Assurance

We understand the expectations and requirements that local authorities have of schools and how managing these can be a daunting task. We, therefore, offer a range of assurance services to LA maintained schools designed to reassure your governors and directors that your internal controls and financial governance are robust.

Our services are designed to identify any areas of risk and recommend the best practices to comply with statutory regulations and reporting deadlines, providing your school with an action plan for improvement following our visit.

Statement of Internal Control (SIC)

Ensuring that senior staff and the governing body have sufficient, up to date financial skills to fulfil their statutory responsibilities of budget management and financial stewardship of the school.

Schools Financial Value Standard (SFVS)

Working with locally maintained schools to have an independent review of internal controls and processes. This helps to ensure that the school is using its resources as efficiently as possible and highlights areas where further improvements could be made. This will help your governors fulfil their statutory obligations for sound financial governance.

Conducting an internal audit of trusts’ financial controls, systems and transactions can be a very costly and time-consuming process. By working with Schools’ Choice, you can be sure that your academy is receiving independent checking of its financial controls and systems by qualified professionals. We can provide support with all matters in running an academy trust, making sure that it is compliant with the academy’s financial handbook. Helping to highlight risks and mitigating issues ensuring that your trust is actively managing areas of non-compliance.

Frequent areas that are often identified as ‘risk areas’ during internal audits of Academy trusts include:

• Inventory and security
• Annual accounts and audit
• Borrowing
• Payroll
• Purchasing
• Income controls
• Payments and withdrawals

In addition, we will provide you with a full report and action plan following the completion of the internal audit. This will help your audit committee or equivalent body to meet its mandatory obligations for sound financial governance. An editable version of the action plan will also be provided for the academy’s internal use.