Correspondence

ESFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 7 December 2017

Published 7 December 2017

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.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. Reminder: submitting college finance records for 2016 to 2017 by 31 December 2017

Colleges must submit their 2016 to 2017 audited financial statements and supporting documentation to ESFA by 31 December 2017.

The following documents should be submitted to PRA.Financialhealth@education.gov.uk and follow the naming conventions below.

Document type	File naming convention
Audited annual report and financial statements.	UKPRN_FS_1617_college code
A scanned copy of the finance record cover sheet signed by the accounting officer.	UKPRN_FRsigned_1617_college code
The unsigned finance record excel workbook.	UKPRN_FR_1617_college code
External auditor’s management letter including the college’s response.	UKPRN_ML_1617_college code
Annual report of the college’s audit committee.	UKPRN_ACAR_1617_college code
Where appropriate, audited annual report and financial statements of subsidiary company accounts, if submitting accounts information for more than one subsidiary, please amend the file name to sub2 etc.	UKPRN_FSsub1_1617_college code
Any other supporting documents.	UKPRN_[brief description]_1617_college code

The subject field of your submission email should include the college name and ‘1617 Finance Record’.

For further information or related queries, please contact the ESFA enquiry service.

2. Information: Further Education college survey about risk protection arrangement

We are currently exploring the option of a risk protection arrangement (RPA) type arrangement in the further education (FE) sector similar to that which is in place for academy trusts. The RPA for academy trusts is an alternative to insurance where the government funds cover losses that arise. The RPA started on 1 September 2014 with academy trust members subject to a deduction from their General Annual Grant. In order to inform the feasibility study we need to understand the nature of the arrangements currently in place for FE.

We have launched a survey for FE colleges to assist in our research which should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. The survey will close on the 15th December.

To complete the survey, you will need:

• current policy documentation
• recent claims data (ideally last 3 years)

If you have any comments or queries, please contact us via our online enquiry form.

3. Information: 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations survey feedback

In September we issued a short survey on products we produce to support 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations.

We used the survey to help us understand when and how you use our products. This is because delivering excellent customer service is important to us.

Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. It was good to hear many of you found our products useful and you received them when you needed them.

We are using your feedback to make small changes for 2018 to 2019 academic year. We have started work to address some of the common themes for improvement. They include:

• increase the awareness of our products
• produce some simple guides that will help you to better understand existing products, their purpose and how to use them
• include a ‘what’s new’ section in all our 16 to 19 funding allocation explanatory notes, condensing them where possible to reduce their length

We will continue to improve our products based on your feedback. Please do continue to share any suggestions or improvements you have about how we communicate 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations.