Birmingham Bursars’ Group
Spring Conference 2013
Tuesday 28th February at The Clarendon Suites, Edgbaston
Exhibitors at the conference – please see the details on the website.
Meeting opened at 9.00am
1. Welcome
Jane Taylor welcomed members to the meeting, with a warm welcome to new members and visitors.
Attendees were encouraged to fill out an evaluation form before leaving, as their opinions on the venue and agenda would be discussed by the committee immediately after the conference.
Members were also encouraged to visit exhibitors, as there was a range of services available and prize draws.
2. Group business – Jane Taylor
Matters arising from Autumn conference – minutes of the meeting 13/11/12 were reviewed. Equal Pay – Jane Brown has not come back to the group, but we are chasing her for a response. Minutes agreed as a true and correct record (proposed: Jill Blower, seconded: Mike Jameson).
Chair’s Report – details can be found in the meetings section of the website.
Education and Skills Infrastructure Consultation Group – report on the latest meeting is on the website including information about an enterprise award for schools and the Birmingham Baccalaureate. It is very useful to keep these links, any questions can be passed via Matthew Wheeler or Martyn Alcott.
Membership Fees 2012/13 – Because of the income provided by sponsors and exhibitors, who make up 70% of the group’s income, we are able to keep the fees at the same level - £50.00 per member per year. Passed unanimously.
Jane thanked Lorraine Breakwell from Harborne Primary has volunteered to talk to the Worcester Group about business continuity following a serious fire.
No other group business – business concluded and meeting declared open.
2. “Current Payroll Issues for Schools and Performance Management Update” – Seamus Cooney – Head of Schools Payroll Services – Birmingham City Council, and Frances Cowling – Project Manager Performance Manager
See presentation on website.
- Any comments or queries about service level agreements can be given directly to Seamus at any point before 28th March.
- Maternity pay and allowances – Seamus is producing guidance and a ready reckoner for schools to work out what their costs will be, including gross, net and on-cost.
- School business managers will be copied in to any letters from HR to the school about how much schools will get, and what payment period it will cover.
- School staff should be reminded that they are now paying for the services of HR, so they should expect any problems to be resolved promptly. The new SLA should address the commitment and responses to expect and any problems should be escalated to payroll managers if schools are not happy.
- Other external payroll providers give a report in advance of payroll so schools able to check before payments are made. BCC hope to be able to provide this in due course, but it may take some time.
- When is the increment for support staff performance management going to be paid?
Where schools have inputted the performance management data, the increments will be paid as follows:
March 2013 – 2011 performance increment (including arrears)
April 2013 – 2013 time-served increment
May 2013 – 2012 performance increment (including arrears)
Where schools have not inputted, the schools will be contacted as the time-frames will be different.
More information will be in an update on the portal.
- How will staff who have moved school be paid? When the increment is calculated, schools will be charged a pro-rated amount depending on how long the employee was in the school.
- How will staff who have been made redundant receive their increment? There is only a few of these, but it will be up to them to get in contact.
- If schools have changed HR provider the performance management report from Schools HR will go the new HR provider.
- Schools that did not meet the deadline will have a charge levied from Schools HR to reflect the extra work.
- Objectives – can schools set the same objective two years in a row? Yes, as long as suitable monitoring steps can be set to measure progress.
- Schools HR are doing their best to minimise any inconsistency of advice – best to go back to the written guidelines if unsure.
3. “Pensions Update for Schools” Sally Plant – Head of Schools Pensions Services – Birmingham City Council
See presentation on website
Questions
As the State pension ageincreases from 60-65, will the local government pension have to mirror this?
Not necessarily – if you opt to take early retirement before 65, there will be a sliding scale of reduced levels.
Support staff with backdated payments from performance management – how will pensions catch up with this?
The Local Govt scheme will calculate the correct rate relative to contributions year on year.
Sponsor Slot
Schools Advisory Services – Holly Taylor, General Manager
“Staff Absence and Maternity Insurance”
COFFEE
4. “Fire Risk Assessments and Action Plans” Bill Parkes – West Midlands Fire Service
See presentation on website.
Questions:
- How often should you re-train Fire Marshalls? Every 2 years is recommended, with half-day refreshers also available. Also available: onsite fire extinguisher training, fire safety lecture
- How many Fire Marshalls are needed per site? Depends on the site and number of buildings and how much can be swept by one person, or do the monthly audit.
5. “CRB and EBulk Introduction” Ellen Osborne – Performance and Commissioning Service – Birmingham City Council
See presentation on website. DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) is replacing CRB and will move from paper to online. Schools will be able to have more ID checkers.
6. “Fair Funding Formula – Changes from April 2013” – Martyn Scott, Birmingham Schools Education Finance
See presentation on website.
Significant changes have been finalised and agreed with DfE. Indicative budgets were based on Oct 2011 data sets, but they are now using the Oct 2012 data from school census returns, so there may be changes to the indicative budgets, especially in schools were student numbers have fallen over the last 12 months.
Minimum Funding Guarantee will be funded by a cap on per pupil increase on schools who are gaining, and allocated to schools who are losing.
Special schools will receive an amount per agreed number of places (from BCC), plus an amount per pupil based on Needs (from the home Local Authority).
High Needs Funding – there is a £500K contingency to be allocated to schools with a greater than average number of SEN pupils – BCC will contact these schools.
De-delegated budgets – a briefing paper has been issued and all schools should read and act on. If there are problems with the timetable, contact Martyn or Justine Pinckney.
Licence and Subscriptions – this will continue to be paid centrally. The government holds national license agreements and bills the local authorities
Funding for specialist schools status – this is now all included in the 10 factors which make up the funding formula.
Indicative budgets received last October didn’t include pupil premium, which will be paid on top of the budget.
Cashless systems – Martyn has met with one provider and will shortly meet with others to see what they can offer and report back.
LUNCH
Raffle winners drawn by sponsors.
7. “Current Issues for Academies, old, new and prospective” – Julie Cosgrove, Senior Advisor, Academies Division, EFA
See presentation on website.
Panel Discussion – see website for members of the panel.
Questions:
What is the panel’s view on key issues to be resolved before conversion, and what is a reasonable timescale?
3-6 months is not unreasonable, but schools can take as long as they want. Key issues include how you want your governance to look, the time taken to transfer property from the local authority, setting up a working party to ensure decisions are taken promptly, and choosing the right solicitors.
Appoint audit and accountancy firms early to make sure early decisions will not cause problems down the line.
There is little information and guidance around the transfer of assets, and understanding the liabilities and statutory obligations of what you are taking on. You don’t have to do it on your own, be prepared to work with other schools during conversion.
Most of the work falls on the business manager. The best thing to do is talk to other schools who have gone through the process. Start the accounting process early on – structural problems will slow the process down.
There is a link on the EFA website. If you click the month you would like to convert, it will produce a timeline of the steps that need to be taken to achieve this.
What is the panel’s view about the changing role of SBM’s in academies, particularly with a view to changing workloads?
The role expands hugely due to conversion, and SBMs need good support and to outsource some of the workload. Conversion is a great opportunity to increase the scope of the role. The main area is the need to keep a full set of accounts and maintain the balance sheet, so this can be a big learning curve.
SBMs generally become a more strategic player in the decision-making of the school. Schools need to invest in providing more time, so SBMs can do effective work. SBMs can bring about more autonomy for themselves and others by introducing processes and procedures which make budget-holders more responsible.
There is the potential for individual development and opportunity to learn new skills. It is an exciting opportunity, but the workload will increase, especially in the first year. You should look at taking on additional resource within the finance team. Get an early idea of everything you will need to do within the current financial year, so new tasks aren’t sprung on you. Also, try and get an idea of the questions the governing body will ask after conversion, so that you can prepare the answers during conversion.
There is lots of practical advice available. Cipfa have a “get ready to become an academy” resource, and on-line book-keeping course.
What are the advantages of using a Responsible Officer compared to other options?
Appointing a RO was mandatory until September 2012, but schools now have other options. Academies need a way of undertaking a series of tests to assure the governing body that the systems and controls for financial regularity are in place. This can be done through internal auditors, external auditors, peer review or responsible officers now. It is up to schools to decide which is most appropriate for them.
This can be a difficult role to fill, and may end up being an additional cost for an academy that they didn’t have before conversion.
The tests should be a constructive process for schools to use between visits from the auditors to improve processes. It will depend on the expertise within the school as to whether or not theyfeel that they need an external person to fulfil this function.
What are the financial management standards that academies must now meet?
The standards are now very high as academies are both limited companies (subject to the Companies’ Act) and charities (subject to the Charity Commission).
Accounts will be audited and must comply with legislation and be signed off by accountants to show that all expenditure has been used for what it was supposed to be used for.
SBMs should ask the governing body and heads what information they would like to see during the year, and produce information for at least termly reviews of how the school is doing against budget, and variance analysis.
Governors will want especially to see value for money and evidence of best-value procurement.
FMSIS, the old financial management system was replaced by Financial Management Governance Evaluation (FMGE) and then by the Financial Management & Governance Self-assessment (FMGS) in September, but academies that submit annual audited accountswill not have to do this. Academies in their first year who do not produce financial statements will have to produce the FMGS summary to show how compliant they are, then in following years the opinion of the auditor will be sufficient.
FMGE’s are useful for schools, even when they are not mandatory, as they provide a checklist to see if they are covering off all areas.
Have the roles and responsibilities of governors changed in academies?
They have an expanded role which now includes charity and company law, but they still basically need to show they are acting in the best interests of the school and in good faith.
Conversion to academy is a good opportunity to look at the skill-set of the existing governing body and go out to market to ask people you need to become governors. Also, a good chance to look at co-option, induction and training of governors, and how to attract strong governors and weed out weak, or non-attending governors.
School governors do a huge voluntary job, and will now be asked to do more.
What are the employment implications of conversion?
It is important to get the staff on board with early and frequent consultation. There is a nervousness around the potential for academies to change terms and conditions, which initially led to difficulties, but unions are now a bit more cooperative.
In Birmingham schools who have converted, none changed their staff’s terms and conditions. Some have reorganised their roles, but they have broadly been kept the same.
How will a Multi Academy Company work?
Multi-Academy Companies are a distinct structure which relates to Catholic Schools. The finances are controlled centrally by the Birmingham diocese who will do all the financial work at company level. Usually one of the schools involved manages the company that overarches all the schools, and in each school there will be one person who feeds information into the standard model.
What is the difference between a convertor and a sponsored academy?
A sponsor will usually provide all the accounting services for the academy, and dependent upon the sponsor may also provide other services, i.e. payroll, HR and ICT. You may be restricted as to who you can use by the sponsor – find other schools with the same sponsor and ask for their opinions or advice.
Visit an existing academy if possible with the same sponsor and ask what their experience was like, and what services they changed and which they kept in place.
Converter academies usually have more freedom to choose their service providers which can include the LA.
How hard is it to produce 12 month academy accounts?
It mostly depends on what kind of school you were prior to conversion, and how autonomous you are used to being.
Accounts are harder work after conversion, not because of the budget managing, but the management of accounts, accruals, profit and loss statements etc.
Becomes easier after a year when you have a timeline of what reports are going to be needed at what point in the year.
Use networks – don’t reinvent the wheel – there are people who will help at each stage. It is a steep learning curve.
Last year was particularly hard for converters as there were lots of schools producing accounts for the first time, and the processes were new so timescales were tight. Most of the ground work has now been done and the processes put in place, so it should be easier for academies from now on.
Talk to auditors and accountants in advance of year end so that you know what needs to be done between August and December.
What will be the future for stand-alone academies (if Local Authorities end up with just a commissioning role in education)?
All school will need to join with other schools with formal or informal arrangements to create efficiencies and get economies of scale. Schools will be involved in different groups and cluster.
Consolidation will continue, and stand-alones will exist, but some mergers will be driven by financial benefits.
Companies may emerge which are arranged by groups of schools who fund it and use it to procure joint services.
What are the best financial/ management systems?
Academies will need a system that can produce accounts, so an accountancy package, not a financial management system. However, during conversion is not the best time to change systems. It is possible to get a finance system that sits on top of the existing management system.
Does an academy have liability for poorly maintained equipment at conversion?
You must understand the liability of every piece of equipment you are taking on. Do a condition survey and make sure this is good quality. If the information is not adequate, have it re-done, as once you are converted, it all becomes your responsibility, so you must understand exactly what you are taking on.
During conversion you will need to sign a Commercial Transfer Agreement(CTA). The way to get round taking on dodgy equipment is to have it excluded from that document.