Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 24 March 2016

Published 24 March 2016

This correspondence was withdrawn on 20 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Information: post-16 allocation statements for 2016 to 2017 academic year

We have now issued revised statements to schools and academies which confirm allocations of student support funding. We have also issued statements for non-maintained special schools (NMSS) (inclusive of student support) and special post-16 institutions (SPIs) (excluding student support). All statements are located in Document Exchange in the ‘revenue funding’ folder under ‘AY 2016-17 (2016/17)’. To access these folders please log into EFA Information Exchange.

We expect to upload the following statements by the end of 24 March 2016:

• revised statements (inclusive of student support funding) for further education colleges, local authorities with direct delivery, and higher education institutions (HEI) using Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data
• final allocation statements for charitable and commercial providers (CCPs)
• funding allocation statements and allocation calculation toolkit (ACT) files for HEIs using returning Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data

We expect to upload revised statements for special post-16 institutions (inclusive of student support funding) by 31 March 2016.

Institutions are asked to note the approaching deadlines for business cases.

• all institution types (except for the groups outlined below) - 8 April 2016
• NMSS, SPIs, CCPs and HEIs returning HESA data - 22 April 2016

We have updated our explanatory notes on GOV.UK to include information on student support funding.

If you have any issues using EFA Information Exchange, please check our support guidance. For queries about allocation statements, please refer to our funding guidance (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-funding-allocations-supporting-documents-for-2016-to-2017) on GOV.UK. You can contact us via our online enquiry form.

2. Information: area reviews and reshaping the college sector - FE Commissioner letter

Further Education (FE) Commissioner, Dr David Collins CBE, has written to all chairs and principals in the further education sector. In his letter he shares his thoughts on progress with the area review process.

3. Action: Establishing local authority dedicated schools grant baselines

The national funding formula consultation sets out our intention to establish revised baselines for the blocks of the dedicated schools grant (DSG).

As part of this exercise, we are gathering information from local authorities on their 2016 to 2017 financial year baselines and their historic commitments.

We have provided a spreadsheet for completion by local authorities on the data collections portal. We require two returns:

• baselines must be returned by 12 April 2016
• historic commitments must be returned by 27 May 2016.

If you have any questions about this process, or have not received an email with your local authority (LA) details please email our NFF baselines team

4. Information: Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) outcome

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, Lord Nash, announced on 24 March 2016 the Condition Improvement Fund 2016 to 2017 outcome.

The announcement confirms funding of £435 million for 1,276 projects across academies and sixth-form colleges.

We will publish guidance on appeals on GOV.UK in the week commencing 18 April 2016.

5. Information: visit EFA at the Academies Show

Come and visit EFA at the Academies Show on Wednesday 20 April 2016 at the ExCeL Centre in London.

We look forward to meeting visitors on our stand at the show, as well as at the various conference and workshop sessions to which EFA is contributing.

6. Information: Key to Success (KtS) availability

The KtS system will be unavailable from 5pm on 31 March 2016 for essential maintenance. Normal service will resume from 9am on 4 April 2016.

We would appreciate it if you could ensure all system users are aware of this notice.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. You should contact us via our service request form for any support requests for KtS from 4 April 2016.