Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 15 March 2018

Published 15 March 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Information: academy general annual grant funding allocations: 2018 to 2019

We’re continuing to make good progress with issuing 2018 to 2019 general annual grant allocation statements. We expect to issue all allocation statements to academies that opened before or on 1 January 2018 by the end of March 2018.

We expect to issue allocation statements by the end of April 2018 for academies that opened in February and March 2018

We’re uploading allocation statements to the ‘revenue funding’ folder (2018/19) in the Document Exchange section of the Information Exchange. For support and guidance about the Information Exchange, please visit our support page.

We’ll upload allocation statements once the relevant local authority funding formula is confirmed. This means that we may not upload allocation statements for all academies in a multi-academy trust at the same time.

We’ve published academy general annual grant guidance for 2018 to 2019 to help you understand your statement.

2. Information: Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP)

We are asking responsible bodies to complete the AMAP to provide assurance that their schools are managing asbestos safely. Responsible bodies, for these purposes, are the main employer of staff at state-funded schools and academies. They have a duty under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 to manage asbestos in their school buildings.

All responsible bodies are to complete the AMAP and submit an assurance declaration for all their schools by midday, on Thursday 31 May 2018.

They will need to ensure that they include every school for which they are responsible in the AMAP declaration. They can either complete all returns themselves or ask their schools to complete the information requested and then submit it to the responsible body for review. The Responsible Body needs to provide the assurance declaration for all their schools, which they can do from 2 April 2018.

Voluntary-aided schools: we will be sending an AMAP code to voluntary-aided schools in April 2018. This will allow voluntary-aided schools to provide information and for their governing boards to complete the AMAP responsible body assurance declaration.

3. Information: 16 to 19 student support guides for 2018 to 2019 academic year

We have published 2018 to 2019 guides for the following 16 to 19 student financial support schemes:

• 16 to 19 Bursary Fund
• Care to Learn
• Residential Bursary Fund
• Residential Support Scheme

Institutions should review the new versions as there are some changes for the new academic year. For example, the Bursary Fund guide explains changes to some of the definitions for bursaries for vulnerable groups. The free meals in further education guide will be published shortly.

4. Information: helping you understand your 16 to 19 revenue funding allocation statements for 2018 to 2019

Earlier this month we published a narrated presentation on the 16 to 19 funding allocations process for 2018 to 2019.

To support this we have published 2 short videos to help you understand your 16 to 19 funding statement.

• general overview of the 16 to 19 statement for 2018 to 2019 academic year
• changes to the 16 to 19 statement for 2018 to 2019 academic year

We hope you find these videos helpful. Customer service is important to us, so we would really appreciate feedback on how useful you found them. Any feedback can be sent to us using our online enquiry form and will only take a minute.

Further information on 16 to 19 funding allocations is available on GOV.UK.