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Finance Support for Schools SBS Finance Service provides comprehensive financial advice and support for schools. We recognise the changing needs of education and have developed tailored services in response to these needs. We can help your school to plan and develop by addressing such issues as strategic planning and change management. Our Finance team has extensive experience of working in Education and has a strong track record in the delivery of Financial Management Services to schools and working with Local Authorities – Children’s Services. The teams are based in and around London and the South West. SBS believes assuring quality is integral to our service delivery and all of our staff are committed to this ethos which is why our Financial Management Consultants are quick to establish professional working relationships with schools, are flexible, responsive and have a strong commitment to providing a quality service and customer care. Our aim is to bring a ‘Valued Added’ service into every school that we support. Service Options Our experience has shown us that schools benefit from having regular visits, as well as training, in order that the skill base within the school is improved and over time there is less reliance on the support service. In order to respond to the ever changing circumstances in schools the different levels of core services are enclosed herewith as a guide, however we are able to tailor a service to your needs if our core levels do not represent your individual circumstance. There is a wide choice of annual service contracts, providing comprehensive support in financial management to complement the school’s existing finance personnel. In addition, schools can purchase additional contracts for strategic financial support and bursarial services to fulfil any additional financial requirements of the school. Our highly trained Finance Consultants also offer software support in SIMS FMS6 or RM Finance / Cash Accounts packages. We are happy to support the school with their preference of any budget planning and monitoring tools to assist with the planning and future development of long term school budgeting or recovery if required, however we do include full use of our suite of financial planning and monitoring tools in any level of our SLA’s. Our service level agreements can incorporate all or some of these functions:- - Unlimited telephone support service able to respond to general bursarial queries such as ledger maintenance, creditors, debtors, year-end procedures and new legislation affecting financial procedures.
- Written updates of changes to any financial systems and procedures being used by the school.
- Telephone support with 3 Year Budget Planning, including how to link budget to the School Improvement Plan.
- SBS budgeting tools and included in SLA price, which enable a full commitment accounting monitoring report with outturn to be produced.
- Telephone support with budget monitoring, salary reconciliation etc dependant on finance software used by school.
- Discounted rate on any additional consultancy days.
- Termly company newsletter including useful DCSF financial updates and financial information.
- Annual customer service visit from member of the management team.
- Budget Development & Planning visits
- Budget Monitoring & Strategic overview visits, including attendance at Governors meetings.
- End of Year Close
- On-site visits for bespoke work.
School Business Manager SBS can also provide a School Business Manager to act as a member of the Senior Management Team to lead on the delivery of a range of projects. Our SBM can also assist the school with Strategic Planning, Change Management and Managing School Improvement. School Financial Director SBS’s latest service to schools is a School Financial Director who would provide strategic business leadership and be a catalyst for new forms of leadership and governance. Bursarial Service Our bursary service is an efficient and cost effective way of managing the day to day school finances. Schools use our service who currently have a vacancy for a bursar or finance officer, or the service can be used for schools that wish to restructure their office and buy support when needed instead of employing their own bursar. Financial Management Standard in School We provide self assessment support to schools for the achievement of the financial management standard. Our approach to the FMSiS has been to ensure all documentary evidence is completed; procedural controls and processes are in place and supporting self-assessment by schools. Many schools are adopting self-assessment as a route towards the financial management standard and have recognised the value of having an objective third party to support this process. SBS is well equipped to provide this support by virtue of having individuals available who not only have gone through the DCSF training necessary, but who are highly experienced in the field of school finance. SBS uses the FMSiS toolkit as a guide to evaluate schools and categorises different aspects of the assessment according to whether the DCSF considers the elements to be essential or desirable with regard to meeting the standard. We advise that our assessment is carried out on-site, typically over a two day period, including a written report at the end of the assessment. Click here to download the Finance brochure 
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Finance
