ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 20 July 2017
Published 20 July 2017
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-e-bulletin-20-july-2017-issue-179/esfa-e-bulletin-for-academies-20-july-2017
1. Action: budget forecast return due by 28 July 2017
This is the final reminder that the deadline for submitting your budget forecast return is Friday, 28 July 2017.
All academy trusts open on or before 1 May 2017 must submit a budget forecast return using the academies budget forecast online form.
The only exceptions to this are:
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a new academy joining an existing multi-academy trust (MAT) on or after the submission deadline of 28 July 2017 when we require a separate return for that academy
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trusts opening between 1 May and 28 July 2017, when the deadline for the budget forecast return is either 6 weeks following receipt of their funding letter or 31 July 2017, whichever is later
You can view the guide to completing and submitting your 2017 to 2018 budget forecast return together with a recording of our webinar held on Monday, 3 July on GOV.UK.
2. Action: get information about schools – new service
The current Edubase system will be replaced later this year by a new system called ‘get information about schools’.
A test version of the replacement service has been released, linked from the existing Edubase site.
The existing Edubase system will remain active while the replacement service is being tested. The information in the test site will be for test purposes only and you must continue to use the existing service for official activities until further notice.
Please use this period to test and familiarise yourself with the new system. The new site’s news page has instructions to help you provide feedback on your tests.
We’ll be in touch again to confirm when the test version of the new service is available.
3. Information: schools funding arrangements in 2018 to 2019
The Secretary of State for Education set out the future arrangements for school funding in a speech to Parliament on Monday, 17 July. She confirmed the introduction of a national funding formula for schools and for pupils with high needs from the 2018 to 2019 financial year.
We’ll shortly publish the operational guidance for 2018 to 2019 and the baselines for local authorities’ spending in the current year.
4. Information: improved schools benchmarking service launched
The Department for Education has launched an improved schools financial benchmarking service following feedback from users. The service enables LA-maintained schools and academies to compare their performance data and spending levels with schools that share similar characteristics such as:
- pupil numbers
- school phase/type
- proportion of pupils with special educational needs
- proportion of pupils who are eligible for free school meals
- proportion of pupils with English as an additional language
We will continue to develop and improve the service based on users’ feedback, which can be submitted on the website. For general queries about the service functions, email cfr.benchmarking@education.gov.uk.
The benchmarking service will help school leaders and governors consider how they can use available resources to have maximum impact in supporting high-quality teaching and ensuring the best possible educational outcomes for their pupils.
5. Information: 16 to 19 sub-contracted students for the 2015 to 2016 academic year
We have published sub-contracting data for further education institutions, schools and academies funded by the ESFA for the 2015 to 2016 academic year.
Please use our online enquiry form if you have any questions about this data.
6. Information: post-16 census tool
To support the return of accurate post-16 school census data we have published an interactive tool.
The tool will help you understand how your data is used to calculate your post-16 funding, as well as helping you understand common errors and how they impact on the funding we calculate. A suite of ESFA funding reports will also be available in COLLECT when the autumn census opens. These will show you how your autumn census data looks in relation to our post-16 funding calculations.
The tool is in an Excel workbook, please make sure that macros are enabled to ensure the workbook functions properly. If you have any questions about the tool, please contact us using our online enquiry form.
7. Information: maths and English condition of funding
We have updated the maths and English condition of funding guidance on GOV.UK to reflect the condition of funding policy from the start of the 2017 to 2018 academic year and beyond.
8. Information: Care to Learn guide
We have updated the Care to Learn guide for the 2017 to 2018 academic year, adding in some good practice examples stakeholders may find helpful in raising awareness and in supporting young parents in their applications.
Examples include joint working with other bodies, the role midwives and health workers can play and integration of Care to Learn information into other school or college documentation. We would like to encourage all institutions to make eligible students aware of the scheme to help them in their education.
9. Information: 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guide
We have updated the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guide for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.
The amendment follows questions about whether all students applying for vulnerable bursaries should be awarded them if they have no financial needs and/or their financial needs are covered from other funding sources.
10. Information: school capacity survey guidance for local authorities
We have now published the guidance for the school capacity survey. The deadline for local authorities to complete the survey is Friday, 28 July 2017.
Academies are asked to co-operate with local authorities in providing their capacity information. Academies, free schools and University Technical Colleges (UTCs) need to provide or confirm their total capacity and capacity by year group figures to their local authority. Capacity by year group is often the same as the Published Admission Number (PAN) for each year group. This is the number of places to which you planned to admit pupils when that year’s cohort joined the school.
The guidance above may assist academies in determining the figures they should report.
11. Information: customer engagement user research
Many thanks to those of you who have been involved in our customer engagement focus groups so far, or volunteered for a telephone interview.
We are looking for a final few volunteers for telephone interviews. If you are from a maintained school, an FE college or a sixth form college and can be available for an hour long phone call with one of our researchers in the next week please contact us at ESFA@education.gov.uk.
The purpose of the research is to understand your experience of engaging with us, identify what works well for you and where we may need to make improvements.
12. Information: 2017 to 2018 academy business cycle wall planner
We have published an academy business cycle wall planner for the 2017 to 2018 academic year.
It shows a summary of key dates about ESFA activities that relate to academy funding, finance and trust compliance with their funding agreement.