Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 17 May 2018

Published 17 May 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.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

Along with many other organisations, we are currently reviewing the way that we send out information as we prepare to implement the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As a result of our review, we have decided to change the way in which people subscribe to the ESFA bulletin, which will take affect from 24 May 2018.

If you are an accounting officer, chief financial officer or chair of trustees at an academy trust or headteacher at an academy school, you will not need to do anything and you will continue to receive the email if we hold your contact information. To make sure we have up-to-date contact information for your academy, please follow the guidance on our providing and updating academy trust governance contacts page on GOV.UK.

If you are not one of the roles listed above and you want to continue receiving an email when we have published our newsletter, then you will need to subscribe to GOV.UK alerts. This way you will find out when we have published it online for you to read.

2. Final reminder: academies budget forecast return outturn (BFRO)

This is a final reminder that the deadline for all trusts to submit their BFRO is Monday 21 May. If you have not yet accessed this year’s form then please do so as soon as possible.

Please make sure that you are registered and set up correctly on our IDAMs system. If you are not set up correctly, you will not be able to access the BFRO online form.

If you are experiencing difficulties accessing, completing or submitting your BFRO, please contact us using our online enquiry form.

3. Action: summer school census opens today

The summer school census 2018 begins today (17 May). The deadline for approved submissions is Wednesday 13 June and we will close the database to amendments from schools and local authorities on Wednesday 4 July.

The school census guide for the 2017 to 2018 academic year and a series of videos is available on the school census website.

A data collection forum is available for all data collection contacts to access. You will require a username and password specific to the forum to access. If you do not already have a username and password and would like to request access, or if you have any questions about the facility, please complete a service request form.

4. Information: funding regulations and funding rates and formula guidance

We have published the 16 to 19 funding regulations and 16 to 19 funding rates and formula guidance for academic year 2018 to 2019 on GOV.UK.

We have only made minor changes to the documents which are outlined on GOV.UK.

5. Information: updated safeguarding guidance and advice for schools and colleges

The department has published the response to the recent Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) consultation. Alongside the response is revised KCSIE for information. This is to allow schools and colleges time to consider any changes they might want to make to policy and procedure before the revised guidance comes into force on 3 September 2018. Up until 3 September, schools and colleges must continue to have regard to KCSIE 2016.

The KCSIE consultation provided respondents an opportunity to comment on the effectiveness of the child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment advice. The advice has been strengthened and is available to support schools and colleges.

• KCSIE consultation response

• revised KCSIE (for information at this stage) and KCSIE 2016 (which schools and colleges must continue to have regard until 3 September 2018)

• revised child on child sexual violence and sexual harassment advice

6. Action: 3 opportunities to help us develop our services

The ESFA is always looking to continuously improve the services we offer, as part of this we would like your feedback.

Accessibility and service development user research

It is important that we ensure we develop our services so that they are accessible to all users who need them. If you or a colleague make use of adaptive technologies (for example, screen magnifiers, screen readers, speech recognition tools) to assist you in accessing digital services we would love to hear from you.

Sessions are confidential and voluntary. We can hold the sessions in a way that is best for you, face to face or a web meeting. To register interest, please email pds.mailbox@education.gov.uk with your contact details.

Developing the ESFA customer commitment

We are also looking for volunteers to provide us with feedback on our draft customer commitment that puts emphasis on understanding our customers, connecting with you effectively, keeping our focus on your needs, and improving our services based on your feedback.

This will take about 20 minutes of your time. If you would like to help please email ESFA.CHANGEPROGRAMME@education.gov.uk by 5pm on Tuesday, 22 May.

Reviewing our interactive post-16 census tool

We’re really interested in gathering feedback on our interactive post-16 census tool before we refresh it in July to improve customer experience.

If you are responsible for submitting post-16 census data and would like to review the tool, please register your interest with Ashley Roberts by Friday 25 May.