021/22 - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2021 to August 2021. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 May 2021 advance.

29/04/21 - Teachers PENSIONS Grant - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Nursery, Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2021 to August 2021. These allocations just relate to post 16 and Early Years as the 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 May 2021 advance.

28/04/21 - Private, Voluntary and School Fund Audits - Please see our updated guidance which shows the essential information needed and the requirement for audits to be approved by the Governing Board.  The guidance can be viewed here. 

26/04/21 - March 2021 Interim SAP Reports issued - A further set of SAP reports for March 2021 have been uploaded to BSO Drop Box. All bank reconciliations, internal and external assets and liabilities received to date have been posted and Cap to Nil journals completed where returns have been received. However, these SAP reports are not yet FINAL as there are still some small transactions to post. We will announce when the final SAP reports have been uploaded.

26/04/21 - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2021/22 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

23/04/21 - Maintained Nursery School Supplementary Funding 2021/22 - On 22 April 2021, the DfE confirmed that the Authority will receive the supplement, on its existing terms, for the full 2021/22 Financial year up 31 March 2022. Prior to the announcement yesterday, the position of the supplement was only confirmed to the end of August 2021.  We have contacted the schools concerned directly to advise them of this announcement. 

21/04/21 - I18 Apportionment in CFR Return for 2020-21 - Schools are aware of the changes to the CFR Framework for 2020-21 to install additional I18 categories for COVID 19 grants and income. The new categories are installed via the FMS6 Spring Upgrade. Once the upgrade has been applied schools must apportion and code the I18 grant and income payments received correctly. Guidance notes on how to do this are now available on the CFR page of BSO. Schools can also access an I18 2020-21 Funding Breakdown Table on the Advances Updates page of BSO to assist with the apportionment and checking.  

20/04/21 - COVID-19 Summer Schools Programme (Secondary) - The DfE has published guidance and potential funding allocations for the secondary phase COVID-19 summer schools programme. The guidance states that an online form will open on 26 April to enable schools to sign up. 

15/04/21 - April 2021 High Needs Funding Statements have now been published. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE. The Advances Schedule will follow shortly.

07/04/21 - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2021/22 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

07/04/21 - The DfE has published information on how to register interest for the 2021/22 academic year Nuffield early language intervention programme.

07/04/21 - DfE COVID-19 Spring Term 2021 Free School Meals Funding Claims Window - The DfE has now opened the online process for claiming funding in respect of FSM spring term delivery costs. The deadline for online claims is 4 May 2021.

01/04/21 - We are aware of an issue relating to I18 funding following the upgrade of FMS to the latest V6.198. We are currently preparing guidance to resolve this issue and this will be made available in due course. This should not affect your year end processes that you may be carrying out today. However you should not attempt a final close until this has been resolved.

 

QUARTER 4 BULLETINS 2020/21

30/03/21 - Pupil Premium Conditions of Grant for 2021/22 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 2021 to 2022, schools are now required to:

• demonstrate, from the next academic year, how their spending decisions are informed by research evidence (condition 7)
• use the strategy statement templates to publish their pupil premium strategy (condition 8)

29/03/21 - High Needs Providers Teacher Pay and Pensions Grant allocations 2021/22 - 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 2021 to March 2022 in respect of the former Teacher Pay and Teacher Pensions Grants. These monies are now allocated by the Authority from the High Needs Block in addition to place and top up funding. 

25/03/21 - 2021-22 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.

25/03/21 - REMINDER - Early Years Claim process for additional children after census - Schools are reminded the deadline date for submitting claims and supporting pupil documentation is WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH 2021. Please read the document 'Guidance Spring Term EYSFF Approach' published on 11.01.21 for details on how to obtain a claim form and and how to submit. You can access this document on the EARLY YEARS page. 

12/03/21 - High Needs Funding Ready Reckoners 2021/22 - The ready reckoners for high needs providers (Special Schools, Resourced Provisions and PRUs) for the 2021/22 financial year have been published here. These enable providers to estimate their funding allocations incorporating the monthly movement of pupils. New for 2021/22, there are now 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. We remind primary and secondary schools and academies that a new SEND Funding Floor is being applied for 2021/22 (for a year in trial pending review).

12/03/21 - March 2021 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 14 April 2021 - this includes all external assets and liabilities. The 2020-21 Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule is also available to download from the same page. The deadline for the submission of this return is also Wednesday 14 April 2021. 

12/03/21 – March 2021 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.

11/03/21 - Early Years Parental Agreement Form - Nursery Schools and schools with nursery classes will have recently received an email from Education and Learning childcare entitled 'Early Years Funding Parental Agreement 2021'. Schools offering nursery provision must adopt the Parental Agreement Form when offering places. You can access a copy of the Parental Agreement Form on our Early Years page. 

10/03/21 - We would just like to ensure that schools are aware that the DfE's  COVID-19 Workforce Fund Claim Portal (as announced in November - please see the news note below on 27 November) is now open. The deadline for submitting claims is 31 March 2021.

10/03/21 - Release of the 2021 Budget Software - We expect the 2021 year in the Budget Software to go live later tonight (Wednesday 10 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.

09/03/21 - Early Years Funding Ready Reckoner 2021/22 - 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 2021/22 financial year. The ready reckoner is based on the confirmed indicative budgets that have been published today (9 March).

09/03/21 - 2021-22 Confirmed Indicative Budgets updated for Early Years - are now available to download from the Secure Area of BSO. Adjustments to forecast numbers have been included where requested. To access please click HERE.

04/03/21 - Early Years Spring Term Adjustment Statements and Spring Term Funding Adjustment - Schools are advised to read the document published on the EARLY YEARS page regarding the Spring Term Adjustment Statements and the spring Term funding adjustment.   

26/02/21 - The 2020-21 Quarter 4 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

25/02/21 - Free School Meals Supplementary Grant - the grant allocation amounts for each school are now available on the Advances Updates page, please click HERE to access the page.  Payments will be included in the March advances for maintained schools.  The conditions of grant and DfE guidance can be viewed here.

24/02/21 - Additional Catch Up / Recovery Funding - The DfE has announced today additional COVID-19 Catch Up / Recovery funding.

23/02/21 - COVID 19 Catch Up Premium – Updated allocations have been announced with the 2^nd Payment for Spring made in March Advances. Schools receiving the Catch-up Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant will only be available for the 2020-21 academic year. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website HERE. Schools should pay particular attention to the 'Use of Funds' guidance to ensure the grant is used appropriately.   

19/02/21 - Early Years (EYSFF) Technical Statement for 2021/22 is now available to download from the Early Years page of BSO Secure Area. The document details how funding for the early years entitlements will be allocated in the 2021/22 financial year.

19/02/21 - 2021/22 Financial Year S251 Budget Statements are now available to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. Schools and academies with early years entitlement provisions have until Monday 8 March 2021 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 4 January below on the timetable for the release of the Software update and the warning not to open or transfer scenarios into the 2021/22 year within the Software. 

19/02/21 - High Needs Providers Delegated Budget Shares 2021/22 - A summary statement showing the 2021/22 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 2021. A Ready Reckoner, which will enable stand-alone high needs settings to estimate their full year 2021/22 high needs funding will be available towards the end of March (the March 10th monthly headcount census and the final full year 2020/21 allocations, are needed in order to finalise the 2021/22 funding calculations).

19/02/21 - Governor Approved Budget Reporting Template 2021-24 (Maintained Schools) - The template for schools to use to report their 2021-2024 Governor Approved Budgets to the Authority is now available for schools to download HERE. Schools are asked to read the accompanying guidance notes thoroughly. The deadline for submission of budgets for 2021/22 is 15 May 2021. The final deadline for submission of 2nd / 3rd year budgets is 30 June 2021. 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 2021/22 financial year at 31 March 2022. Schools are notified now of their Threshold so they can plan their 2021/22 budgets on this basis. 

11/02/21 - DfE Consultation on a new 'Get Help Buying for Schools' Service - Please see here.

11/02/21 – February 2021 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.

05/02/21 - Schools Financial Value Standard deadline now 28 May - The DfE has announced that the deadline for the submission of 2020/21 SFVS returns to the Local Authority is put back from 31 March to 28 May. Maintained schools are encouraged to continue to submit their SFVS returns when these have been completed and authorised by governors, but the final deadline for submission is now 28 May 2021. Our LTFM Scorecard will operate on this basis.

04/02/21 Update Swimming Transport Costs September 2020 – August 2021 - Costs have now been published for the period September 2020 - July 2021. To access the list visit the Swimming Transport page by clicking HERE. Please see note here explaining the intended approach to the charging of swimming transport for the 2020/21 academic year ( also inserted in publication). Please contact School Funding Team schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk if you have any queries on this note or on how the charges have been calculated, including any queries on the number of sessions that have been used for period 1 charging. Schools with queries about cost of pool use should contact Bradford Aquatics on 01274  438791 or bradfordaquatics@bradford.gov.uk

02/02/21 - REMINDER - Liabilities Under Lease/Heritage Asset Forms and Employee Emoluments returns - are due for submission by Friday 26th February 2021. All 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.  

01/02/21 - Pupil Premium Grant - The DfE has updated its guidance here, which confirms that the switch to using the October rather than the January census for mainstream primary and secondary and special school PPG allocations is a permanent on-going system change (it is not just a temporary change for 2021/22).

29/01/21 - REMINDER - Publication of 2021/22 Formula Funding Allocations - Subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 18 February, the S251 Budget Statements for 2021/22 will be published on this website on Friday19 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2021-2024 should also be published on this day. This template will show schools their Intended Use of Balances thresholds for the end of the 2021/22 financial year.

26/01/21 - Notifying Schools Of Issues With 30 Hours Codes for Early Years Pupils - we are changing the approach we take to notify schools of issues with 30 Hour Codes and the action schools needs to take. Please visit the Early Years Funding page in the Secure Area of BSO for details of this change. 

19/01/21 - The National FSM Voucher Scheme has opened.

18/01/21 - School Funding Team New Appointments - We would like to announce the two new appointments to our team. Jonathan (Jonty) Holden has taken up the post of Principal Finance Officer and Lynda Steventon has taken up the post of Finance Officer - Schools. The list of SFT Officers assigned to each school has been updated as has the Who Do I Contact? list.  Schools should view the list to ensure they are aware of their designated officer. To access the SFT Officer by School list and the Who do I Contact? information please click HERE. Schools are reminded that emails should be sent to the main School Funding Team email address, (schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk) and not to individual addresses unless requested to do so. 

15/01/21 - Funded training in school resource management - The Department for Education has funded webinars to help schools, trusts and local authorities plan for the future and ensure long term Financial sustainability. Focusing on resource management and integrated curriculum and Financial planning (ICFP), delegates will receive the knowledge and tools they need to quantify areas of inefficiency, diagnose the causes and ensure effective use of resources. The webinars will be delivered by Entrust Support Services from now until March 2021. Full details of the training and how to book can be found on the Entrust School Resource Management portal.

15/01/21 - CJRS (Furloughing) Calculator - Please see here.

15/01/21 - 21 January Census - The DfE has provided further guidance on the completion of the January Census. The readiness bulletin provides more information on how to complete the Schools Census in respect of UIFSM and Early Years Entitlement numbers. The Early Years Census guidance, whilst more specific to the PVI Sector, is useful for schools to read as it provides further information and examples on the expected approach to the recording of early years children that are not attending provision in census week, which schools should keep in line with. The Authority's funding guidance note for the spring term was published on 11 January (please see below)

14/01/21 - Post 16 Funding 2021-22 Academic Year - The ESFA has published further information on funding rates that will be used within the 2021/22 academic year post 16 funding formula. Please see here.

14/01/21 - Leasing Equipment Guidance - The DfE has published a new section in its 'buying for schools' guidance specifically on leasing equipment. This guidance can be found here.

13/01/21 - Spring Term 2021 Census - Bradford Council Information Management Team (IMT) today received confirmation from DfE the January 2021 Census will go ahead as planned on Thursday 21 January. To view the BSO news item published by IMT on this matter please click HERE. 

13/01/21 - Early Years Single Funding Formula / Block Funding Arrangements Consultation 2021/22 - has now been published on the Consultations page of BSO. Schools and providers should read the document and submit feedback by Wednesday 3 February 2021.

12/01/21 - COVID-19 Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme - Please see the payroll page for further information on the CJRS (furloughing).

12/01/21 Update Swimming Transport Costs September 2020 – August 2021 We are currently working with School Transport and Bradford Aquatics to collect the information that is needed to confirm swimming transport costs for schools for the 2020/21 academic year. The COVID-19 situation has impacted on this process and the new lockdown means lessons are on hold again. Once we have guidance we will update you as soon as we can. We would recommend that schools do not remove swimming transport from their forecasted budgeted spend for 2020/21 pending our clarification and further guidance. Arrangements may return to normal from February / March / April and there are likely also to be some fixed contractual costs that have been incurred over the autumn and spring terms that will need to apportioned and charged. Please keep checking BSO for updates.

12/01/21 – January 2021 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 correction on Advances Schedule for Digital Platform Grant, previously under I06 - To be input against I18C as per CFR Guidance.

11/01/21 - COVID-19 - Early Years Single Funding Formula approach Spring Term 2021 - Please see here for the Authority's guidance on the approach to funding the delivery of the early years entitlements in the spring term 2021. This guidance follows the DfE's current national guidance, which states that a) EYSFF should return to 'normal arrangements' and b) that all early years providers (including maintained nursery schools and nursery classes attached to maintained primary schools and academies) should remain open for all early years children. This guidance also assumes the collection of the 21 January Census. We will continue to monitor the DfE's guidance. Schools however, should plan on the basis of this guidance unless instructed otherwise.

11/01/21 - SFVS 2020-21 Return - Are you ready to submit your 2020/21 return to the Council? - The impact of Covid-19 over the past few months meant it was not possible for Bradford Council Internal Audit to provide training in the form offered in previous years. However, if you have any burning questions to assist you with the completion and approval of this year’s return, help is available, to provide remote advice and support. If we can be of assistance, please call Assistant Audit Manager Karl Pease on 07929 780092 or email him at: karl.pease@bradford.gov.uk. In the meantime, you might wish to visit GOV.UK and familiarise yourself with the current documentation.

Further information can be found on the SFVS page here on BSO. 

11/01/21 - COVID-19 Provision of Free School Meals and Additional Funding Claims - The DfE has provided further guidance on the provision of meals to benefit eligible FSM children and some guidance on how schools will be able to claim additional funding to support the cost of this (with more detailed guidance on the claims process to follow).

06/01/21 - COVID-19 Secretary of State Statement - We would like to ensure schools have sight of the SofS's statement today, here, which includes a statement on the provision / funding of Free School Meals during the lockdown (for which further information is to be provided).

06/01/21 - 2020-21 Year End Guidance - The 2020/21 Year End Guidance document is now available to download from the YE Forms page. Please note there is new and specific information in the guidance regarding new sub categories within I18 for COVID 19 Income. Schools must again ensure unspent capital balances are recorded accurately and information is included within the guidance. Please note the deadline for submission of the Year End Bank Reconciliation Return, including assets, liabilities and other statutory information is Wednesday 14 April 2021. Schools are urged to read the guidance and familiarise themselves with the requirements and deadlines for year end as soon as possible. The March/YE Bank Reconciliation template and the Internal Assets & Liabilities Schedule will be published in due course.

06/01/21 - Year End Returns for Early Submission - Maintained schools are reminded the deadline date for the submission of the Liabilities Under Lease and Heritage Assets returns are due for submission by Friday 26 February 2021. ALL maintained schools are required to complete and return the Liabilities Under Lease & Heritage Assets return. Only those maintained schools using an external or in house payroll provider (i.e. not Bradford Council Payroll Services) are required to submit the External Payroll Payroll Providers Year End Template. To access the Year End page where these templates are held, please click HERE.

05/01/21 - Intended Use of Balances March 2021 - In response to the COVID-19 situation, the application of the Surplus Balances Protocol (Intended Use of Balances) is suspended for 2020/21. This means that maintained schools are not required to submit IUB returns / schemes in support of balances held above their thresholds at 31 March 2021. We will still wish, at an appropriate time, to discuss school plans for the use of significant surplus balances held, but we do not require schools to submit IUB returns before the 31 March 2021. This is a suspension for 2020/21 only.

04/01/21 - 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 the January & February bank reconciliation return is submitted as early as possible in March. Returns can be submitted monthly or for the two months together. The March year end return bank reconciliation template will be posted on BSO in early March.  Please note that the Jan & Feb template does not split out I18 (into A, B, C etc). This is because the SIMS upgrade has not yet taken place (scheduled for later in the spring term).

04/01/21 - REMINDER - Making Tax Digital - Changing VAT descriptions - As schools will be aware, the Council is making preparations for Making Tax Digital to ensure the Council complies with HMRC requirements.  As part of this we are asking for schools to update their VAT descriptions that are currently used in FMS6. The list of descriptions and corresponding codes are here. We have published guidance on how to carry out the changes. The link to the guidance and the descriptions that we wish schools to use is here.  Schools that have not yet changed their VAT descriptors must now do so ASAP.

Please can we also remind all schools that VAT submittals must now be sent by email in CSV format. Please ensure when running the VAT report that the submit button is clicked, as this will ensure that the VAT period is closed. Schools are reminded that this submit button does not send a copy of the report directly to School Funding Team. Schools are still required to produce a copy of the VAT report in CSV format and email it to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk.  Please continue to check the date on the return (that it is for the correct month, for example the return that is sent in January, will be dated 01/01/21-31/01/21). Further guidance on how to run the VAT report is here.

04/01/21 - Publication of 2021/22 Formula Funding Allocations - For work and governing body meeting planning purposes - subject to the approval of Council on Thursday 18 February, the S251 Budget Statements for 2021/22 for maintained schools will be published on this website on Friday 19 February. The template that maintained schools are required to use to submit to the Authority their governor approved budgets for 2021-2024, 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 2021/22 financial year.

04/01/21 - Release of 2021/22 Budgeting Software - For work planning purposes - we anticipate that the updated pre-populated 2021 scenario will be released for schools mid March (the 2020 software was released on 9 March 2020). We will keep schools informed through this webpage. Schools are reminded not to open the new year ‘2021/22’ or transfer any scenarios into it until School Funding Team confirms that the new 2021/22 year update is released and is formally 'open'.

 

QUARTER 3 BULLETINS 2020/21

18/12/20 - Early Years Entitlement Funding for Spring Term 2021 - The DfE has published guidance (a policy statement setting out expectations) on the approach to the funding of early years entitlement delivery in the spring term 2021. The DfE has also published updated guidance about access to the CJRS (furloughing) from 1 January 2021. Guidance is here and here. The headline is that all local authorities are expected to return to their 'normal funding arrangements' for spring term 2021, using their normal arrangements for counting and funding actual numbers of entitlement hours recorded for children on roll (the normal ‘funding follows the child’ approach). Authorities will be funded by the DfE for the spring term on the numbers recorded in the January 2021 Census (with a limited route to claim additional funding where their total January 2021 Census numbers are lower than 85% of January 2020 and only where entitlement delivery in the authority significantly increases after the January 2021 Census has been taken). The CJRS guidance sets out how providers can adjust (increase) their furlough claims from 1 January 2021.  We will now work to provide our more detailed guidance for schools and early years providers on entitlement funding and we will publish this asap in the new year.

17/12/20 - DfE Announcements on x3 Grants for spring term 2021 or 2021/22 - The DfE has today made statements about 3 grants that schools currently receive, as follows. We do not have any more detail at this time. Please note the change in the PPG to use October 2020 rather than January 2021 Census data.

Pupil Premium Grant for the 2021/22 Financial Year

"Funding rates for the pupil premium in the Financial year 2021 to 2022 will stay the same as for 2020 to 2021.

Primary ever 6 FSM pupils: £1,345

Secondary ever 6 FSM pupils: £955

Looked-after children: £2,345

Children who have ceased to be looked-after: £2,345

Service children: £310

For 2021 to 2022 the eligibility criteria for the pupil premium will remain unchanged, but we will be using October 2020 school census data to calculate pupil premium allocations (instead of January 2021). Exceptions to that include alternative provision and pupil referral units where eligibility will continue to be based on the January census.

We will issue further information about this change in the new year."

Free School Meal Supplementary Grant 2020 to 2021

"We are also confirming today that the Free School Meal (FSM) Supplementary Grant will be extended for one additional year to 2020 to 2021 for increases in FSM pupil numbers between October 2019 and October 2020, at a per pupil rate of £450. Allocations will be made in February 2021".

Teacher Pay & Pensions Grants relating to Early Years

"Maintained nursery schools, and schools and academies with early years pupils, currently receive allocations for TPG and TPECG which include early years pupils. We will continue to provide these grants to these schools separately in relation to early years pupils in 2021 to 2022. Allocations will be published in Spring 2021."

So, although these grants are being transferred into core formula funding for primary and secondary, they are continued as separate grants for early years in 2021/22. There is no indication yet of rates of funding (whether existing rates will be uplifted in 21/22).

16/12/20 - The DfE has now issued further guidance on the exceptional absence cost scheme.

15/12/20 – December 2020 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.

14/12/20 - Pupil Premium Grant 2020/21 - 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 (£391 summer & Autumn £390.50 Spring paid via the LA). Where a school has also already received the FSM allocation in their initial 2020/21 funding allocation for such pupils, the amount is deducted from the grant allocation to avoid double funding. (Primary Adjustment £1,345 per pupil. Secondary Adjustment £955 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 2021 advance payment. 

10/12/20 - COVID-19 - Claims process for exam fees & costs - The DfE has published guidance for secondary schools on how to reclaim for fees and costs associated with disrupted exams October 2020 to March 2021.

10/12/20 - The 2020-21 Quarter 3 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

08/12/20 - FINAL Early Years Autumn Term 2020 Adjustments Statements - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page. The funding adjustments detailed in these statements will be included in the December 2020 advance. 

04/12/20 - COVID-19 Exceptional Costs Claims 2nd Window - The 2nd window for claiming reimbursement for exceptional costs has opened. Please see here. The deadline for claims is 22 December.

04/12/20 - REMINDER - School Fund Audits due by 31 December – Thank you to all schools that have submitted their 2019-20 audits. For those schools that haven't yet, please can we remind you that all private and voluntary accounts must be audited up to either the end of the 2019-20 Financial year, or the 2019-20 academic year, and an audit certificate or copy of audited accounts submitted to School Funding Team by 31 December 2020.

27/11/20 - The DfE has today made an announcement about a fund to support exceptionally high absence cover costs incurred this term as result of COVID-19. Further details are to follow but this announcement gives a sense of what the eligibility criteria for claims will be and the period this fund will cover (beginning of November to the end of term).

19/11/20 - A new page has been published today on the DfE's website providing information on COVID Catch Up Funds

13/11/20 - 1st Provisional Early Years Autumn Term 2020 Adjustment Statements - have now been published on the EARLY YEARS page. Please note as these statements are provisional, the values detailed are subject to change. Further information is provided on the Early Years page. 

13/11/20 - The DfE has published a summary of the information that maintained schools are required to publish on their websites. This includes the Financial information required to be published, which now includes spending of the COVID-19 Catch Up Premium. Please can schools check this list to ensure that they remain compliant.

12/11/20 – November 2020 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.

10/11/20 - The DfE has updated the RAG ratings within the Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) template for the 2018/19 year.

03/11/20 - The planned dates of Schools Forum meetings in the 2021/22 academic year can be viewed here.

03/11/20 - PE & Sports Premium Allocations for 2020/21 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 2020 ADVANCE under I18 - Additional Grant for Schools. Please refer to foot of the list which gives further information on the conditions of grant.

03/11/20 - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant for the 2020-21 Academic Year - have been published.

02/11/20 - PE & Sports Premium Conditions of Grant 19/20 (COVID-19) - We wish to draw to the attention of primary schools the latest version of the DfE's conditions of grant for the 2019/20 academic year PE and Sports Premium, updated for flexibility in the timescale for spending (up to March 2021) in response to COVID-19.

02/11/20 - 2021-22 Advances Payment Dates to School Bank Accounts - A list of dates has been published for schools to download. Please note these dates are provisional and subject to change. To access the list click HERE.

29/10/20 - The Quarter 3 Bank Reconciliation template for 2020/21 is now available to download from the secure area. Please note that this template does not yet split out I18 (into A, B, C etc). This is because the SIMS upgrade has not yet taken place (scheduled for the spring term).

29/10/20 - REMINDER - DfE Financial Transparency Update (Model text and template) - As part of the DfE's transparency changes that were notified in July 2020 - for schools to publish 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. Schools must ensure that this information is published on their websites by 1 January 2021 at the latest. In providing a link to the benchmarking website, the ESFA has clarified that this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page). 

29/10/20 - REMINDER - School Fund Audits – Thank you to those schools who have already submitted their 2019-20 audits.  In Quarter 3 we anticipate that most schools will be arranging the audit of Private and Voluntary accounts. By the end of December 2020 these accounts should have been audited up to either the end of the 2019-20 Financial year, or the 2019-20 academic year and submitted to the School Funding Team.  Further guidance by Internal Audit (issued Sept 2015) is available in the secure area of BSO.

23/10/20 – Teachers Pay & Pensions Grants allocations for September 2020 to March 2021 for High Needs Providers have now been determined. To access a list of the allocations click here. The allocations will be included in the November 2020 advance.

22/10/20 - Teacher Pension Grant Allocations for September 2020 to March 2021 have been published by the DfE today. The allocations for maintained mainstream schools have been extracted and can be accessed here. These allocations will be added to the November advances. Please note there doesn’t appear to be a facility to apply again for supplementary funding, with 19/20 allocations being continued and incorporated into the main allocations, please click here for further information. The allocations for high needs providers will be published shortly.

22/10/20 - Teacher Pay Grant Allocations for September 2020 to March 2021 have been published by the DfE today. The allocations for maintained mainstream schools have been extracted and can be accessed here. These allocations will be added to the November advances. The allocations for high needs providers will be published shortly.

14/10/20 - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2021/22 High Needs Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the Consultations page. The closing date for responses is 1 December 2020.

14/10/20 - Consultation documents setting out proposals for 2021/22 Primary & Secondary Schools Block formula funding arrangements have now been published on the Consultations page. The closing date for responses is 1 December 2020.

14/10/20 - Please note that we are not yet able to begin consultation on Early Years Single Funding Formula proposals for 2021/22 due to the Early Years Block settlement and operational guidance having not yet been published by the DfE. We will publish a consultation as soon as possible once these are published.

14/10/20 – October 2020 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.

08/10/20 - Pay Settlement News Note from Payroll - A news note has been added by Payroll on the 2020-21 pay settlements and actions to be taken by schools. This news note is here. We would also like to draw attention to the change in Term Time Only factors, as the NJC pay settlement includes adjustment to the annual leave entitlement for certain bands, which means that the Term Time Only factors are adjusted for these bands.

 

QUARTER 2 BULLETINS 2020/21

25/09/20 - UIFSM Data in Autumn Term 2020 Census - Updated guidance has today been released by DfE regarding the recording of the 'lunches taken' data in the autumn term 2020 census on 1 October. The revision recognises that some schools may experience a reduction in the number of lunches taken in R, Y1 and Y2 due to absence relating specifically to COVID 19 and the subsequent impact on Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) funding. The updated guidance can be accessed HERE. The paragraph relating to UIFSM is highlighted in yellow.  

25/09/20 - COVID 19 Catch Up Premium – Provisional allocations have been announced with the 1^st Payment for Autumn made in October Advances. Schools receiving the Catch-up Premium via the LA can access a list of the amount to be paid HERE. The grant will only be available for the 2020-21 academic year. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website HERE. Schools should pay particular attention to the 'Use of Funds' guidance to ensure the grant is used appropriately.   

16/09/20 - Scheme for Financing Schools - The Scheme has been updated following the consultation (please see note below 08/07/20) and the approval of the Schools Forum.

16/09/20 – September 2020 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.

14/09/20 - The 2020-21 Quarter 2 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

04/09/20 - FOR ACTION - Budgeting Software Subscription 2021 - 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 2021/22. Schools are asked to return the subscription form by Friday 23 October 2020 at the latest.

04/09/20 - Schools Contract Standing Orders - Two minor amendments have been made to the School Contract Standing Orders (SCSOs). The document can be found here. Paragraph 2.9 has been added to clarify that the SCSOs apply to federated governing boards in the same way as they do for governing boards of single schools. Paragraph 19.5 has been added to require schools to comply with the additional responsibilities that will come (further guidance is to be published by the DfE) in the management, recording and reporting of Related Party Transactions as a result of the DFE's transparency reforms.

03/09/20 - Swimming Transport Costs September 2020 – August 2021 – We are currently working with School Transport and Bradford Aquatics to collect the information that is needed to confirm swimming transport costs for schools for the 2020/21 academic year. The COVID-19 situation has impacted on this process and, unfortunately, this means that we are not able to publish information in September as we did last year. We will publish information as soon as we have it. Please continue to check BSO here for updates.

02/09/20 - Update Guide to Financial Procedures -. This document has now been updated with more information on Contracts Registers on Page 103 / 4.3.16. Please click here to access the Authority's Guide to Financial Procedures.

02/09/20 - CFR Framework 2020-21 - REVISED - I18 Additional Grants for Schools has now been updated to include sub categories for COVID 19 grant payments. Please visit the Consistent Financial Reporting page HERE to see the changes and access a link to the full CFR Framework document on GOV.UK. 

01/09/20 - Early Years Single Funding Formula Autumn Term 2020 - Please click here for a guidance note on our approach to the EYSFF (for the funding of early years entitlement delivery) for the autumn term 2020.

01/09/20 - The 2019/20 Outturn Benchmarking Tool is now available to view and download. Please read the instructions on the Financial Benchmarking page before downloading the file (accessible from the same page).

01/09/20 - REMINDER - Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) - Maintained schools are required to complete the SFVS for 2020/21, with returns being submitted to the Authority by 31 March 2021. The DfE's guidance and SFVS form can be found here. Some further information on SFVS can be found on our audit page here.

01/09/20 - REMINDER - School Fund Audits – Schools are reminded that they are required to arrange the audit of all private and voluntary accounts (non-school enabling accounts) that they hold. Audit statements are then required to be submitted to the Authority by the end of December 2020 (evidencing that these accounts have been audited up to either the end of the 2019-20 Financial year or the 2019-20 academic year). Please continue to submit audit statements to School Funding Team by email.  Further guidance has been provided by Internal Audit (issued Sept 2015) and is available in the secure area.

01/09/20 - REMINDER - TEMPLATE TO USE FOR QUARTER 2 AND QUARTER 3 BUDGET MONITORING RETURNS - the standard budget monitoring template, which is pre-populated with budget and CFR information, is now available to download here. Maintained schools should now use this template to submit their quarter 2 and quarter 3 monitoring returns to the Authority. Please do not continue to use the temporary template, which was available for quarter 1 returns.

01/09/20 - REMINDER - Monthly Monitors For Schools - The Classification of Schools statements for 2020-21 were published on 14 July (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.

01/19/20 - REMINDER - Making Tax Digital - Changing VAT descriptions - As schools will be aware, the Council is making preparations for Making Tax Digital to ensure the Council complies with HMRC requirements.  As part of this we are asking for schools to update their VAT descriptions that are currently used in FMS6. The list of descriptions and corresponding codes are here. We have published guidance on how to carry out the changes. The link to the guidance and the descriptions that we wish schools to use is here.  Schools that have not yet changed their VAT descriptors must now do so ASAP.

Please can we also remind all schools that VAT submittals must now be sent by email in CSV format. Please ensure when running the VAT report that the submit button is clicked, as this will ensure that the VAT period is closed. Schools are reminded that this submit button does not send a copy of the report directly to School Funding Team. Schools are still required to produce a copy of the VAT report in CSV format and email it to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk.  Please continue to check the date on the return (that it is for the correct month, for example the return that is sent in August, will be dated 01/08/20-31/08/20). Further guidance on how to run the VAT report is here.

01/09/20 – REMINDER - the Surplus Balances Protocol (also known as the IUB (Intended Use of Balances) Protocol can be accessed here.

01/09/20 - REMINDER - DfE Financial Transparency Update (Model text and template) - As part of the DfE's transparency changes that were notified in July 2020 - for schools to publish 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. Schools must ensure that this information is published on their websites by 1 January 2021 at the latest. In providing a link to the benchmarking website, the ESFA has clarified that this link must include the school's URN (to take people directly to the school's benchmarking website page). 

01/09/20 - REMINDER - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2021/22 Financial year budget (formula funding) information here

01/09/20 - REMINDER - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2020/21 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 2021/22 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 16 September.

01/09/20 -  REMINDER - 2021/22 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2020 Census. This census is taking place.This note gives more information on 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. Schools are specifically reminded about the recording of FSM eligibility.

01/09/20 - COVID-19 Temporary VAT reduction hospitality sector - Please click here to access a guidance note on the temporary reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector and its impact on schools. Schools are asked to read and action.

24/08/20 - COVID-19 Catch Up Premium - as part of the COVID-19 Catch Up Premium, the DfE has today announced an early years language programme for the Reception year. Schools are required to register their interest. Please see here for further information.

04/08/20 - Access Group (HCSS) Software update for pay awards at April 2020 (support staff) and September 2020 (teachers)  - We have asked Access Group to update the software to reflect the latest positions on the pay awards for support staff and teachers. This update should be actioned tomorrow and, as usual, it will be a mandatory update. Support staff scale points have been uplifted by 2.75% at April 2020 (the original estimate in the software prior to the update was 2.00%) but the increase remains at 2.00% for future years. The teacher pay scales and allowances have been amended so that they are uplifted at September 2020 in line with the STRB's recommendations, which have been fully accepted by the DfE. There are differences within the MPS and UPS, but the main difference from the original estimates in the software prior to update is the increase of 2.75% (rather than 2.50%) across other scales and allowances at September 2020. The software still assumes the movement to the minimum £30,000 salary for MPS1 at September 2022 and a wider 2.5% increase in other scales and allowances in years 2 and 3.

03/08/20 - August 2020 SAP reports - are now available to download from BSO Drop Box. 

03/08/20 - Internal Audit Update - Due to the effects of the recent Covid-19 outbreak, visits to school premises have not been practicable, and it has become necessary to make changes, for now, to the way school audits are undertaken. For the foreseeable future, audits will be conducted remotely, unless circumstances require otherwise.  Internal audit guidance to the new approach is linked here.

31/07/20 - DfE Financial Transparency Changes - The DfE has completed its consultation on changes aimed at improving the transparency of Financial arrangements in maintained schools, please click here for a summary communications on changes.

30/07/20 - 2021/22 Schools Formula Funding - The DfE made an announcement on 20 July concerning arrangements for school formula funding for 2021/22. A summary document can be found here. There are other pages on the DfE's website that provide some high level funding figures. Whilst this document is a little complex (and more helpful to us in developing our 2021/22 arrangements), it does give an overview of the position for 2021/22 and sight of some technical changes. For example, it is now clear that both the Teacher Pay Grant and the Teacher Pensions Grant will be merged into main core formula funding from 2021/22. As normal, we will begin discussing our funding proposals for 2021/22 with the Schools Forum in September, and we then anticipate publishing our consultation documents as usual in October. Please note that the DfE has not yet announced anything regarding early years entitlement funding (or the funding of maintained nursery schools) in 2021/22; this is expected in September.

29/07/20 - Approach to Early Years Entitlement Funding (EYSFF) Autumn Term - The DfE has published some short guidance for authorities on how to approach early years entitlement funding in the autumn term. This guidance is available here. We will publish in due course the details of our approach to autumn term EYSFF funding, which will work incorporating the normal DfE October Census and the DfE's expectation that authorities should fund "on the basis of ‘as if autumn term 2020 were happening normally’".

We wish to highlight for schools at this stage two important clear messages from the DfE:

• "Local authorities should...continue to fund providers which have been advised to close, or left with no option but to close, due to public health reasons. Local authorities should not fund providers which are closed, without public health reason, from the start of the autumn term."

• "We expect to return to the normal early years funding process and use the January 2021 census count to drive funding allocations for the 2021 spring term. We also expect local authorities’ funding to providers in the spring term to return to the normal approach (that is, ‘funding following the child’) for all providers from 1 January 2021.However, we will keep this under review and confirm the approach in further guidance in the autumn."

27/07/20 - TEMPLATE TO USE FOR QUARTER 2 AND QUARTER 3 BUDGET MONITORING RETURNS - the standard budget monitoring template, which is pre-populated with budget and CFR information, is now available to download here. Maintained schools should now use this template to submit their quarter 2 and quarter 3 monitoring returns to the Authority. Please do not continue to use the temporary template, which was available for quarter 1 returns.

23/07/20 - COVID 19 Catch Up Premium - Information has been released by DfE on the funding to be released to schools with the aim to assist pupils to catch up on lost time in education. The allocations will total £80 per pupil for mainstream schools and £240 per place for special schools and alternative provision settings. Payment will be made in 3 tranches: 1st in autumn 2020 / 2nd in spring term 2021 / 3rd in summer term 2021. The sum total of the first 2 payments will be for 7/12ths of the full allocation (£46.67 per pupil for schools & £140 per place for specials & AP). The final payment in summer term will be for the remaining 5/12ths (£33.33 per pupil for schools & £100 per place for specials & AP). The grant will only be available for the 2020-21 academic year. The full guidance document can be viewed on the GOV.UK website HERE. Schools should pay particular attention to the 'Use of Funds' guidance to ensure the grant is used appropriately.   We will publish any further information and guidance and school level allocations data here as and when they become available. 

15/07/20 – July 2020 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.

15/07/20 - UIFSM 2019-20 Final Allocations & 2020/21 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 2020 Advance. 

14/07/20 - The Quarter 2 Bank Reconciliation template for 2020/21 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO

14/07/20 - Financial Classification of Schools 2020/21 Academic Year - Please click here to access the calculation of the Financial Classification of Schools for the 2020/21 academic year. This Classification places schools in categories A, B, C or D on the basis of their 2019/20 outturns and approved 3 year budgets. Please click here to access the document, which explains the Classification Protocol and the requirements placed on schools.

14/07/20 -  2021/22 Formula Funding allocations for primary and secondary schools and academies will be based on the data collected by the DfE in the October 2020 Census. This note gives more information on 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. Schools are specifically reminded about the recording of FSM eligibility.

14/07/20 - To aid schools' planning, we have published a draft timetable for the publication of 2021/22 Financial year budget (formula funding) information here

14/07/20 - Schools Forum meeting dates for the 2020/21 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 2021/22 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 16 September.

08/07/20 - Consultation on the Scheme for Financing Schools - The Authority is proposing some amendments to the Scheme for Financing Schools. These were presented to the Schools Forum on 8 July and the Forum has approved a consultation with maintained schools as required by the Financial Regulations. A summary of the proposed amendments can be viewed here and the full proposed Scheme with the amendments highlighted here. The amendments proposed are mostly minor and are not material. The main amendment is the inclusion of a provision for the the DfE's Risk Protection Arrangement, which is now required by the DfE to be inserted into our Scheme. If you have any comments or feedback on these amendments please contact Andrew Redding andrew.redding@bradford.gov.uk. The deadline for any responses is Monday 7 September 2020.

07/07/20 - Reminder - please see the note posted below on 25 June - the deadline for submission of claims to the DfE for exceptional and additional costs incurred in response to COVID-19 is 21 July 2020. Please do not miss this deadline.

07/07/20 - CFR 2019-20 Submission - Schools are reminded the deadline for the submission of the 2019-20 CFR on COLLECT is FRIDAY 10 JULY 2020. Please visit the CFR page on BSO to read the guidance document called IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS before finalising and submitting your report.  

06/07/20 VAT Returns Guidance: Please ensure when running the Making Tax Digital VAT report return the submit button is clicked, this will ensure that the period is closed. Also clarification regarding the submit button on the Making Tax Digital VAT report, this button just closes the period.  It does not send a copy of the report directly to School Funding Team. Schools are still required to produce a copy of the return in CSV format and email it to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk.  When the school is sending a copy of the report to school funding please check date on the return that it is for the correct month, for example the return that is sent in July, will be dated 01/06/20-30/06/20. Further guidance on how to run the report is here.

06/07/20 - PE& Sports Premium - Please see here for the DfE's announcement confirming the primary phase PE& Sports Premium for the 2020/21 academic year.

03/07/20 2020-21 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 2020 advance. For conversions that have taken place on 1st May they will receive 5/12ths of the allocation with adjustments by LA. 

01/07/20 - July 2020 SAP Reports - are now available to download from BSO Drop Box.

 

QUARTER 1 BULLETINS 2020/21

30/06/20 - 2019-20 CFR Report - Issue with COLLECT now fixed - COLLECT has now been amended and schools uploading 2019-20 CFR Returns should not get the error / query message about opening and closing balances. if this message does appear it is because there is a genuine mismatch between your 2018-19 closing balance and your 2019-20 opening balance. A member of School Funding Team will contact you about this.

If you uploaded your return to COLLECT prior to the fix being applied the query message will remain, as will the note you have added. This is ok and you do not need to upload your return again.

29/06/20 - 2019-20 CFR Report - the submission of returns to COLLECT can now resume. However, schools MUST read the 29.06.2020 CFR Update document before proceeding. Further information and documentation can be found on the BSO page for Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) .

29/06/20 - COVID-19 DfE Data Collections - The DfE has updated its guidance on the position of data collections. Schools are advised to review this. This guidance now confirms in particular that the Autumn Term Census (the October Census) is to be completed by schools.

25/06/20 - COVID-19 DfE Schools Exceptional & Additional Funds Scheme - the DfE has now updated its guidance on the scheme to support schools and academies with additional / exceptional costs related to COVID-19 that have been incurred between March and July. The DfE has now also opened the online process for submitting claims. Claims must be submitted by schools and academies (the Authority cannot do this on a maintained school's behalf) using this online process. The deadline for claims is 21 July 2020 and the DfE is clear that there will be no extensions. The DfE does indicate that there will be a second window in autumn in which to submit claims for the remainder of the summer term. We encourage all schools and academies to review the guidance and to submit a claim where it is legitimate to do so.

22/06/20 - COLLECT - ERROR WHEN UPLOADING 2019-20 RETURN - we are aware there is an error / query being incorrectly generated when uploading the 2019-20 CFR return. The message advises the 2019-20 opening balances do not match the 2018-19 closing balances. This error is invalid for the vast majority of schools. This has been raised for investigation with the DfE Data Collections Team. Schools should refrain from uploading returns until we have been notified by the DfE the issue has been resolved. We will advise schools here when returns can again be uploaded to COLLECT.  

22/06/20 - CFR Submission for 2019/20 - Announcement from DfE has confirmed the 2019/20 CFR submission will go ahead. COLLECT is now open for schools to upload their 2019/20 returns. Please visit the Consistent Financial Reporting page on BSO for more information. Schools should also read the document IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR SCHOOLS before exporting and uploading their return to COLLECT. Schools not using FMS6 should contact Dawn Haigh on 01274 433775 to discuss how the 2019/20 CFR will be submitted.

22/06/20 - Year 7 Catch Up Premium - We have received a communication from the ESFA confirming that the Year 7 Catch Up Grant (a separate allocated to secondary schools and academies in March each year) has ceased and will no longer be paid.

16/06/20 - June 2020 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.

16/06/20 - May 2020 SAP Reports - are now available to download from BSO Drop Box. 

03/06/20 - COVID-19 - Updated guidance on furloughing in schools (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) - An updated guidance note for schools, and a template, is available here. This updated note was sent to schools yesterday in the Council's daily email.

03/06/20  - The 2019/20  Bank Adjustment calculation is now available for maintained schools on the Advances page. The bank adjustment is normally managed via a separate advances payment (where the Council owes the school) or by requiring schools to re-pay balances by cheque (where the school owes the Council). In response to the COVID-19 situation, we are managing the bank adjustment this year through the monthly advances system and you will see this adjustment on the June master advances schedule. Please see the note within the template for further information. Please speak to a member of School Funding Team if you have any queries.

01/06/20 - May 2020 SAP Reports - please note the issue of these reports has been delayed. We anticipate publishing these reports during week commencing Monday 8 June 2020.

01/06/20 - Quarter 1 Budget Monitoring Template - A template for maintained schools to use for quarter 1 budget monitoring is now available here. Please read the guidance notes that accompany this template for further explanation. We ask schools to discuss a quarter 1 monitoring report with their governing boards and to submit the completed template by 31 July. Please speak to a member of School Funding Team if you have any queries.

29/05/20 - 2020/21 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 Monday 8^th 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.  

27/05/20 - FINAL MARCH 2020 SAP REPORTS - are now available to download from BSO Drop Box. Please check the reports carefully to ensure all transactions are correct. 

CFR Return 2019-20 - now the final SAP reports are available, schools are reminded the current 2019-20 CFR submission has been postponed. We expect more information at the end of June from the DfE and we will advise schools of the revised submission date on COLLECT as soon as possible after the announcement from the DFE.

Schools should still prepare the CFR report for submission. Ensure the revenue balance shown on the FINAL MARCH SAP report matches the revenue balance on your CFR report within FMS6 (B01 + B02 +B06). Guidance on how to check your CFR is available to E-ICT subscribers via the E-ICT pages on BSO. Please check the version of FMS6 is at least version 6.192 and the CFR Framework includes the new split for I08a and I08b. 

Schools are also reminded of changes to the reporting of capital balances in the 2019-20 CFR report. Full details can be found in the SFT Year End Guidance on the Year End Forms (Annual) page of BSO -  HERE.

Schools can finalise the 2019-20 Financial year on FMS6 but should not export the final CFR until ready to upload to COLLECT.

27/05/20 - MESSAGE TO SCHOOL BUSINESS MANAGERS AND BURSARS - School Funding Team would like to say a big THANK YOU to schools and bursars for the efforts you have all made to ensure the March returns and year-end information were submitted as quickly as possible. The vast majority of returns were submitted by 20 April with the few remaining returns coming in soon after which is remarkable given the circumstances.

We acknowledge the challenging conditions you have had to work under in order to achieve this and we very much appreciate your commitment and determination.

We hope you are all keeping safe and sound during this time and look forward to continuing working with you all.

15/05/20 - COVID-19 - The DfE has provided further guidance specifically for schools on PPN 02/20 (supplier relief).

15/05/20 - EYSFF Allocations Summer Term 2020 - Please click here to access further information on the alternative approach to the confirmation of allocations to schools and academies for the delivery of the early years entitlements in summer term 2020 following the cancellation of the 21 May Census. Provisional allocations / statements are included with this guidance.

14/05/20 - April 2020 SAP Reports are now available to download from BSO Drop Box. 

13/05/20 - Final SAP Reports for 2019-20 and April 2020 - Please note Final SAP Reports for March 2020 (FY 2019-20) will not be issued until on or after 20 May 2020.  We are aiming to issue the April 2020 SAP reports by Friday 15 May 2020. We will publish a news item here to alert schools when reports have been issued. 

13/05/20 May 2020 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. For High Needs Funding Statements please click HERE.

12/05/20 - VAT Returns: Clarification regarding the submit button on the Making Tax Digital VAT report, this button just closes the period.  It does not send a copy of the report directly to School Funding Team. Schools are still required to produce a copy of the return in CSV format and email it to schoolfundingteam@bradford.gov.uk.

12/05/20 - COVID-19 - Furloughing in schools (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme) - A guidance note for schools is available here on accessing the CJRS. This note was sent to schools yesterday in the Council's daily email. This guidance is applicable for schools that collect significant values of private income (such as from parents through charging fees for the delivery of before and after schools clubs and other childcare services) where this income is significantly affected by the current situation. Schools are asked to consider this guidance whilst also speaking directly to their HR support.

30/04/20 - March 2020 Interim SAP Reports issued - A further set of SAP reports for March 2020 have been uploaded to BSO Drop Box. All bank reconciliations, internal and external assets and liabilities received to date have been posted and Cap to Nil journals completed where returns have been received. However, these SAP reports are not yet FINAL as there may be other transactions to post. We will announce when the final SAP reports have been uploaded. 

30/04/20 - PE Sports Premium Allocations AY 2019-20 5/12ths Allocations - have now been published on the Advances Updates page of BSO. The allocations will be paid with the May advance. 

30/04/20 - The Quarter 1 Bank Reconciliation template for 2020/21 is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

28/04/20 - Teachers PAY Grant 2020/21 - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2020 to August 2020. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the May 2020 advance.

28/04/20 - Teachers PENSIONS Grant 2020/21 - 5/12ths Allocation for Maintained Primary & Secondary Schools have now been determined for the period April 2020 to August 2020. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the May 2020 advance.

28/04/20 – High Needs Teachers PAY & Pensions Grant 2020/21 - 5/12ths Allocation For High Needs Providers have now been determined for the period April 2020 to August 2020. To access a list of the allocations click HERE. The allocations will be included in the May 2020 advance.

27/04/20 - COVID-19 - The DfE has published guidance for schools on managing premises.

24/04/20 - The 2020-21 Quarter 1 LTFM Scorecard is now available to download from the secure area of BSO.

22/04/20 - DFC 2020-21 Allocations to schools - allocations for 2020-21 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 2020 once the LA has received the grant in full.

21/04/20 – Cancellation & Postponement of DfE Data Collections – The DfE has published details of the cancellation or postponement of a number of data collections that normally take place in the summer term. The full list of collections can be found here. We would like to highlight 3 finance-related returns in particular:

CFR 2019/20 - The submission of the CFR return via COLLECT for the 2019/20 Financial year is deferred until later in the summer term (with a revised timetable still to be published).  Our expectation is that the 2019/20 CFR Return will still require submission via COLLECT in the usual way. Therefore, schools should continue to apply their normal checks and processes for their final return in preparation for submission. The CFR blade on COLLECT is not currently available. Schools should refrain from exporting their final CFR until the CFR blade is open on COLLECT. We will publish a news item to alert schools to this on this webpage.

21 May Census -  This Census is cancelled. It is normally used to calculate Early Years Single Funding Formula allocations, as well as Looked After Children payments, for the summer term. The cancellation means that we will need to explore alternative options for the confirmation of EYSFF and LAC funding for the summer term. We will set out our approach in guidance to be published on this webpage shortly.

SFVS 2019/20 – We still expect schools to submit their SFVS returns that were due to be completed by 31 March 2020. We wish these returns to be appropriately authorised prior to submission and we understand that there may be delay in schools being able to achieve this due to the current circumstances. We will begin to contact schools that are yet to submit their SFVS returns at an appropriate time.

17/04/20 - April 2020 Advances Schedule and High Needs Funding Statements have now been published. To access the Advances Schedule click HERE. To access the High Needs Funding Statements click HERE. 

09/04/20 - 3^rd Interim SAP Reports available to download. An additional set of March 2020 SAP Reports are now available to download form BSO Drop Box.

Where the March bank reconciliation return AND external assets and liabilities (where declared) have been posted and appear on this SAP report and the postings are correct, schools can perform a preliminary closedown on FMS6.

Please note internal assets and liabilities have not yet been checked and posted on SAP (where submitted). Schools will be required to input these entries on FMS6 once posted and included on a future SAP report.

Please also note Capital balances have not yet been transferred in SAP and are included in these SAP reports.

If your March bank reconciliation return and any external assets and liabilities do not appear on this SAP report, please refrain from running a preliminary closedown until your returns are included in a future SAP report.

07/04/20 - COVID-19 - The DfE has published some more details of its funding scheme for exceptional costs. Schools are asked to take note of this and (please see the news note below 23/3/20) make sure that they record the additional costs they incur in line with the DfE's criteria, so that they in a position to submit any relevant claims in June. The DfE has stated that more information on the claims process will be published in June. There is uncertainty within the guidance currently published on how schools are to be supported for the loss of income they would normally have collected over the summer term, including income from before and after school club activity. Whilst clarity on this issue is sought, schools are asked to ensure that they maintain an accurate record of their income loss.

03/04/20 - Section 251 Budget Statement - The Authority's Section 251 Budget Statement for the 2020/21 financial year has been submitted to the DfE and the downloaded reports can be viewed here

01/04/20 - COVID-19 - Guidance on payment to suppliers - we would like to highlight for schools the DfE's guidance (Procurement Policy Note 02/20 Supplier Relief) on the approach expected by the government to be taken by public sector bodies (including schools) in their payment of suppliers for contracts and services.