Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 24 May 2018

Published 24 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.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

As a result of a recent review of how we send out information, we have decided to change the way in which people subscribe to the ESFA e-bulletin. This new process will take effect next week and we will now publish the newsletter each Wednesday.

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. Action: Asbestos Management Assurance Process (AMAP) – closes Thursday 31 May

We are asking all responsible bodies to complete the AMAP. Responsible bodies have a duty under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 to manage any asbestos in their school buildings. The assurance process is aimed at Responsible Bodies to enable them to provide an assurance that their respective schools are compliant with asbestos management regulations.

We expect all responsible bodies to complete the AMAP and submit an assurance declaration by midday on Thursday 31 May 2018, unless we have advised otherwise.

The AMAP will not apply to other types of nursery schools or early years providers, FE and HE institutions and independent schools. While specialist post-16 institutions may have eligible state-funded pupils, those institutions will not be included.

Please contact asbestos.AMAP@education.gov.uk if you have any questions.

3. Action: opportunity to help us develop our services

We’re looking for volunteers to test our online forms for the accounts return and the land and buildings collection tool (LBCT).

In preparation for the next round of financial returns, we’re organising user acceptance testing (UAT) during June, July and August as follows:

• 20 June to 3 July (accounts return)
• 4 July to 17 July (accounts return and LBCT)
• 16 August to 29 August (accounts return and LBCT)

Volunteering involves committing as much or as little time as you can. We’ll provide a test script to review various aspects of the online return. After you’ve completed the script, you can report any observations you make via email so we can review and act on your feedback.

If you would like to volunteer, please email Clare.FEGAN@education.gov.uk.

4. Information: academy remittance advice

The mailbox which emails out the academy remittance advice notices has lots of emails which bounce back because academy IT systems are wrongly identifying the email as spam. To ensure you receive the email please ensure that esfaremittances-unmonitored.ESFA@education.gov.uk is included in your list of safe senders.

We also receive a number of re-send requests because the person to whom the remittance emails are sent is out of the office. If the email address used to receive remittances is an individual rather than generic one please ensure that it can be accessed at all times.

If you need to change the email address you use to receive remittances then please email DfE.StandingData@education.gov.uk with the new details.

5. Information: budget forecast return outturn (BFRO) update

Thank you to all trusts that have submitted their BFRO on time. 89% of trusts submitted on time. If you have not yet submitted your BFRO, please do so without delay.

6. Information: budget forecast return (BFR) 3-year forecast guide

We’ve published a brief guide about the new 3-year budget forecast return to help trusts prepare for this year’s annual BFR return. The BFR online form will be available from 21 June and not 1 June as previously notified.

7. Information: direction published about T Levels

A Direction was published today by the Secretary of State for Education in relation to T Levels.

A Ministerial Direction is an established part of departmental business. It is used by Ministers to request that their Accounting Officer (AO) proceed with a course of action.

We have always been clear that the T Level programme is ambitious. We remain absolutely committed to its successful implementation and will continue to monitor progress to ensure that we are on track to deliver successful, sustainable reforms in 2020. Our delivery partners have been central to helping us develop our plans and the commitment they have shown in ensuring successful delivery is incredibly valuable. We will publish further details of our plans for implementation shortly, in our government response to the T Levels consultation and the announcement of the first providers selected to teach T Levels from September 2020. Outline content for the first 3 T Levels will also be published later this week.

8. Information: Care to Learn scheme for the 2018 to 2019 academic year

The Care to Learn application form for the academic year 2018 to 2019 is now available for students to complete online.

The Care to Learn guide for the academic year 2018 to 2019 includes good practice examples on how to:

• raise awareness of the scheme
• support young parents with their applications

Please make eligible students aware of the scheme and how it can help them access education and training. You might also like to display the Care to Learn poster to raise awareness.

9. Information: advice for schools on cyber attacks

You may be aware of recent bomb hoax emails being sent to a large number of schools. These emails are suspected to have been sent by an online group calling themselves Apophis Squad and that this group is linked to other cyber activity, including Ransomware and Denial-of-service attacks.

We would suggest you are extra vigilant when dealing with emails. Do not open emails if you are unsure about the source or open attachments within emails, unless you are sure it comes from a trusted source.

If you suspect you have been contacted by Apophis Squad in any form, report this to Action Fraud.

You can find further information including best practice for protection on the National Cyber Security Centre website.