Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 12 December 2018

Published 12 December 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 21 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Action: 2018 to 2019 advanced learner loans performance management point – career learning pilot only

The forms for the advanced learner loans career learning pilot are now available.

Completed request forms must be emailed to allfacility.requests@education.gov.uk before 5pm on Monday 7 January 2019.

Providers must submit a growth request to be considered for an increase.

For further information, please refer to the advanced learner loans funding and performance management rules 2018 to 2019.

2. Information: funding for academic year 2019 to 2020 for students and learners aged over 16

We have written to post-16 institutions explaining funding for the academic year 2019 to 2020.

Each year ESFA writes to 16 to 19 institutions to provide information on the funding of education and training for young people for the next academic year.

In November 2018, ESFA brought together separate 16 to 19 and 19+ allocations, funding and contracting teams within the further education (FE) directorate into a new post-16 funding centre. Therefore, this year there is a single letter with 2 annexes containing details for the 2 different funding streams.

3. Information: illustrative adult education budget (AEB) allocations for the 2019 to 2020 funding year

We will shortly issue illustrative ESFA adult education budget (AEB) allocations for the 2019 to 2020 funding year to providers. We are issuing these to assist providers with their planning. We will confirm allocation values before the end of March 2019.

We will also publish provisional 2017 to 2018 delivery data, showing in which of the devolved areas the delivery took place and segmented by the different elements of AEB.

The illustrative allocations and the provisional data are not final and may be subject to change.

For more information, please contact your local territorial team contact.

4. Information: 19+ allocations webpage

We have now published a 19+ allocations webpage on GOV.UK. This page provides information about the following allocations:

• ESFA funded adult education budget (AEB)
• advanced loans facilities and bursaries
• 16 to 18 traineeships and bursaries (for providers without 16 to 19 funding)
• apprenticeships carry-in and non-levy apprenticeships

We will publish further information and updates on this page as they become available.

5. Information: apprenticeship funding bands review

Since May 2018, the Institute for Apprenticeships has been reviewing the funding bands of 31 standards. The Department for Education (DfE) requested that existing standards be reviewed to assess where they should sit in the new 30 band funding structure, introduced for new starts from August 2018.

In October 2018, Ministers approved 12 funding band changes. Ministers have now approved a further 17 recommendations. Three have stayed the same and 14 will see their funding bands reduced. Reduced funding bands for these standards will take effect after 3 months, from Monday 4 March 2019. This is to give the market notice and time to respond to any changes in funding levels.

Further information on the apprenticeship funding bands is available.

DfE has requested that the Institute continue its work to bring older standards into the new band structure and have commissioned reviews of a further 30 standards. The Institute will shortly be in touch with Trailblazers affected by this review.

6. Information: updated provider data self-assessment toolkit

We have released an updated version of the provider data self-assessment toolkit (PDSAT).

This version includes an update to the sampler, enabling users to select audit samples and output to a set of audit working papers for the 2018 to 2019 funding year.

PDSAT is available to colleges and independent training providers to assist with their routine ILR data-checking procedures for their ILR data returns and with preparation for funding assurance reviews.

For further information, please email pdsat.ESFA@education.gov.uk.

7. Information: register of apprenticeship training providers

Later today, we will open the register of apprenticeship training providers for new applications. We will not close the register, so you can apply when you are ready.

We will contact providers already on the register to let you know when to reapply. In the meantime, you can continue to deliver apprenticeship training.

All organisations that want to receive government funding to train apprentices must be on the register. Before you consider applying, you must read our guidance about becoming an apprenticeship training provider.

We will publish a step by step guide to help you use Bravo to submit your application. If you have any questions about applying to the register of apprenticeship training providers, submit them through Bravo.

For more information, visit our register of apprenticeship training providers page guidance.

8. Information: qualifications achievement rates (QAR) 2017 to 2018 - accessing data

We publish QAR data to the Hub. To access the your QAR data extracts and business intelligence (BI) reports you will need to ensure that your user role allows you to access the Data Returns page. Please see the hub guide to user roles and the in-year guidance for more information.

Your final QAR 2016 to 2017 final data extract and in-year QAR 2017 to 2018 data extract appear as files ending ‘V1’. Your BI reports for the final QAR 2016 to 2017 and in-year QAR 2017 to 2018 appear as files ending ‘V2’.

We have published guidance to help you understand and use your BI reports.

9. Information: apprenticeship service webinar series launches with transfers session

The apprenticeship service is pleased to bring you the first in a series of webinars open to all employers and training providers.

Join us on Thursday 13 December at 12.30pm when we will be discussing the transfer of apprenticeship service funds.

We will look at the benefits of transfers for all employers, what actions are required to agree a transfer of funds and how this works in the apprenticeship service.

For more information and registration details, please see our webinar schedule.

10. Information: T Levels action plan

DfE has published an update to its T Level action plan, detailing how the department is reforming technical education and developing the T Level qualifications for post-16 students.

ESFA has updated the list of providers selected to deliver T Levels in academic year 2020 to 2021 to show the pathway(s) they are planning to deliver.