Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 22 February 2018

Published 22 February 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.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: letter from Lord Theodore Agnew to chairs of academy trusts

Lord Theodore Agnew, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, has written to chairs of academy trusts. In his letter, he thanks them and draws their attention to the important role they play in ensuring a strong school system.

2. Information: 2018 to 2019 academy general annual grant allocations

We’ve started to upload academy funding allocations for 2018 to 2019 to ESFA Information Exchange. We’ll upload allocations for academies that opened before or on 1 January 2018 by the end of March 2018.

For academies with sixth forms, the detail of your 16 to 19 allocation will, as usual, be set out in your separate 16 to 19 allocation statement.

We’re uploading allocation statements to the Document Exchange ‘revenue funding’ folder, under ‘AY 2018-19 (2018/19)’. You can access Document Exchange by logging into Information Exchange, and choosing the Document Exchange tab at the top of the page. For support and guidance about Information Exchange, please visit our support page.

We’ve published the academy general annual grant allocation guidance to support your pre-16 allocation statement and 16 to 19 allocation supporting guidance to support your 16 to 19 allocation statement.

Please use your allocation calculation toolkit and guidance to understand the data we have used to calculate your 16 to 19 allocation. We will consider 16 to 19 business cases where there is a significant error in the data you have returned. The deadline for business cases is 27 April 2018. We will apply standard minimum thresholds to decide whether we will consider your case. Please review the thresholds published in the supporting information before submitting your business case.

We have published a presentation on the 16 to 19 funding allocations process for 2018 to 2019. This provides further information on this year’s allocation process following our annual letter to the sector in January.

If you have any queries please contact us using our online enquiry form.

3. Information: gender pay gap reporting

The statutory deadline for publishing gender pay gap data is fast approaching. Schools, academy trusts and further education colleges with 250 or more employees should publish their figures by no later than 30 March 2018.

You should publish your calculations on the government’s online gender pay gap reporting service, as well as on your own website. Please register as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to publish your data yet.

You can register now for a gender pay gap reporting webinar hosted by the Government Equalities Office on 6 March 2018 between 1pm and 2pm.

All employers in the education sector who would like further advice on the reporting requirements and actions to close the gender pay gap are welcome to attend.

4. Reminder: deadline to submit expression of interest to deliver T levels in the 2020 to 2021 academic year approaching

We would like to remind institutions the deadline for submitting an expression of interest to deliver T levels in the 2020 to 2021 academic year is noon on 28 February 2018.

Institutions must meet the set criteria to express an interest. Further details are available on GOV.UK. Institutions that have saved a plan to complete at a later date, must ensure that they submit their plan by the deadline.

5. Information: year 7 catch up premium 2017 to 2018

The year 7 catch-up premium gives state-funded schools, including special schools and alternative provision settings, additional funding to support year 7 pupils who did not achieve the expected standard in reading or maths at the end of key stage 2. We’ve published the year 7 catch up premium allocations and conditions of grant for the 2017 to 2018 financial year.

6. Information: schools fraud alert

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) has seen an increase in recent weeks in the volume fraud reports where schools are the targeted victim. This has resulted in substantial financial losses for several schools that have fallen victim to this type of fraud.

A school is targeted by a fraudster who purports to be the headteacher / principal. The fraudster contacts a member of staff with responsibility for authorising financial transfers and requests for a one off, often urgent, bank transfer. The amounts requested have been between £8,000 and £10,000. Contact is by email and from a spoofed / similar email address to the one the headteacher / principal would use.

NFIB advises that:

• you ensure that you have robust processes in place to verify and corroborate all requests to change any supplier or payment details - get in touch with the supplier (or internal colleague) directly, using contact details you know to be correct, to confirm that a request you have received is legitimate

• all employees should be aware of these procedures and encouraged to challenge requests they think may be suspicious, particularly urgent sounding requests from senior employees

• sensitive information you post publicly, or dispose of incorrectly, can be used by fraudsters to perpetrate fraud against you - the more information they have about you, the more convincingly they can purport to be one of your legitimate suppliers or employees

• always shred confidential documents before throwing them away

• e-mail addresses can be spoofed to appear as though an email is from someone you know - if an email is unexpected or unusual, then don’t click on the links or open the attachments

• staff should not be allowed to check emails or use the internet with administrator accounts

If you have been affected by this, or any other type of fraud, report it to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040, or visiting www.actionfraud.police.uk.

7. Information: Charity Commission consultation

The Charity Commission has launched a consultation about new guidance to help charities manage their relationships with connected non-charitable organisations. The consultation will run until 15 May 2018.