Management Information Sheet

There has recently been an increase in the number of actual and attempted fraud attacks against school bank accounts, which has resulted in the loss of thousands of pounds of public money. To assist schools to protect the funds in their care, we are seeking to increase the protection mechanisms that can be put in place to mitigate the risk of loss,

The following updates will be made on the global NCC schools’ contract with Barclays from 1 November 2019

• We have requested to increase the number of authorising officers required for .Net online payments made through Barclays (this includes BACS uploads). Currently only one authorised officer is required for any online payments, which significantly increases the vulnerability of schools to fraud. We have requested that this is increased to two officers where the collective value of the total payments included within the BACS payment file is £1,000 or more. Please be aware that you may need to request additional authorised Barclay .Net users or change existing privileges to comply with this regulation.
• Click here for Online User form Add/Remove/Amend request
• Please note that schools were all originally issued with two .Net bank card readers; one for the payment processor and one for the authorising officer. Schools may require additional readers at a cost of £5 per device although they could share their current devices (but not the bank cards). It is appreciated that smaller schools may struggle for officers, but they would require two authorising officers for cheques, and online authorising is probably easier to action.
• The Norfolk County Council audit policy on cheque payments is that if any cheque has a value of £500 or over, or if it is made payable to a member of staff, it must be signed by two authorised signatures. Currently this is not enforced by Barclays Bank. We have informed Barclays that we require them to enforce the policy, but we will increase the limit to £1,000 for the two authorised signatories.
• The majority of the frauds that are successfully carried out on school bank accounts are those that are instigated using the immediate payments process. We have therefore informed Barclays that immediate and international payments within the schools banking system are suspended. The only recommended method that should be used for school accounts is the three-day payment process and we additionally recommend using this in conjunction with the BACS payments process. Where a school has a need for an urgent requirement to make a same-day payment, there is the availability of the NCC CHAPS system, where there are stringent audit-proof checks already in place to detect and prevent fraudulent payments. This will be via the Schools Finance Team.
• We require that any single online payments over £10,000 must have an additional check in place to ensure the veracity of the payee i.e. to add reassurance that the school is not being targeted by a fraudster. The additional check will be carried out by a member of the School’s Finance & Business Services Team.
• Please requests be sent to the finance.support@educatorsolutions.org.uk group mail box. All requests must be received prior to 1400 hrs daily to be responded to on the day of request.
• The requests should be accompanied with an electronic copy of the invoice being paid
• Independent verification of the payee’s bank details. For example these may be quoted on the invoice or on the suppliers headed paper, which should have been received as part of setting up payments in the BACS system.