ESFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 20 July 2017
Published 20 July 2017
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2017
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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-schools-colleges-local-authorities-and-other-16-to-19-providers-20-july-2017
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Information: outcome of Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) appeals for 2017 to 2018
We have published a list of successful appeals for the 2017 to 2018 CIF round and will be contacting successful schools to confirm next steps. If applicants’ projects appear on this list, they have been successful in their appeal. If their project does not appear on this list, then their appeal has not been upheld.
There is no further stage in the appeal process and ESFA will not consider any requests to review decisions. We expect to announce details of the next CIF application round in the autumn.
4. Information: 14 to 16 in further education
We have published requirements and advice for further education and sixth-form colleges directly recruiting 14- to 16-year-olds in advance of the 2017 to 2018 academic year on GOV.UK.
This document sets out the criteria they must satisfy in order to directly recruit 14- to 16-year-olds, links to statutory requirements and other information useful to participating colleges. It also provides a list of colleges currently delivering the programme.
5. Information: update on procurement for non-levy paying employers
In April, we announced a pause on the procurement exercise for apprenticeship training provision for non-levy-paying employers.
We have now cancelled this procurement and will launch a new procurement at the end of July. The new procurement will ensure we achieve the best value for employers, providers and apprentices in the move to a fully employer-led system.
While the new procurement exercise is open, the register of apprenticeship training providers will not re-open for new applications.
This procurement will not affect training provision for existing learners.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. Information: final 2016 to 2017 and updated 2017 to 2018 dedicated schools grant allocations
We have published the final 2016 to 2017 dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations and made updates to the 2017 to 2018 DSG allocations.
12. 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.