The SFVS has been designed in conjunction with schools to assist them in managing their finances and to give assurance that they have secure financial management in place. The standard is a requirement for local authority maintained schools and annual returns must be submitted to the LA as part of the Year End accounting procedures.
Effective financial management ensures money is spent wisely and properly, and allows schools to optimise their resources to provide high-quality teaching and learning and so raise standards and attainment for all their pupils.
Governing bodies have formal responsibility for the financial management of their schools, and so the standard is primarily aimed at governors
Local Authorities use schools’ SFVS returns to inform their programme of financial assessment and audit. LA Internal and external auditors (EY) have access to the annual returns, and when they conduct an audit are able to check whether the self-assessment is in line with their own judgement. Auditors will inform the governing body and the LA of any major discrepancies in judgements.
The updated standard for 2019-2020 helps schools and local authorities meet basic standards for good financial health and resource management.The return is in the form of an excel workbook and includes the Checklist of 29 questions along with a RAG rated Dashboard.
The Checklist includes hyperlinked guidance to each question, which governing bodies can use if they wish. The guidance provides clarification of the questions, examples of good practice and information on further support to assist schools in addressing specific issues: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/schools-financial-value-standard-sfvs
