Representative school sport financial arrangements policy
Audience
Regional School Sport Offices and the Queensland School Sport Unit
Purpose
This policy outlines financial arrangements for representative school sport programs. It supports the Queensland School Sport Unit and Regional School Sport Offices in achieving planned objectives and delivering the services stated in operational plans and expressed financially through annual budgets.
Policy statement
Representative school sport is run by business units of the Department of Education (the department) (Regional School Sport Offices and Queensland School Sport Unit) and receives appropriation funding for some staff costs and accommodation. The remaining costs of delivering representative school sport programs are met through school affiliation fees, student participation fees, mark-up of merchandise and apparel, and sponsorship.
Departmental officers, Queensland School Sport Board (QSSB) members and Regional School Sport Board (RSSBs) members are responsible for ensuring transparent and reliable information is available for representative school sport participants and parents. Effective financial performance management enables informed decision making about how funds are applied during the year in accordance with planned activities.
To encourage participation and ensure accountability, player participation fees must be minimised and be transparent. All reasonable efforts to minimise the cost of participation in representative school sport programs must be made.
Principles
- Financial arrangements for representative school sports programs must be open and transparent, and comply with all relevant legislation.
- All reasonable efforts must be made to minimise the cost of player participation.
- Regular review and discussion of financial reports and information must be undertaken to monitor performance against approved budget, examine the efficiency and effectiveness of day to day processes and identify potential savings.
- In cases of financial hardship, the respective school sport body will consider the specific circumstances and may apply alternate arrangements to ensure inclusion and affordability for all participants.
Requirements
Minimising cost of participation
- Only allowable costs can be included in player participation fees. Allowable costs are:
- training venue hire
- event direct expenses
- venue hire
- consumable playing equipment
- cost of specific sport match officials not provided for by the department
- player travel, accommodation and meal expenses
- travel and accommodation for reasonable number of officials (as approved for each event by the Queensland School Sports Management Group (QSSMG)) to accompany students
- team uniforms required for participation
- trophies, medallions
- team photographs and other mementos
- QSSMG state championship levy
- regional administration fee
- First Aid expenses.
- The sale price for inventory (e.g. team uniforms, merchandise) is the cost price, plus a mark up to cover the full cost of acquiring and managing the inventory. Refer to Representative school sports – charging for inventory (DoE employees only) for further information about how to calculate sale prices.
- Player costs may be subsidised through sponsorship arrangements
- All sponsorship arrangements must comply with the department’s Sponsorship procedure
- Details of any known sponsorships must be included in the annual budget strategy approved by the representative school sport board (QSSB and RSSB).
Financial performance reporting
Queensland and Regional School Sport Officers:
- Review and check financial performance reports each month and investigate budget variances and significant movements from the previous period.
- Arrange the provision of the following financial reports to the relevant board along with explanations of material budget variances, and details of significant movements from the previous period. These include:
- Annual Budget against Profit and Loss Statement
- Balance Sheet (including retained earnings, contingencies)
- Bank statement and Bank Reconciliation report
- Additional information, including on inventories and receivables, income and expenditure of all stock (merchandise and apparel).
- Prepare and present an annual budget to the relevant board which includes:
- planned income (including but not limited to fees and levies to be charged, sponsorship arrangements, inventory sales revenue)
- planned expenses (including but not limited to salary purchases, cost of goods sold, travel costs)
- details of stock mark-up strategy including total income and expenditure of stock
- target operating result, details of contingency/provisions, and plans for utilisation of any carry forward surplus amount
- provisions for required and future planned activities such as:
- general bank reserve (see below)
- fees received in advance/ deposits held – the value of these items may be included as a provision if not already accounted for as liabilities at end of period.
Queensland and Regional School Sport Boards:
- Review financial reports and information provided by the representative school sport office/unit, and note the review and any related actions in minutes.
- Approve the annual budget, retained earnings and contingency amounts prepared by the representative school sport office/unit, and note that approval in minutes.
Suggested general bank reserve
- The suggested minimum bank balance retained as a safety margin are:
- for large RSSBs (Met East, Met North, Met West, South Coast, Sunshine Coast) - $70,000
- for medium RSSBs (Capricornia, Darling Downs, Northern, Peninsula, Wide Bay) - $60,000
- for small RSSBs (North West, South West) - $40,000.
Definitions
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Term
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Definition
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Queensland School Sport Unit
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The Queensland School Sport Unit oversees the operations of the state-wide Queensland School Sport program.
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Queensland School Sport Board (QSSB)
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The Queensland School Sport Board is the governing board that oversees the strategic development and administration of the representative school sport program.
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Regional School Sports Boards (RSSB)
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Regional School Sport Boards are representative groups who oversee the functional operations of each Regional School Sport Office.
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Regional School Sport Offices
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Regional School Sport Offices lead and implement the operations of the representative school sport program in their respective sport region.
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Compulsory apparel items
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Travel and competition uniforms that ensure the safety and welfare of all students whilst participating at and travelling to and from the representative school sport event. These items include field of play competition uniforms, representative school sport travel shirt, and hat for environmental factors.
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Stock mark-up
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The difference between the cost price and the sell price for stock items such as player uniforms and region merchandise. Mark-up is used to recover indirect costs, such as inventory management, staffing etc.
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Legislation
Delegations/Authorisations
Other resources
Superseded versions
Previous seven years shown. Minor version updates not included.
1.0 Representative school sport financial arrangements