Formal reporting:
Secondary and large Primary Schools including Special Schools):
Principal Accounting Technicians (PAT) will meet formally with Head Teachers 3 times each financial year. These meetings should take place within the following terms:
- April to June
- August to December
- January to March
The outcomes of these meetings will be documented and should include the following information:-
- Cumulative savings and surplus/deficits brought forward from previous financial year
- Probationers and their funding sources
- Agreed additional Teaching posts
- Significant projected variances for all staffing budgets
- Significant long term absences and maternity cover
- Government initiative funding allocated to the school
- Metered Water projected expenditure
- Energy projected expenditure
- Examples of excessive charges for repairs and maintenance
- Overall financial position – colour code – green (okay), amber (some concerns) and red (significant concerns)
- If appropriate the corrective actions planned by the Head Teacher and PAT.
If a PAT has difficulty in arranging a meeting with a Head Teacher, due to the repeated unavailability of the Head Teacher, the Principal Accountant should be notified immediately. If this problem persists then the Finance Manager ought to be notified.
Small Primary Schools:
The Accounting Technicians will produce 3 written reports on each of their schools each financial year. These reports should be produced within the following terms:
- April to June
- August to December
- January to March
These reports should include the following information:-
- Cumulative savings and surplus/deficits brought forward from previous financial year
- Probationers and their funding sources
- Agreed additional Teaching posts
- Significant projected variances for all staffing budgets
- Significant long term absences and maternity cover
- Government initiative funding allocated to the school
- Metered Water projected expenditure
- Energy projected expenditure
- Examples of excessive charges for repairs and maintenance
- Overall financial position – colour code – green (okay), amber (some concerns) and red (significant concerns)
- If appropriate the corrective actions planned by the Head Teacher and the AT.
If the Accounting Technician has difficulty in complying with the above requirements then the Principal Accountant should be notified. The above reports will be issued to Head Teachers after a review by the ECS Finance Manager and/or Principal Accountant.
The administrative arrangements in relation to all of the above reports is contained within Annex 8A (word document) and Annex 8A sample (excel spreadsheet)
Exception reporting:
The ECS Finance Manager should review the Exception Reports file at the end of each quarter.
- It is his/her responsibility to notify the appropriate Area Education Manager of schools which are in the amber or red classification
- It is for the Area Education Manager to approach the relevant Head Teachers in order to discuss what corrective actions are required
- In addition the ECS Finance Manager will report on an exception basis to the Head of Support Services at the end of each month. The purpose of this meeting is to identify those schools which are on a red alert and therefore heading for an irrecoverable financial position.
- The ECS Director will consider the appropriate courses of action where the budget deficit cannot be recovered within the current financial year.
Expenditure analysis
In order to establish the total income and expenditure attributable to a school the actual expenditure and income for the financial year will be recorded on a school by school basis. This will comprise of the following budget headings:-
Employee Costs:
- Teachers
- Curricular support staff
- Admin/Clerical support staff
- Other school support staff
- Overtime
- Non Teaching Employer’s on-costs
Other Costs:
- Water
- Rates
- Insurances
- Grounds maintenance
- Refuse collection
- Repairs and maintenance
- Energy
- Building cleaning
- Capitation
- Staff development
- Vehicle/Plant hire
- Teachers travel
- Exam fees
- Fujitsu budget deductions
Income:
- Grant income
- Letting income
- Other income
Using financial years 2004/05 and 2005/06 as the starting point an analysis of the above income and expenditure will be produced annually for each school. In order to place this information into some context the net expenditure figure calculated will be divided by the school roll figure (this roll figure should be the September census roll figure reported during the financial year). This provides a net cost per pupil figure for each school.
An example of this comparative analysis is appended as Annex 8B (Excel spreadsheet) to this chapter.
The information can be reported in a number of different ways:
- School level
- Area level
- Sector level
- In addition individual budget headings could be reported on a school by school basis within a single report.
The availability of this data will high-light where there are unusual patterns of net expenditure which merit further investigation. In addition it will provide a succinct analysis of how the financial resources allocated to each school are utilised.
Those new schools which are operated by Public Private Partnership partners will be categorised separately.
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