NORFOLK GOVERNORS' NETWORK

SFVS is the replacement for FMSiS.  It is designed to assist schools in managing their finances and to give assurance that they have secure financial management systems in place.

Norfolk County Council are organising a series of briefing sessions across the county on SFVS and all schools are encouraged to attend.

Who is SFVS for?

All Local Authority (LA) maintained schools are required to meet the standard.  Other schools can choose to use the standard to measure themselves against.

As governing bodies have formal responsibility for the financial management of their schools, the standard is primarily aimed at governors.

What is the role of the Local Authority (LA)?

The LA Chief Financial Officer is required to complete an annual assurance statement regarding schools’ standards of financial management and the regularity and propriety of their spending.  LAs will be using schools’ returns to inform their programme of financial assessment and audit.  They will be checking to ensure that schools’ self-assessments are in line with LA judgements, and will be informing governors of any major discrepancies.  LAs may apply sanctions to those schools that, in the LAs view, are not meeting the minimum standard of financial management.

What are the key dates?

• Maintained schools which had not attained FMSiS by the end of March 2010 must complete and submit the SFVS to their LA by 31 March 2012; and conduct an annual review thereafter.
• All other maintained schools must complete and submit the SFVS to their LA by 31 March 2013; and an annual review thereafter.

What support and advice is the LA offering?

Schools that are required to complete SFVS by 31 March 2012 have been written to individually, detailing the training, support and advice available to them.

All other schools are invited to attend SFVS Briefing Sessions.  Each school has been allocated 4 places; 2 places are specifically for governors (e.g. Chair of Governors, Chair of Finance Committee etc) and 2 places for school staff (e.g. Headteacher, School Finance Officer etc.).

Delegates from each school may choose to attend different sessions (i.e. school staff may wish to attend an after-school briefing; governors may prefer to attend an evening briefing, or vice versa).

What are the dates/time/venues for the Briefing Sessions?

How can my school book places?

Places should be booked on-line by clicking on the following link. 

http://www.eficts.norfolk.gov.uk/Finance/Training/booking/courses.asp?view=new#list

The SFVS Briefing Sessions are at the top of the list of courses; please click on ‘SFVS Briefing’ to show list of all dates.

Who can I speak to if I have any other queries about SFVS?

If you have any question about the SFVS process, please contact:

Alison Randall, School Support Manager, Schools’ Finance Team

Telephone: 01603 224273

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Or

Linda Bennett, Finance Manager, Schools’ Finance Team

Telephone: 01603 228995

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it