Minutes of the meeting of Finance Committee

SandyePlaceAcademy held on

11th January 2016

at 6.30pm

Present

Mr M Sale (Chair of Finance Committee), Mrs K McCamley, Mrs S Kane, Mr S Fox, Mr T Rowland and Mr A Fielding

Meeting opened at 6.30pm and Mr Sale welcomed those present.

Item / Action
  1. Apologies for Absence
Kaz James, Tracey Stock: Agreed and Accepted
  1. Agree Minutes of last Meeting
  2. The minutes of the meeting held on 6th October 2015, copies of which had been previously distributed, were confirmed as an accurate record of the meeting
  3. The minutes, were agreed and accepted by those present.

  1. Matters Arising
  2. Year End has been completed and the copies of accounts have been sent to the EFA. The B/fwd figures have been agreed with Duncan and Toplis.
  1. Finance Review
  2. SK presented and explained her Finance Report confirmation of the Qtr 1 position. It was confirmed that income was 23.69% and revenue expenditure was 25.5%based on the reforecast budget presented by SK.
  3. The reforecast of the budget has taken place following the pay committee meeting and adjustments to the staffing lines have been made in accordance with the decisions made. There is a tolerance built in for honoraria payments to be decided following the years performance of staff.
  4. Additional TA’s have been appointed following confirmation of the b/fwd, we held off recruiting in this area due to affordability. The academy is now in a position to meet this need financially. Careful monitoring of the position will be undertaken.
  5. A capital bid has been written and we will find out if we have been successful in March this year. Furthermore a bid for the library has been sent to the Foyle foundation. Capital money has been used to undertake the necessary building works following damage from the roofing problem, the furniture, although part of the project will need additional funding from different streams. Revenue will be used for this if required and transferred to the capital account.
  6. Discussion took place surrounding trading company a current prediction of £37K surplus. At time of writing the report we expected the summer camp grant, however this is now not available so we can no longer offer our pupils free places. To combat this we have written another bid for £10,000 for the summer camp for pupils in an area of deprivation and we await results.
  7. It was noted that our 125 lease is still in the hands of Central Bedfordshire, SK has arranged a conference call with the solicitor and our property consultants to make headway this this. The problem is the youth club and the Academy do not wish to take liability for works that need to be undertaken over the course of the next few years. Currently the lease states that the council will pay 5% of the building costs as this is the total % of the building overall. SK reported that as we have undertaken extensive works to the school the youth club falls short of this. A condition report was commissioned by SK to assure governors of the state of the building, hence the delay in moving forward.
Item / MS
SK
.
SK
Action
4.7.It was noted that the quarter end reports had to make consideration for the trading he surplus variation figures of £-164K was explained by Mrs Kane, and shown in the attached reports. The predicted b/fwd figure for 2016 as circa £297K.
4.8.SK reminded Governors to be cautious, given that funding cuts are still an issue and with the rise in pension and NI costs we need to ensure careful monitoring.
4.9.The attached reports was agreed and accepted by those present.
  1. Kitchen Cashflow
  2. SKpresented a report of the confirmation of kitchen cashflowwhich is preforming well with a predicted b/fwd of £23K.
  3. SK highlighted that Laburnum is performing lower than expected with circa 67% uptake of the UIFSM. Maple Tree has 70% and St Swithuns is 73%. Discussion took place about increasing the numbers across the schools and SK will arrange to meet with Helen in this regard. .
  4. The reports and recommendations were agreed and accepted by those present

  1. Risk Register
  2. The risk register was reviewed and updated to reflect the current climate and the treat of age range change was discussed. The rating has increased in the competition rating to 12 which is an intolerable risk and controls in place are to partner with lower school/s and look at strategic remodelling with the Upper School.
6.2.Terms of Reference
6.2.1.The terms of Reference were updated and reviewed.
6.2.2.The above policies were agreed and accepted by those present
  1. Preschool Future
  2. The preschool future was discussed as the Academy is in need of the space and there are safeguarding issues relating to parents on site. It was deemed more suitable to look at alternative provision and the Preschool are in full support. The preschool are looking at relocating to Maple Tree from September 2016. Ted will arrange a meeting with the Preschool, Pauline and Kim to investigate further. Ted will report back at the next meeting.

  1. Dates for Future Meetings:
  2. Suggested dates: 17th 12/22/23rd March where Qtr 2 accounts will be presented.
  3. Suggested dates, Qtr 314th, July 2015
  1. AOB
None

Meeting closed at 8.20pm

15.08.01.Finance Mins1 of 2

11/12