Condition Improvement Fund 2015 to 2016
Payment profile change request guidance for successful projects
June 2015 version 1.0
Contents
Overview 3
Background 3
Current projects – action required successful project applicants 3
About payment profiles 4
How is a payment profile request assessed? 4
Rules when submitting a payment profile request 4
Outcomes of a payment profile change request 6
Accepted 6
Rejected 6
Payment profile change history 6
How to raise a payment profile change request 7
Support 13
Overview
This document aims to
· Provide general information to applicants on payment profile change requests; and
· Provide guidance to applicants on how to raise a payment profile change request.
Background
On 26 March the government announced the outcome of the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2015 to 2016.
£367 million of funding was approved for 1,366 projects across 1,089 academies and sixth-form colleges, which will help to ensure that children across the country can enjoy school and sixth-form college buildings, which are safe, good quality and fit for learning.
A full list of successful projects and project invited to resubmit can be found on the CIF section of the GOV.UK website.
The CIF replaced the Academies Capital Maintenance Fund (ACMF) for academies, and the Building Condition Improvement Fund (BCIF), for sixth-form colleges.
Current projects – action required for successful project applicants
Under the Current Projects section of the platform, applicants with successful projects can currently:
· View and accept terms and conditions
· View funding profile
· View original application
· Request a change to funding profile
Soon, applicants with successful projects will be able to:
· Request a change in project scope (further guidance to follow). This functionality will be launched via the CIF portal in July.
· Update Project Monitoring (further guidance to follow)
An email communication will be issued to relevant providers each time additional functionality becomes available.
About payment profiles
Payment profile change requests can be used to alter the timing of payments to be received for a successful project. Please note, the total funding requested cannot be changed through this process. If you need to change the amount of funding, please follow the procedure for a scope change request (further guidance to follow). Reasons that an academy may wish to request a change to their payment profile include:
· Bringing payments in line with expenditure profiles
· Where a delay to the project means that you do not need the payment until a later date
· Where you wish to alter the proportion of funding received on each payment occasion. If this is the case, please ensure that the new profile still matches the overall total funding requested for the project otherwise you will not be able to submit the request
The CIF team will in certain circumstances raise a payment profile change for an academy, trust or sixth-form college based on the data feeds it receives and the project monitoring forms submitted. These changes will be assessed by a second member of the team and if approved notification will be sent to the academy, trust or sixth form college in question.
How is a payment profile request assessed?
Submitted funding profile change requests will be reviewed by the CIF team and approved or rejected. A clear justification is required in the Reason for Change text box. This will enable the CIF team to accurately review and assess the the request, so please use the 1,000 characters limit carefully.
It is possible that a member of the CIF team will contact you to discuss the request and gain a more detailed understanding of the reason stated before accepting or rejecting the change. Where a change request to extend the project is submitted, a project monitoring or scope change form may be requested from the academy, trust or sixth-form college.
Rules when submitting a payment profile request
When raising a payment profile change there are some general rules to be aware of:
· The amounts in the profile must add up to the total amount of funding that you have been allocated.
· You will not be able to change any payments in the current month.
· After the 29th of the month you will not be able to change a payment for the following month (i.e. on the 30th of July you will not be able to amend of your August payment). Please ensure any urgent changes for payment change for the next month are raised before the 30th.
· You can only raise one payment profile change request per project at any one time. After the conclusion of the previous request you can re-raise a profile change request as many times as is needed and appropriate. Pending requests can also be withdrawn by users before they are assessed by the CIF team.
· If your payment profile change request is the result of a larger scope change request (further guidance to follow, function available in July) please do not submit the change request separately. Scope change requests will, if approved, include the change to payment profile.
· Any projects over £250,000 please ensure that your final payment (the 5% rentention) remains in place, as this could cause your request to be declined. We will only consider changing this if there is a sufficient risk or reason that makes this necessary.
Outcomes of a payment profile change request
Accepted
If a payment profile change is accepted then payment will continue along the amended schedule. This will be reflected in your project status on the Current Projects screen.
Rejected
If a payment profile change request is rejected then the payment profile will revert to the latest approved schedule for that project. This will be reflected in the project status found on your Current Projects page, or from viewing your funding and T&C’s page. You will also receive an email, which will contain the reason for the decision made.
Payment profile change history
You can view a log of all of the changes requested and the assessment results on the funding and T&C’s page.
How to raise a payment profile change request
1. Go to the CIF portal website.
2. Log on to the CIF portal using the username associated with the project.
3. Select current projects from the navigation menu.
4. Select view/update under the heading Funding Profile and T&C’s (ensuring to accept your T&C’s if you have not already done so) for the project you would like to make the request for. Please note that acceptance of T&C’s does not affect your ability to submit a funding profile change request.
5. Select payment profile change.
6. Make the changes required, ensuring you keep within the criteria of the rules on page 4 of this guidance document.
7. Enter the reason for the payment profile change request (keep within the 1,000 character limit – if you surpass this, a red astrix will appear above the box and you will not be able to submit your request).
8. You are able to save the request at any point of this process.
9. The submit button will be greyed out; you are required to save the request before you are able to submit.
10. Press the submit button (please ensure that you have submitted and not just saved, as saved submissions will not be assessed).
11. This will change your project status to reflect that you have raised a payment profile change request.
12. Once your request has been assessed you will receive either an acceptance or rejection email, which will contain the reason for the decision made.
Rejection Email
Acceptance Email
13. You can also withdraw a request made if it is done incorrectly or no longer needed and re-raise a request at any time.
Support
If you have any further queries please contact the relevant enquiry service listed on the CIF portal or CIF section of the GOV.UK website.
© Crown copyright 2015
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