Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 1 August 2018

Published 1 August 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 20 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Find the latest information from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the latest ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Information: academies budget forecast return (BFR)

Many thanks to all trusts that submitted their budget forecast return (BFR) by the deadline of 30 July 2018. We appreciate your efforts, especially responding to the challenge of introducing a 3-year forecast this year.

If you have not submitted your BFR yet, please can you arrange to do so as soon as possible.

2. Information: academies land and buildings collection tool (LBCT)

We have published summary guidance for the next academies land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) return.

The LBCT online form will be available to use on 1 October 2018. The deadline for trusts to submit their LBCT return is 5 November 2018.

3. Information: curriculum fund programme grant applications

DfE has opened applications for a curriculum fund programme pilot grant. Schools can apply for funding to work with other teachers and schools to refine and share high-quality, knowledge-rich programmes in science, history and/or geography across key stages 2 and/or 3.

The pilot is the first phase of the £7.7m curriculum fund, a manifesto commitment to support schools and teachers to access high-quality curriculum materials. It will explore how using curriculum programmes can help reduce unnecessary teacher workload, and how focusing on knowledge-rich, well-sequenced programmes can improve pupil outcomes.

You can also register for one of the online curriculum fund programme information events taking place throughout August and early September.

The deadline for applications is 17 September.

4. Information: free school meals pupils should remain eligible until at least 2023

To protect pupils from uncertainty during the changes to free school meals (FSM) eligibility, we introduced transitional protections that mean that pupils in receipt of FSM immediately prior to 1 April 2018, and those who become eligible during Universal Credit rollout, will retain eligibility until the end of this rollout period. Following this, if they are still in education, they will continue to be eligible until the end of their phase of education.

This means that schools should not remove FSM eligibility from pupils until at least 2023, continuing to offer them meals and record them as eligible on the census.

For more information, please see the free school meals guidance for schools and local authorities, or contact the free school meals team at Freeschoolmeals.MAILBOX@education.gov.uk.

5. Information: Tech Level and Applied General qualifications on 16 to 19 performance tables

Department for Education (DfE) has written to awarding organisations to inform them that whilst pre-existing Tech Levels and Applied General qualifications are being offered alongside the new, more rigorous Tech Levels and Applied General qualifications, the additional retake opportunity should continue.

Ofqual has previously encouraged awarding organisations to continue with any ‘safety net’ arrangements they may have put in place for students taking the new-style qualifications.

Later this year DfE intends to consult on the pre-existing qualifications and the timescales and process for their withdrawal. This consultation will sit alongside the first stage of consultation on the review of post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below, which will set out the principles, scope and broad process of the review. There will then be a second stage consultation in 2019, setting out the proposed criteria that will determine qualifications’ suitability for public funding.