What's new
Key features
Access Education Budgets : Maternity Pay, Assumed Pensionable Pay and Apprenticeship Levy enhancements.
Access Education ICFP: Staff Allocation view, Link to Budget Scenario View, View Year dropdown and Updated Calculations for Available Teachers and Deployed Teacher Periods.
Access Education Budgets: Maternity Pay Adjustment Enhancements
We have made several changes to the way maternity pay adjustments in Education Budgets work. These changes will improve budget accuracy for staff members on maternity leave. These changes are live for customers now.
92% reimbursement applicable to salary costs only
Previously the Budgets software was applying the 92% reimbursement to the salary, pension and NI costs which was incorrect.
The 92% reimbursement is now only applied to the salary cost, not pension and NI.
Default pay adjustment settings and school data have been updated in 2025 and 2026 budget years, including the addition of new maternity pay adjustment types:
NEW Maternity - Teaching Staff (92% of SMP reimbursed).
NEW Maternity - Supp Staff over SMP & eligible for OMP (92% of SMP reimbursed).
NEW Maternity - Staff over SMP & not eligible for OMP (92% of SMP reimbursed).
NEW Maternity - Staff below SMP threshold (92% of SMP reimbursed).
SMP amount taken from pay related factors
Previously SMP was set at a fixed value in the Budgets software. This hadn't been updated for several years so was out of step with the current SMP amount set by the government.
SMP is now taken from the pay related factors so it increases over time with inflation or as government changes come into effect.
LGPS regulatory changes around Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP) effective 1st April 2026
The LGPS applies to non-teaching (support) staff in schools. Under new LGPS rules, effective 1st April 2026, Assumed Pensionable Pay (APP) is also applicable during the unpaid additional maternity leave period for as long as the employee is off. Previously it was only applicable during the first 39 weeks of leave.
A new field has been added to pay adjustments to support this change, 'Pension calculated on full salary'. This setting is disabled by default but can be enabled for new pay adjustments or existing pay adjustments. When the setting is enabled, pension costs will be calculated based on employee's full salary for the duration the pay adjustment is active. 
FAQ
Q: Will my existing budgets be impacted?
A: There will be no impact to existing budgets. To benefit from the new 92% reimbursement calculations, you will need to select one of the new pay adjustment types. To utilise the ‘'Pension calculated on full salary’ setting you can enable it on new pay adjustments or existing pay adjustments.
Apprenticeship Levy Enhancements
Apprenticeship Levy is now split across Teaching and Educational Support Staff and other Support Staff.
When the Apprenticeship Levy setting is enabled (Academy> Settings> Other Settings), the 'Add Apprenticeship Levy' button is shown on the Staffing page against a scenario (Scenario> Budget Planning> Staffing).
Clicking the 'Add Apprenticeship Levy' button will open the modal confiming how the Apprenticeship Levy will be split.
When Apprenticeship Levy has been added to the scenario, two lines are created in Other Expenditure:
Apprenticeship Levy - Teachers and Education Support.
Apprenticeship Levy - Support.
| Schools | Academies |
Teaching and Educational Support Staff | EL01, EL02, EL03 section codes | EL300, EL301, EL302 section codes |
Support Staff | Everything else | Everything else |
Access Education ICFP Enhancements
We have made several changes to ICFP. These changes are live for customers now.
View current staff allocations & subject requirements when adding/editing subjects for staff members
When adding/editing subjects for staff members you can now see current staff allocations & subject requirements. This helps you to understand how a subject is currently allocated, what capacity a staff member has, and the overall requirements for allocating to the subject, at the point of deploying a staff member to the subject.
Navigate to Resource Plan, then click the Staff Load tab.
Click the '>' button to expand staff member.
Click the Add Subject' button.
You can see the following details relating the staff member at the top of the panel:
Max Load.
Deployed.
Remaining.
When a contact code is selected, you can see the following additional details relating to the subject at the bottom of the panel:
Required (Total Number of Groups entered under Year Group Resource Requirements for Contact Code).
Deployed.
Remaining.
Added "View Year" dropdown to Staff Deployment Report
A “View Year” dropdown has been added to the recently released Staff Deployment report (Resource Plan, then Overview tab, select Staff Deployement report). This will allow users to switch between years quickly without needing to copy the resource plan to a different budget year.
This works in the same way as the "View Year" dropdown on the Staff Load tab.
Dropdown Options:
current budget year (e.g. 2025-26).
current budget year + 1 (e.g. 2026-27).
current budget year + 2 (e.g. 2027-28).
current budget year + 3 (e.g. 2028-29).
current budget year + 4 (e.g. 2029-30).
The current budget year is selected by default.
When a different year is selected from the dropdown, the data shown in the grid changes based on the selected year. 
Updated calculations for Available Teacher Periods and Deployed Teacher Periods
To access the metrics:
Navigate to Resource Plan, the click the Curriculum Overview Tab.
We have updated the calculations used for the following metrics to use teaching staff only:
Available Teacher Periods.
Deployed Teacher Periods.
Surplus Teacher Periods (indirectly, as it depends on Available Teacher Periods & Deployed Teacher Periods).
Teacher Contact Ratio (indirectly, as it depends on Available Teacher Periods).
📌Note: Pupil–Teacher Ratio metric was already looking at teaching staff exclusively. Pupil–Adult Ratio is correct to include support staff.
How this version will be made available
These enhancements were released to customers throughout April 2026, and are live for all customers now.