Independent schools

The competition independent schools face has become more intense with some of the key issues for governors, heads and bursars including:

• economic downturns and the general affordability of private education
• the difficulties in making surpluses from activities and ability to reinvest
• meeting the public benefit requirements
• competition from and the costs of involvement in government sponsored academy projects
• rising pension contribution rates causing financial pressures
• the general regulatory burden

Baker Tilly has demonstrated a long term commitment to the independent schools sector and over the last 20 years, has consistently been one of the largest providers of audit services to the sector (source: CaritasData)

Clients benefit from our genuine interest and focus on the sector together with our understanding of the issues being faced. Our priority is to inform our clients, steering them through best practice and using our experience of the best management processes throughout the education and commercial sectors.

Relevant experience

Our education team has diverse and in depth experience across the education sector. We work closely with leading umbrella bodies such as ISBA and AGBIS. We take the time to acquire real knowledge and understanding of your school by talking to the people who are responsible for day-to-day operations and delivering practical solutions that meet your specific needs.

We contribute at a national level to the sector press and with regulators. We are regularly asked for our comments on matters of sector importance and for technical input on complex accounting issues. Baker Tilly is a driver of sector related benchmarking information and publishes a tri-annual survey of management and governance.

Alongside our audit service, we also act for many schools on a project basis - particularly on estate planning and VAT, corporation tax planning and subsidiary companies, mergers and acquisitions, business recovery, risk management reviews and the selection and implementation of accounting and administration IT solutions.

Recent publications

• Academies and Independent Schools bulletin
  Welcome to our Autumn 2010 Academies and Independent Schools bulletin. In this edition we look at M&A for schools, whether the academies programme is achieving its objectives and how independent schools are affected by the VAT package.