SS17015 - Schools Financial Planning Tool

Kent County Council Schools Financial Services team sells a Financial and Support Service to schools and academies within Kent and Medway. The support service centres on a Financial Planning Tool which providesthe ability for a school to plan, set and monitor budgets, with a facility to create further budget scenarios. The Council is seeking tenders for a fully encompassing, effective and efficient financial management tool, that can be utilised for both council funded schools and academies. This may include occasional instances where Academies cross county borders otherwise this opportunity will be restricted to Kent.

The solution will be required to deliver the following high-level requirements:

1. Ability to plan, set and monitor school and academy budgets
2. Ability to calculate salary cost using a number of salary pay schemes including the current Kent RangeScheme
3. To be compatible with school accounting systems, including SIMS FMS6, PS Financials, Sage and Corero
4. Ability to comply with the Council's /DfE/ESFA financial returns and requirements
5. Ability for the council to access, with appropriate permission, individual school's financial data
6. Draft financial plans must be stored to a minimum level of IL2. (Impact Level 2)
7. A managed Cloud based delivery

Further requirements are detailed in the Invitation to Tender documentation.

The majority of KCC funded schools will utilise this solution. Academies and other LA maintained schools willalso be able to purchase this tool as is the current practice. There are currently 397 maintained schools and 83 academies supported. Schools Financial Services will provide training and a skills support service for all users,although technical support will be required from the provider. The use of the product to schools/ academies within this solution is to be controlled by the Schools Financial Services and the provider will be required to enter into a non-competition agreement with the Council, and agree to provide technical support for any new educational establishments that are added to the solution. Therefore an appropriate licencing model is required.

Potential providers are invited to express an interest and download the documentation from the Kent BusinessPortal (www.kentbusinessportal.org.uk). If the provider is not already registered on the portal, registration will berequired. Expressions of interest cannot be submitted by any other means.