Schools financial value standard (SFVS) FAQs

SFVS will be mandatory for all schools maintained by local authorities.

The Department intends to make SFVS mandatory following the passing of the Education Bill which contains a clause restoring the Secretary of State’s power to make directed revisions to Local Authority Schemes for Financing Schools.  We would expect to consult as soon as practicable on a directed revision which will add SFVS as a requirement into the Scheme. 

LA maintained schools that had not attained FMSiS by the end of March 2010 must complete and submit the SFVS to their local authority by 31 March 2012 and conduct an annual review thereafter.

For all other maintained schools, the first run through is required by 31 March 2013 and an annual review thereafter.

Those schools that achieved FMSiS after March 2010 following its abolition by the Secretary of State must complete and submit their assessment form by March 2013, and an annual review thereafter.

Academies and Free Schools will not be required to complete SFVS because it would duplicate their financial monitoring and assurance requirements. Non-maintained special and independent schools will not  be required to complete SFVS because they are not maintained by LAs.

However, all these schools are welcome to use any of the material associated with the standard, if they would find it useful.

Yes, LA maintained nursery schools are required to complete SFVS by March 2013 and an annual review thereafter.

No, not until they have delegated budgets, as is provided for in the current Bill. 

SFVS applies to Voluntary Aided (VA), Voluntary Controlled (VC) and Foundation schools as they have a budget delegated to them by local authorities. These schools fall within the definition of LA maintained schools and therefore SFVS will apply to them.

No, there is no requirement for an annual external assessment.

SFVS will be mandatory and all LA maintained schools/governing bodies are expected to complete it. LAs will need to provide assurance to the Department about the number of schools that have completed SFVS. One option for LAs is for an audit to be conducted if schools/governing bodies do not comply. Further options would be to send a Notice of Concern and to withdraw budget delegation. We would hope that this doesn't happen however, and that a continuous dialogue is maintained with schools at all times.

Governors will be asked to summarise remedial actions and the timetable for reporting back, ensuring that each action has a specified deadline and an agreed owner. A copy of each signed record will need to be sent by the school to their local authority’s finance department, where it will be used to inform the programme of financial assessment and audit. 

Local authority and other auditors will have access to it, and when an audit is conducted, they will be able to check whether the self-assessment is in line with their own judgement. Auditors will make the governing body and the local authority aware of major discrepancies in judgements.

The new standard is less bureaucratic because:

• the form is an annual self assessment with just 23 questions (compared to 102 for FMSIS)
• the school enters a brief summary of their position and proposed remedial action where relevant, without prescription of evidence or assurance
• the standard will not be formally externally assessed
• the 23 support notes provided will be a helpful resource for schools and there is no obligation for schools to refer to them at all. The support notes provide clarification of each question, examples of good practice and access to information on further support to assist schools in addressing specific issues.
   

SFVS as endorsed by the Department does not include any such required documentation. LAs may require additional actions from maintained schools as part of their own assurance and audit processes, but these should be reasonable.

As part of the reducing bureaucracy agenda, schools are not required to read or use any additional guidance on SFVS. The standard itself is self explanatory and contains all the information schools will need. However, we have written very concise, simple support notes for each of the 23 questions, which schools can use, if they wish to do so.
 

Supporting the Government’s reducing bureaucracy agenda and taking account of complaints we received on FMSiS that it was overly bureaucratic, there is no requirement or prescription for schools to provide evidence or undergo an external assessment. Rather, it is expected that governors use the standard to ask intelligent questions of headteachers and senior staff so that they feel confident about their responses.

The school returns will feed into the local authority regular internal audit processes. We will require local authorities to give an assurance that they have a system of audit in place which gives them adequate assurance over schools’ standards of financial management and the regularity and propriety of their spending.

Governing bodies are responsible and accountable in law and in practice for all major decisions about the school and its future. They must approve the school's budget and review progress against the set budget, targets and plans. In doing so, they manage a considerable amount of public money and carrying out the SFVS assessment will assist them in this task and give assurance to their local authority that they have sound financial management in place.

Carrying out the assessment is a less onerous task than FMSiS and will be less of a burden on the governing body. It is a task that should be carried out annually. Consideration of the individual questions can be delegated to a governing body committee which will then report to the full governing body. 

No. Funding for SFVS is not available at all from the Department. However, if you need help with training and require a guest speaker, we are willing to support your request, depending on availability.

SFVS cannot refer directly to school business managers since it is a universal standard and not all schools have SBMs. It is the responsibility of school governors to discuss the standard with their headteacher and other senior staff. Given the important role school business managers have in their schools’ financial management, we would expect them to also be involved where schools have them. Several external partners, including the National Association of School Business Management (NASBM), were involved in the process of developing SFVS and a large number of SBMs responded to the informal consultation.