Finance

Deadline for academy trusts to submit their budget forecast return

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has updated information to help academy trusts submit their budget forecast return.

The deadline for academy trusts to submit their budget forecast return is Monday 30 July 2018. The online form will go live for users to complete on 21 June 2018. This year, trusts are required to provide three-year forecast data and advice on compiling the data can be found here.

ESFA will also be publishing the budget forecast return Excel workbook by 1 June, which will outline what information is required.

Trustees should ensure that the budget forecast returns are prepared and submitted in time.

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and Capital Funding Allocation

The ESFA have published updated information with regards to the DSG allocations for 2017-18 and 2018-19 as at March 2018.

Similarly, they have also updated the published information relating to school capital funding allocations up to 2019 which can be viewed here.

Consistent Financial Reporting (CFR) Framework and Schools Financial Value Standards (SFVS) 2018/19

The ESFA have published CFR guidance for 2018/19 and SFVS guidance for the same period.

The CFR provides a standard template for schools to collect information about their income and expenditure in the financial year 2018 to 2019. The information collected is used to support benchmarking and enables comparative reports to be produced for governors and local authorities (LAs).

The CFR framework applies to maintained schools and pupil referral units. It is optional for nurseries and non-maintained special schools.

The SFVS helps schools to manage their finances and to provide assurance to the local authority that they have secure financial management in place and applies to maintained schools.

As governing boards have formal responsibility for the financial management of their schools, the standard is primarily aimed at them.