Executive Director’s Update to Principals #58 - 7 December 2023
Processing of Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)
Primary School Principals and Finance and Administration Staff.
Background
The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) provides payments to families of eligible students by the Victorian State Government to attend activities such as:
- school camps or trips
- swimming and school-organised sports programs
- outdoor education programs
- excursions and incursions
All CSEF payments are paid directly to the school as a bulk payment.
The annual external Audit process has identified a lack of consistency with the processing of CSEF payments by schools. The following provides guidance on the processing approach to be adopted across all DOBCEL schools.
For clarity, this relates to the current $125 per year received for eligible CSEF students ($150 in 2024).
Amounts allocated through the funding formula for CSEF students represent a priority allocation of the funding pool to families demonstrating financial need. Therefore, applications from families in this category should be followed up as a priority to secure funding to enable support through the Family Fee Assistance Scheme.
Issues
Schools are responsible for allocating the $125 CSEF payment towards camps, sports and excursion costs for eligible students.
Under the acquittal requirements, governing authorities can advise schools as to the appropriate accounting treatment and acquittal process.
Given the variability of approach to processing CSEF payments and following discussions with our auditors on a suitable approach to satisfy acquittal requirements, we advise the following approach.
Approach
Upon receipt of the bulk payment by the school, all CSEF payments are to be allocated as a credit to the family fee account of the eligible student.
For clarity, CSEF payments received are not to be processed as recurrent funding by the school, nor are they to be held for offset against CSEF activities in future years (including retention in a clearing or liability account).
To simplify the process of allocating and acquitting the funding against family fee accounts, we encourage schools to raise accounts as early as possible in the school year. This will ensure the fee account is up to date for these activities and available for offset when CSEF funding is received during Term 1. These activities include:
- school camps or trips
- swimming and school-organised sport programs
- outdoor education programs
- excursions and incursions.
If there are insufficient CSEF related charges to allocate the CSEF funding to, the funds can be allocated towards other charges for the student. The school will need to be able to demonstrate that these funds were utilised for excursions, buses, sports programs etc. for the benefit of the eligible student, even though they were not individually billed to the fee account.
Please note that CSEF payments cannot be used towards:
- books
- stationery
- school uniforms
- before or after school care
- music lessons, or
- formals or graduations.
Where schools currently have accumulated amounts which were to be applied to future CSEF related activities, these amounts should now be applied to the family fee account.
Where students have left the system, the remaining CSEF funds will remain with the school and may be used to assist any students in need with school-incurred costs for camps, sports activities and excursions.
Recommendations
- note the approach for processing CSEF payments,
- adjust existing practices where necessary, and
- liaise with your DOBCEL Business Manager as required.
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