James Marks Academy Trust will be pooling the General Annual Grant (GAG), which means that the Trust will receive its funding centrally and then allocate budgets to individual schools.

The reason for this model is to:

• Create a single organisational culture of fairness and equity
• Most appropriate way to meet the needs of all schools across the Trust, as it is more in line with our organisational ethos of 'being all in it together'
• Gives us the opportunity to become more flexible by moving staff resources to where the need is required
• Allows School Leaders to focus on the pupils and their education - removing operational distractions

Ordering

All products and services will be procured by the Central Team; this ensures that the trust get the best value for money across the schools and that procurement regulations are met. 

Capital Expenditure

Please contact the CFO in relation to any capital expenditure projects and CIF bid requests.

Mandatory Services

Services procured, organised and covered by the central contribution for all schools:

1. All audit fees and charges-eg statutory financial audits, teacher pension audits, internal audits (both financial and non-financial etc
2. All payroll charges
3. All charges associated with the LGPS pension scheme administration (including the valuation costs and charges)
4. All bank fees and processing costs
5. All costs associated with HR services
6. All training costs, software and license fees associated with operating the financial management and budget management system
7. All ICT and MIS associated fees
8. Costs associated with any additional external financial support
9. RPA Insurance
10. GDPR Services

Procured by Central, but charged to individual school. 

1. School Specific Insurance - all schools are covered with the RPA, however each individual school is responsible for paying its own additional insurance policies - i.e. School Vehicle
2. Catering 
3. Cleaning 
4. School Admission Appeals
5. Utilities (Electric, Gas and Water)