Monitoring & Reporting 75: Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS) 2021–22
Please see message from Devon Audit Partnership relating to the SFVS process for 2021-22.
Ideally you should be already well underway with the completion of this year’s SFVS return. Thank you to those that have already submitted their signed checklists. You should have received an acknowledgement of receipt from Devon Audit Partnership.
The Schools Financial Value Standard has been revised again for 2021-22 and reverted back to a “MS Word” document consisting of just the Self-Assessment Checklist. Please do not use any versions from previous years.
A link to the Schools Financial Value Standard web page (document and guidance notes) is provided below.
Schools financial value standard (SFVS) and assurance statement – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In recent years, schools have been asked to complete a Financial Dashboard using CFR data produced by the local authority and various pieces of information about the school workforce from existing DfE sources. The self-assessment dashboard that was formerly part of the SFVS has been moved to the benchmarking website and the latest SFVS directs schools to use DfE benchmarking tools for this exercise. The dashboard is similar to last year and continues to show how a school’s data compares to thresholds on a range of statistics identified by the DfE as indicators for good resource management and outcomes. The dashboard will help you to complete the SA Checklist.
The Checklist is now a series of 30 self-assessment questions which school governing bodies should formally discuss with their head teacher and other senior staff. Section G referring to the SFVS Dashboard has been removed from this year’s checklist and two questions have been added with the same purpose of helping schools identify areas for improved resource management, these are Question 16 regarding the publishing of salaries over £100k on the school’s website and Question 19, the consideration of the results of the dashboard and other benchmarking tools.
SFVS returns must be approved at a meeting by the Full Governing Body and signed by the Chair of Governors, before being submitted to Devon Audit Partnership prior to the 31 March 2022 annual deadline (this was 28 May in 2021 due to COVID-19). Returns made after this date will be formally notified to the Department for Education as a late submission.
Schools Financial Value Standard Submissions and any queries relating to it should be sent to: schoolfinancialvaluestandard-mailbox@devon.gov.uk