As part of business continuity and contingency planning, both maintained schools and academies are required to have arrangements in place to ensure all processes are effectively managed in the absence of key finance staff.
In maintained schools, this forms part of the School Financial Value Standard (SFVS – question 6), and in academies it is an area assessed as part of the Risk Assessment process all charities are required to undertake (Business Continuity/procedures for dealing with the absence of key staff).
Particularly in our smaller schools, the level of finance knowledge available to provide the necessary back-up is often not available in-house.
SMS can be nominated as your back-up support provider, to cover in the absence of key finance staff.
Our package requires us to gain an understanding of your systems, procedures and policies so we can ensure we are quickly able to manage your accounts in any case of absence. We would require a separate user name and password to ensure there is a clear audit trail of work. We would arrange to visit your school to meet key finance staff and complete the set-up.
Should the school need to call on our services, the cost of cover will be provided at a discounted rate of 10% off our usual consultant charges. An assessment and quotation will be provided for this work, depending on need.