Balance Control Mechanism (BCM) Update – Year End 2022-23

In light of this, the Schools’ Funding Forum, at its meeting in February, have taken the pragmatic approach for one year only to revise the BCM criteria to reflect this.

• Where schools have deemed to have an uncommitted balance in excess of the BCM limit they will be required to submit a plan of how they intend to reduce their school balance to within the BCM tolerance during 2022-23. This will include a summary of intended or known commitments and estimated amounts of specific items.
• Failure to provide the plan would result in the initiation of the full BCM process.

As per the normal year end process schools will be expected to complete an analysis of year end reserves, the above change will be incorporated in this process. Schools will receive their Year End Reserve analysis form as detailed in the Schools Year End closedown pack after the March’s schools advance has been run.

Those schools over the BCM will be contacted by email after Closedown to advise of any evidence required for their intended spends.

Many thanks for all your efforts in completing the closedown process this year.