Schools Support Panel – (Formerly FIPS)

Purpose of the Schools Support Panel (SSP)

• The SSP is an officer constituted group that has the function of scrutinising budgets and recovery plans of schools at financial risk. While there is a strong focus on financial risk, SSP will also focus on other areas, including school effectiveness.
• SSP may signpost maintained schools to appropriate strategies to support them in planning for long-term financial viability and school effectiveness.

Contact Us

• Phone: 01392 381957 (Matt Thorne)
• Email:  SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk

Panel Dates

Meetings are held on Thursday mornings.
Jan – Apr
Panel meets: weekly
May – Dec
Panel meets: fortnightly
(Meeting dates may be cancelled when there are no submissions)

Deficit budgets

Dealing with deficit budgets.pdf

Application Form

Please contact us via email or telephone to discuss your position and an application form will be sent to you if appropriate. This will be presented to the Panel for consideration at the next available SSP meeting. The form can be used to apply for various assistance, such as Finance Consultant, HR hours, licensed deficit and any restructure proposals as examples.

Recovery Plans

Primary Schools

• Independent and Multiple Budget Federation – Member Schools
  • Recovery Plan (Excel)
  • This version includes ICFP working tabs.
• Single Budget Federations
  • Recovery Plan (Excel)
  • This version does not include ICFP tabs.

Secondary Schools

• Recovery Plan (Excel)
• This version does not include the Secondary School ICFP, which will need to be completed separately via this DfE link: Integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Special Schools

• Recovery Plan (Excel)
• This version does not include ICFP tabs.

Timescales

It is expected that the majority of at-risk maintained schools will be identified by SSP. Schools are also able to refer themselves to SSP by contacting SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk.  SSP meets regularly (weekly to fortnightly). These are indicative minimum timescales for Schools Support Panel submissions:

All licensed deficit requests must be submitted prior to the end of the financial year that the licensed deficit pertains to, for example: School A is forecasting an end of year deficit of £25,000, therefore, School A must complete and submit all SSP paperwork prior to the start of the Easter Holidays. Failure to comply and request a licensed deficit on time will result in a notice of concern from the Local Authority and the DfE being informed.

Joint working/partnership arrangements

SSP will consider requests for support towards joint working/partnership arrangements that will improve outcomes for pupils or make a school financially sustainable.

Please contact us on SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk with your proposal.

Calculating Strain costs for School Based Staff

• Please contact your finance consultant or SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk to request a copy of the Bulk Pensions Estimate Spreadsheet. Once you have completed the spreadsheet, please send it to finance.peninsulaemployers-mailbox@devon.gov.uk.

Calculating Redundancy for School Based Staff

• Schools redundancy policy (Word)

Compromise agreements

• Contact HR Direct 01392 385555 for further information

Ending fixed term contracts

• Contact HR Direct 01392 385555 for further information

Treatment of surplus balances when a maintained school becomes an academy via an AO in respect of a school eligible for intervention.

As per the “Treatment of surplus and deficit balances  when maintained schools become academies – Guidance note for schools, local  authorities and academy trusts” issued by the DfE (section 5.1), “where the SoS issues an AO in respect of a school eligible for intervention, without any previous application from the governing body or IEB, the surplus remains with the LA (though the surplus can be transferred to the AT and, in practice, some LAs have agreed to this) .

While there is clearly no requirement for the Local Authority to transfer any of the surplus to the Academy Trust, SSP will consider proposals from schools on the treatment and/or proposed split of the surplus.  Once a decision has been made it will be communicated to the school.

Please send your proposal to SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk

Other Useful Documents

This Sixth Form Costings spreadsheet (Excel) has been devised to allow a school to separate their sixth form costs from their main school budget.

• Academy Conversion Protocols (Word)
• Primary ICFP (Excel – Please download to your computer)
• Secondary ICFP (Excel – Please download to your computer)

Roles, Responsibilities and Terms of Reference

Governing bodies are responsible for:

• Monitoring the school performance, including financial aspects
• Taking any remedial action required to secure an in-year balanced budget.
• Having a 3-5 year strategic plan to secure high quality education provision for children with a balanced budget.
• Taking timely remedial action when 3 year budget plan does not balance.
• Implementing appropriate action wherever possible to prevent redundancy and retain employment.
• Following guidance in this document to ensure that budget plans, budget monitoring and recovery plans submitted to SSP are correct, robust and deliverable.
• Implementation of agreed actions following SSP decisions.
• Ensuring the school participates in the Active Redeployment programme when future budget difficulties are identified. This includes working proactively with the HR Direct Redeployment team at an early stage to place staff at risk of redundancy wherever possible (thereby retaining experienced staff in Devon and minimising any impact on the redundancy fund).

As part of these responsibilities SSP may:

• Request a recovery plan.
• Request an ICFP.
• Place a maintained school on monthly/6 times a year monitoring or periodic review.
• Advise Devon County Council to issue a Notice of Concern of a School Financial Warning Notice (SFWN) or to withdraw delegation.
• Instigate an Individual School Review (ISR).
• Instigate a School Effectiveness Review.
• Instigate a formal audit of the school’s financial processes and/or financial review.
• Where applicable, use this information to inform the Regions group.

Structure of SSP

Operational Procedures

• SSP will meet fortnightly, or more frequently as required. (See Panel Dates below)
• SSP will consider school balances to ensure both financial viability and pupil outcomes.
• SSP will monitor:
  • Budget plans from all maintained schools on an annual basis (May).
  • FRS returns on a termly basis.
  • Recovery plans on either a monthly basis or least 6 times a year (in line with the school’s internal reporting to Governors) based on the level of deficit.
• Recovery plans:
  • Schools with deficits below £5k do not need to submit a Recovery Plan.
  • Schools with deficits below 10% of their SBS or less than £50k will be required to submit a Recovery Plan and submit monitoring reports to SSP least 6 times a year (in line with the school’s internal reporting to Governors).
  • Schools with deficits above 10% of their SBS or greater than than £50k will be required to submit a Recovery Plan and submit monitoring reports to SSP least 6 times a year (in line with the school’s internal reporting to Governors).
• It is expected that the majority of at-risk maintained schools will be identified by SSP using information from a variety of sources including (but not limited to) financial data, information from Strategic Place Planning, information on at risk schools from One Devon and HR information.
• Schools are also able to refer themselves to SSP by contacting SchoolsSupportPanel@devon.gov.uk.
• Maintained schools may be placed on a review cycle by SSP and will therefore be looked at periodically.
• An annual report will be provided to DEF on the number of schools identified as at risk (by phase), numbers of recovery plans and other service stats as applicable.