17 March 2017
We have known for some time that the EFA were intending to introduce a second Budget Forecast Return (BFR) during 2017, but it has been unclear, until now, how this would be implemented.
The process has today been clarified via a “Dear Accounting Officer” letter from Peter Lauener. Each Accounting Officer (AO) should have received a copy of this letter by now, but a copy of the full letter is also available on the DfE website here.
The good news is that there will be no BFR required during the period of the year when trusts and their advisers are busy with accounting and audit requirements. Now, the bad news…
In the past, the BFR has dealt with the actual results to 31 March, projections to the forthcoming 31 August and the forecast for the following academic and financial year all within the one return. The EFA have decided to split these elements out.
This year they will first seek to collect what they are referring to as the Budget Forecast Return: Outturn (BFRO), which will provide an updated forecast for the 2016/17 academic year. This will focus on actual expenditure in the period 1 September 2016 to 31 March 2017, together with an updated assessment of forecast expenditure to the end of August 2017.
The deadline for this BFRO will be Friday 19 May 2017.
The second return, just called the Budget Forecast Return (BFR), will then focus on the projected financial position of trusts up to August 2018.
The deadline for the BFR will be Friday 28 July 2017 (the same timeframe as in previous years).
Further guidance will be available soon, and the EFA expect to release the online template at the beginning of April.
You’ll be pleased to know that the EFA are ‘thoroughly testing the whole process’ and so will only release the new form once this testing has been successfully completed! I’m sure everyone will be reassured!
Please do bear in mind the requirements of the Academies Financial Handbook in respect of approving budgets. The full Board is, of course, required to approve the budget, however, we do not think these new changes have much impact here. Trusts should ensure that their full Boards approve the budget for the following academic year before this is submitted in July, but there is no suggestion they need to approve the BFRO, or updated data on which this is based, before 19 May.
The BFRO will need to be submitted online, and signed electronically by the Chief Financial Officer or Accounting Officer. It would be good practice to give your finance committee, if not the full Board, sight of the actual and updated forecast for 2016/17 as soon as possible and ideally before submission, where possible.
If you require any help with understanding the requirements or completing your BFRO, please contact me or your local academy expert. To read more of our academy school blogs, click here.
