In this section
St Jude’s School (Voluntary) Fund – Statement of Intent
Purpose of the School Fund:
The school fund (also known as the voluntary fund) is to be used to benefit the St Jude’s Catholic Primary School pupils using monies that have been donated, raised or collected.
Whilst voluntary funds are not part of the schools delegated budget they are raised under the school’s name and therefore it is important that financial controls are in place to safeguard the interests of governors, staff, fund raisers and all other stakeholders.
Intention of the School Fund:
The object of the school fund is to advance, promote and enhance the education and experiences of pupils by providing educational and recreational facilities over and above those supported by public funding. School does this by providing resources, material and equipment or by financing extra-curricular activities e.g. Christmas parties, pantomimes, extra curricular trips etc.
Income to the fund is generally obtained from donations, voluntary contributions and fund raising. It is therefore important that the school fund is not used for inappropriate purposes. Any school fund expenditure must be incurred to benefit the pupils of St Jude’s.
The School fund account may be used to make payments to external charities e.g. CAFOD, The Good Shepherd, Children in Need and NSPCC. In these cases, the amount collected will be passed wholly to the charity for which it was raised.
General Management and Day to Day Procedures:
The School Voluntary Fund is not covered by the Local Authorities VAT Registration
therefore, VAT incurred cannot be recovered and may not be charged.
As far as possible, different people should be involved in ordering, invoicing and preparing payments, in order to reduce the risk of fraud.
A clear comprehensive trail of documentation must be maintained which records and supports all transactions made through the voluntary fund.
Governors delegate the day to day operations and the approval of any expenditure incurred from the school fund to the Headteacher, who must ensure that purchases are appropriate in terms of the items/services and their value. The headteacher must sign the documentation to evidence their approval of the expenditure.
Two signatories are required on payments, in line with the bank mandate.
Upon receipt of each bank statement (usually monthly but may be less frequent if there have been no transactions) a bank reconciliation must be completed and independently reviewed by the headteacher.
Auditing:
Annually the school fund will be audited by an independent person, approved by the governors. The audit of the school fund must be done within 6 months of the year end.
The auditor is responsible for:
• Agreeing the entries on the Summary of Accounts Statement to the cash book and bank statements, adjusted for unpresented transactions
• Checking the arithmetical accuracy of the Summary of Accounts Statement
• Checking that the opening balances brought forward into the current year agree with the closing balances carried forward from the previous year’s audited Summary of Accounts Statement.
Once the audit has been finalised an Audit Certificate is required to be completed and signed. If the auditor has any doubts concerning a particular area but does not consider that it will affect the production of satisfactory accounts then the certificate can be completed with any reservations shown in the space provided or clearly appended. The signed auditor’s certificate is to be forwarded to the School Finance Team at the Local Authority.
Statement of Intent Approval:
Statement to be approved at F&P Committee on 27th January 2025