Financial Benchmarking

For transparency and to support our commitment to effective financial management, please visit the Department for Education’s financial benchmarking webpage to see how our school’s finances compare with others. 

School Voluntary Fund

Purpose of the School Fund:
The school fund (also known as the voluntary fund) is used to benefit the school by utilising monies that have been donated, raised, or collected.

Although voluntary funds are not part of the school's delegated budget, they are raised under the school’s name. Therefore, it is important that financial controls are in place to safeguard the interests of governors, staff, fundraisers, and all other stakeholders.

Intention of the School Fund:
The objective of the school fund is to advance, promote, and enhance the education and experiences of pupils by providing educational and recreational facilities beyond those supported by public funding. The school achieves this by providing resources, materials, equipment, or by financing extra-curricular activities.

Income to the fund is generally obtained from donations, voluntary contributions, and fundraising. It is therefore essential that the school fund is not used for inappropriate purposes. Any expenditure from the school fund must be incurred to benefit the pupils of the school.

General Management and Day-to-Day Procedures:
The School Voluntary Fund is not covered by the Local Authority’s VAT registration; therefore, VAT incurred cannot be recovered and may not be charged.

Where possible, different people should be involved in ordering, invoicing, and preparing payments to reduce the risk of fraud.

A clear and comprehensive trail of documentation must be maintained to record and support all transactions made through the voluntary fund.

Governors delegate the day-to-day operations and approval of any expenditure from the school fund to the Headteacher, who must ensure that purchases are appropriate in terms of items/services and their value. The Headteacher must sign the documentation to evidence their approval of the expenditure.

Two signatories are required on payments, in line with the bank mandate.

Upon receipt of each bank statement (usually monthly, but may be less frequent if there have been no transactions), a bank reconciliation must be completed and independently reviewed by the Headteacher.

Auditing:
Annually, the school fund will be audited by an independent person approved by the governors. The audit must be completed within six months of the year-end.

The auditor is responsible for:

• Agreeing the entries on the Summary of Accounts Statement to the cash book and bank statements, adjusted for unpresented transactions.
• Checking the arithmetical accuracy of the Summary of Accounts Statement.
• Confirming that the opening balances brought forward into the current year agree with the closing balances carried forward from the previous year’s audited Summary of Accounts Statement.

Once the audit is finalised, an Audit Certificate must be completed and signed. If the auditor has any reservations concerning a particular area but does not consider it will affect the production of satisfactory accounts, the certificate can be completed with any reservations noted in the space provided or clearly appended. The signed auditor’s certificate must be forwarded to the School Finance Team at the Local Authority.