Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 18 January 2018

Published 18 January 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.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. Final reminder: accounts return due 19 January 2018

This is a final reminder that the deadline for trusts submitting their accounts return is at midnight this Friday, 19 January 2018.

If you have not yet submitted your accounts return, please ensure that you have processes in place to meet the deadline.

Please refer to the academies accounts return guidance on GOV.UK.

2. Action: Invitation to express an interest to deliver T levels in the 2020 to 2021 academic year

The Department for Education is looking to identify a small number of providers to deliver T levels in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. We have published information setting out how institutions meeting set criteria can express an interest to deliver T levels in 2020 to 2021 academic year.

To do this, institutions will be required to complete and submit an expression of interest to ESFA. The closing date for applications is midday on 28 February 2018.

Further information including details on how to submit an expression of interest are available on GOV.UK.

3. Reminder: deadline for submission of 2018 to 2019 authority pro-forma tool

We’d like to remind local authority finance colleagues that the deadline for submitting the 2018 to 2019 authority pro-forma tool (APT) is Friday 19 January 2018.

4. Information: School and Early Years Finance Regulations for 2018

The Department for Education has laid the School and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2018. These regulations make provision for local authorities’ financial arrangements relating to the funding of schools and early years provision for the 2018 to 2019 financial year.

We have also published an explanatory memorandum. Changes to the previous regulations are set out in paragraphs 7.4 to 7.22 of the memorandum.

5. Information: high needs place change request outcomes

We invited local authorities to submit their changes to 2018 to 2019 high needs place numbers in ESFA funded institutions by 17 November 2017. This presents information on all institutions for which local authorities submitted a return to change high needs place numbers.

A local authority, academy or FE institution may contact ESFA to query the place numbers within the enquiry window, which closes on 2 February 2018. Details on how to submit a query during this period are set out in paragraphs 48 to 52 of the high needs place change notification 2018 to 2019: technical note.

If an institution is not listed in the workbook, this means that no local authority change request was submitted for that institution and the published 2017 to 2018 place numbers will be used as the basis of the 2018 to 2019 allocation.

6. Information: school workforce census

The school workforce census remains open but must close soon. If you expect any delay in making your return(s) please contact the helpdesk unless you have already done so.

Actions remain to be taken by some schools and local authorities who have made a return(s) in COLLECT. Please check and ensure that:

• your return(s) status in COLLECT is, approved or authorised, if you have made any amendments to your data and the current status is ‘loaded and validated’ or ‘Amended by Source’ you must press submit

• please ensure you have checked your errors by clicking on the ‘all errors’ button, if you have any errors or queries remaining that are correct these must be covered by return level notes

• if you have used matching and reconciliation to merge multiple files in COLLECT that the process has been completed and your return(s) show only one source (open return, click on ‘view all’ hyperlink)

• staff contracts all have hours recorded, each contact must have the hours worked per week, the full time equivalent (FTE) hours per week and weeks per year included

• the Base Pay for part-time staff is the actual annual salary and not the FTE

7. Information: spring school census 2018

The school census 2018 begins today. The deadline for approved submissions is Wednesday 14 February and the database will be closed to amendments from schools and local authorities on Wednesday 14 March.

The school census guide for the 2017 to 2018 academic year 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.

There are also a series of videos available on the school census website. Whilst these are primarily aimed at academies and free schools, the contents will be equally relevant to local authority schools.

8. Information: input to ESFA customer experience

Last year, as part of our continued customer experience work, we held interviews and workshops with a range of our customers.

In order to consider feedback and to enhance customer experience, we have set up improvement projects. As we progress these projects we want to talk with you again and will be doing 45 minute telephone interviews between 26 February to 9 March.

We are also developing our online reference group and will be using this more to test our plans, ideas and services with you in a quick and simple way.

If you are interested in being interviewed or joining the online group please email: josie.appleby@education.gov.uk.