Service Level Agreement 2024-2025 – Southampton Schools Finance - Banking Services

Introduction

The SLA (service level agreement) cost is now a simplified standard charge per type of school. The cost is based on staff time to provide the services included in this SLA together with a contribution towards bank charges for general banking.

Bank charges relating to card payments for SCOPAY are charged by monthly journal to your cost centre for each card transaction processed.

The 2024-2025 SLA cost has been calculated as follows:

The councils current bank contract with Lloyds will end in September 2024 so the School SLA for 2025-26 will reflect any price change in the new contract.

The service contact for this SLA is Alex.Tomkins@southampton.gov.uk

Banking Services

The Finance & Commercialisation team are responsible for the overall management of the council’s bank accounts.

The main features of this service are:

1. Accounting for Income
   • Support and maintenance for the daily import of income related files into
     Heycentric/Income Manger (SCC’s income receipting system).
   • Support and maintenance for the daily import of bank files relating to local banking income.
   • Providing advice and guidance on the correction of local banking income coding errors and allocation /reallocation of income received and other miscellaneous income queries that may arise
   • Identifying/processing chargebacks made by customers in respect of card payments.
   • Processing Card Payment Refunds for card payments processed through Corporate Merchant Numbers. A further charge of £2.00 per transaction may be made for refund requests in excess of the annual allowance below.
     
     

     School Type	Refunds Limit Per Annum
     Primary Schools	50 refunds
     Secondary Schools	100 refunds

   • Supply of paying in books to enable schools to bank income at a local bank branch.
2. Reconciliation of Corporate Bank Accounts (including two dedicated payroll bank accounts for schools)
   • Reconciliation of multiple bank accounts operated by the Council (that either receipt income or make payments on behalf of the school) on a regular basis which includes support and maintenance for daily import of bank files into Business World for bank reconciliation purposes.
   • For local banking specifically the following procedures must be adhered to by the school:
     • All banking must be input onto the Business World system within 2 working days of being banked.
     • All banking must be input onto the Business World system before the start of any school holiday.
     • The Business World Local Banking Discrepancies report, (previously known as COS07 in Agresso) must be checked weekly and any discrepancies should be corrected. Any errors by the bank should be emailed to local.banking.go.live.issues@southampton.gov.uk for investigation, immediately.
   • Schools are required to provide the Council with three months’ notice when changing their Payroll supplier. Without this notice the Council will not have the required lead time to set up the bank account for any new provider and agree associated processes. There may be an additional charge for testing new file imports and processes for changes to payroll providers.
3. Management of bank contract
   • Liaison with relationship managers for general banking and card payment provision.
   • Annual PCI Compliance for card payments.
   • A nominal contribution to bank charges for general banking.
4. Cash Collection Service (Charged)
   • In addition to the above, a cash collection service is available, subject to agreement on frequency, days and times. Monies can be collected from the school’s premises and taken away for processing at the Security Company’s premises. Monies are counted at the school and a paying in slip completed. Both the money and the slip are sealed into a security bag, which is collected and taken to the Security Company’s processing site. The contents are counted and deposited into the Council’s bank.
   • The charge for this service will be provided on request and will depend on the frequency of collections required. Services over and above the agreed contract price may also be charged to the school (e.g. extra collections).

Opting Out of Finance Systems (Cheque Book Schools)

1. Schools may choose to use alternative financial management systems provided they have a surplus budget but will need to ensure that they comply The Scheme for Financing Schools. Schools who opt out, maybe be subject to additional audit checks to ensure the integrity of their systems and additional requirements may also be imposed on these schools in respect of budget monitoring information and accounting for Value Added Tax.
2. Schools will need to ensure that their financial system can deal with the following:
   • Payments – schools will need to make payments to suppliers either through their own BACS arrangements or by the production and despatch of cheques.
   • Procurement – as a separate entity the school may lose some of the spend benefits associated with participation in Council corporate contracts.
   • Income and expenditure – schools will need to enter all transactions into to their own accounting system. Responsibility for chasing debts and possibly non-recovery will rest with the school.
   • Banking – the school would need to establish banking service provision and make local arrangements for the provision of stationery, counting and deposit of local income, the checking of bank statements, reconciliations of bank accounts, dealing with ‘refer to drawer’ cheques, and compliance with money laundering legislation.
   • Cash flow – the total budget share will be paid into school’s account in monthly instalments. Schools will be responsible for ensuring that the bank account does not become overdrawn.
   • Payroll - The school is responsible for the calculation, payment, completion of statutory returns and correction of errors with regards to salaries, PAYE, National Insurance and pension contributions. This will include providing annual financial details of Teachers Pensions payments and contributions to the Council. Also, for pension scheme purposes, information on starters, leavers, and other contractual changes will need to be sent to Hampshire County Council and Teachers Pensions.
   • Budget monitoring - Schools will need to supply regular budget monitoring reports to the Schools Finance Team.
   • Consistent financial reporting (CFR) - Schools must ensure that their financial system can report in CFR format and that a CFR return is sent to Schools Finance Team in accordance with a timescale set so that a return on behalf of all Southampton schools can be sent to the DfE in line with statutory timescales.