Woodley Bursars Cluster Meeting

Minutes

1st July 2015

Present: Stephanie Leary (SL)(Chair), Cindy Edwards (CE), Noelene Bradley (NB), Caroline Thomas (CT), Diane Bowman (DB), Ash Malkani (AM), Alison Gee (AG) , Claire Willoughby (CW) (Minutes) / Action
Apologies
Were received from Diane Aldrich (DA) and Catherine Rodgers (CR)
Minutes of last meeting and matters arising (10/02/15)
Photocopiers – CTthis item was carried over – can all please supply costs to AG to collate (lease cost, b/w copy cost and colour copy cost). All schools using IBS were happy to endorse their service. / ALL
AG
Breakfast Club – CT
CT thinking of opening a breakfast club and wanted to know what the pitfalls are that have been experienced by others. CE – children not being booked in and just left (there may not be space available). DB – additional time for shopping and general administration should not be underestimated. Recording of income varied from different budget on FMS to different cost centres within the main school budget. Some use Tucasi to record all income, others just enter on FMS. Bursar needs to consider allowing time for budgeting, employee contracts, bank reconciliation, staffing, shopping, accounts and invoicing.
Lettings and Costs - NB
Charges vary from school to school and range from £12 to £30 per hour. Few hirers pay the top charges with discounts for regular bookings and charges reduced if key holder time is not required or is reduced. DB and CT both noted problems with Matt Fiddes paying promptly. Billing varies from monthly, every other month to termly.
Toilet Cubicles – CT
Ambleside have nice bright child friendly cubicles bought from and fitted by a company in London. Others have purchased ArmitageFinesta through Resource Building Services and CTS. CT warned to be careful with Resource Building Services as finished work has not always been up to the standard she would like.
Cleaning Contracts – CR
CR felt that Southlake’s cleaning contract had gone up in price and down in quality during the 7 years it has been in place. She would like to see prices standardised for schools. Schools using Regency all have concerns at the moment. CE is looking to change (from Regency), possibly to Rapid Clean. SL and AM have both switched to Rapid Clean, SL is happy so far. NB signed with Regency in April and is already unhappy. CW is with Regency at the moment and is implementing a change in cleaning hours from September (from 3.30-5.30 to 5.00-7.00pm). If this doesn’t work has a quote from Rapid Clean and will look to change. CT and AG employ their own cleaners. Wokingham will provide a tender service but are not hands on.
All to send costs to CW and she will collate and distribute for comparison. / ALL
CW
CCLI Returns - CT
Most schools are currently not submitting returns
Future Funding – Donna Munday – SL
CT has passed the matter of organising Donna Munday presenting to the cluster heads to Jackie Andrews. HTs were unhappy with DM talking to bursars about future funding and how money should be spent before she talked to them. NB unhappy with language used. Bursars are NOT poachers (this infers we are thieves). CT confirmed that the effect of teacher pension changes will be a 4.7% increase on wage bills from April 16. Increase in costs means that 3-5 year budgets will be in deficit.
Pupil Premium Leaflet – CT
CW sending out. Other schools have designed their own. CW talking at new parents’ evening to encourage parents to apply for pupil premium funding (subsidised school trips, uniform etc.). NB sending a letter to all year 2 pupils telling them that they will have to pay for school meals from September and again encouraging applications for pupil premium.
Financial Information for Census - DA
Diane provided a table in advance of what data is collected from which census. (See below)
Financial Reporting Suite - CT
The presentation at the conference was a demo of Financial Management Suite. CT feels that FRS would be more useful and will email Michelle Armstrong to see if she can do a demo at our next cluster meeting. / CT
Biffa vs Select – NB
NB does not buy in to the Wokingham waste scheme and uses Select. General Waste £17.84 per 1100cc bin and Recycling £8.43 per 1.1m2 container.
CE to check if Wokingham should be paying for kitchen waste (she believes they do at Highwood).
CT recycles free of charge using Woodside Recycling – they provide collection boxes and she pays for bags annually. / CE
Budget Implications re Teachers’ Pensions – CT
Mentioned above in Future Funding (4.7% increase in April 2016).
NB to phone Sylvia at Hawkedon to see if we are able to get hold of the Excel spreadsheet used in Hampshire for 3-5 year budget planning. / NB
Benchmarking – Crown Commercial Service – CT
CT downloaded a document from the DfE website – Effective Buying for Your School. Useful document for all. Crown Commercial Service link is contained within this. Lyreco are substantially cheaper when used via CCS.

Any Other Business
CE – asked how others were organising distribution of free milk. Varies from school to school but most people happier with individual portions. CE will look to change.
CT – Payroll User Group Feedback:
Supply teachers can be given a different supply rate by completing the hourly rate field on the e form in Vision.
Filezilla being updated so that files can be uploaded as well as downloaded. Maintenance of folders is up to schools.
Leavers Report – will show all employees who haven’t earned anything in the previous ACADEMIC year.
Increments – if an increment date is entered correctly on Vision it will be automatic.
Payslip Portal – passwords expire after three months so employees need to be vigilant. Let all staff know.
WISER conversion – some schools done. Income codes start with a 9. On-line training available for new bursars.
Vision – encouraging transfers via the borough rather than making leavers and new starters. Absence tool will be reviewed / improved in August.
Pensions – CE has had issues that not all pension contributions have been showing on employee pension statements. Any queries on this should be referred to Diptesh Patel (Employee Services), referring to the Payroll User Meeting if needed. Should recommend that all staff check their pension statements carefully, particularly when the last contribution was received. Staff will need to set up their own on-line login. All should stress to staff that it is the staff member’s own responsibility to ensure that their pension statements are correct. CE will email Nicky Barlow to inform her that other schools have also had this issue. LGPS – 3 months for employee to opt out.
Pay rises in September M1-5 = 1% M6 = 2%
Compassionate leave policy – CT wanted to confirm what schools did re paid leave for dependent’s illness. Some schools pay, many don’t. All will pay if a member of staff is at work and then has to go home, normally for the first day only. Model policy states that employee is entitled to unpaid leave.
Also talked about return to work meetings. Again a variety across schools as to who does these. CE and CT do all. NB attended a managing absence training course with Ceri Stewart. Looked at return to working meetings and occupational health as a means of managing absence. Use the model policy to look for trigger points to guide you when you should be meeting with staff re absence. O/T works for the benefit of both employer and employee.
Retirement Seminar for Support Staff – will be taking place at Willowbank Infant School during the Autumn Term. It was requested that this should be out of school hours so that disruption is kept to a minimum. There will be a charge per employee attending – the more that go the lower the charge. Date to be booked soon. / ALL
CE
Date of next meeting
Wednesday 30th September
9.30
Woodley C of E
Chair – NB
Minutes – AM