In response to the Covid-19 outbreak, the budget forecast return three year (BFR3Y) is the only required budget forecast to be submitted for Academies and Academy Trusts this year.
The following
one-off changes have been announced on
gov.uk in relation to the BFR3Y for 2020:
- The deadline for submission has been extended by two months to 29 September 2020
- The requirement to submit longer term forecasts for 2021/22 and 2022/23 has been excluded (see (1) below)
- Eight summary revenue fields have been included for figures relating to 2018/19 (see (2) below)
(1) The requirement to prepare Academy/Trust budgets and long term forecasts remains as per the handbook. The 2021 BFR3Y will include forecasts for 2022/23 and 2023/24.
(2) The eight additional income/expenditure totals are included in order for the government to gauge the impact of coronavirus on academies; figures are taken from the 2018/19 totals (BFR Actuals) and entered into the new “column I” of the Excel workbook.
The online submission form for BFR3Y is available from 8 July 2020 and the usual Excel workbooks are already online for preparation purposes. (Note: The Excel workbook cannot be submitted in lieu of the BFR3Y online submission which must be made through IDAMS in line with last year.)
An additional (optional) finance question has been included this year giving Academies the opportunity to explain how the coronavirus shut down has materially impacted upon results, forecasts and pupil numbers.
A new option to confirm GAG pooling removes the requirement to detail income by Academy in Trusts where pooling is applied.
As in previous years, the workbook includes validations which can be responded to and reviewed before transferring to the online submission.
Once again, the ESFA have an online enquiry form which can be submitted with any questions relating to the BFR3Y. Further information and a link to the published Excel workbook can be found
here.