Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 1 September 2021

Published 1 September 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Read the latest editions of ESFA Update for the latest news and information.

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-1-september-2021/esfa-update-local-authorities-1-september-2021

1. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Reminder: the data collection for further education (FE) workforce closes on Friday 24 September 2021 at 4:00pm

Data can be returned until the 4:00pm deadline for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. If you haven’t already, please return your staff and vacancy data.

Minister Keegan has written to FE providers about the importance of the collection.

The first collection for academic year 2020 to 2021 is voluntary.

Providers are encouraged to send a return to familiarise themselves with the data items required and the methods of completing the data return. Returned data also provides an initial view of the sector to support policy development and feedback useful data to the sector.

The data return will be mandatory for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

You should complete a return if you receive funding through one or more of the following funding models:

  • 16-19 (excluding apprenticeships)
  • Adult skills
  • Apprenticeships (from 1 May 2017) including levy funding
  • Community Learning
  • European Social Funding (ESF)
  • Other Adult
  • Other 16-19

Returns are not required if you are a school or academy which returns the school workforce census or a HE provider which returns the HESA staff record.

Documentation including a technical specification and a support manual has been produced to facilitate the staff data collection.

The FE workforce collection is hosted within the Submit learner data (SLD) service. Users will need an IDAMS account and appropriate ‘roles’ assigned to their profile to access the FE workforce collection.

For users who do not have an IDAMS account, refer to instructions on how to register for IDAMS.

You can contact us with any queries about FE workforce data collection:

3. Information: ESFA adult education budget (AEB) funding rules 2021 to 2022 - Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy

We can confirm that individuals covered by the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP), formerly referred to as Afghan Locally Engaged Staff (LES) under the intimidation policy, are exempt from the 3-year ordinary residency rule in the UK. As long as they reside in England and the course takes place in England, they will be immediately eligible for further education 19+ funding.

Paragraph 41.7 in version 2 of the 2021 to 2022 ESFA AEB funding rules already states that Afghan LES under the intimidation policy will be exempt. We will be updating the funding rules shortly to reflect the change in name of that policy.

4. Information: earnings adjustment statement (EAS)

We have published guidance for submitting EAS in the 2021 to 2022 funding year.

You can:

  • use the EAS to adjust your funding from ESFA or from devolved authorities
  • access the guidance and supporting documents, including a template CSV file and validation rules, to help you with your return

5. Information: consultation on prioritising schools for the School Rebuilding Programme

The Prime Minister announced the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) in June 2020 to carry out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at schools and sixth form colleges in England over the next decade. We have previously announced the first 100 schools in the programme. Details of these and the programme are available on GOV.UK.

We are now consulting on the approach to prioritising schools for future places in the programme, to identify schools most in need of major rebuilding or refurbishment. Further information on the consultation process and how you can contribute your views can be found on GOV.UK. The consultation runs until 8 October, and we would welcome your views.

To find out more about why we are consulting, and the approaches under consideration, please join our Teams live event on 14 September by registering online.

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