ESFA Update further education: 12 September 2018
Published 12 September 2018
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2018
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1. Action: submission of external assurance on subcontracting controls certificates by providers and employer-providers who deliver adult provision, including apprenticeships and traineeships
You must send your completed certificates for 2017 to 2018 to CF1718.SUBCONTRACTING@education.gov.uk by Friday 14 September.
You can find information about this requirement in the updated guidance document alongside the certificate proforma on GOV.UK.
If you have any queries, please contact the service desk.
2. Action: end-point assessment organisation information in the ILR
On review of this year’s R09 data, we have identified issues with providers not recording the correct end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) information in the ILR.
Please ensure you correctly record the EPAO number for an organisation on the register of end-point assessment organisations who is approved for the apprenticeship standard needing assessment.
It is a requirement under paragraph 246 and 247 of the funding rules that you must accurately complete all ILR fields, even if they are not used for funding. The ILR must accurately reflect what has happened.
Please can all providers review their EPAO recording for both current and future returns, correct any discrepancies and update any unknown/ N/A completions by R14.
If you have any queries about this please contact the service desk.
3. Action: funding claims 2017 to 2018 – year-end claim
Your 2017 to 2018 year-end claim form will be available on the Hub from 9am Monday 17 September and will close at 4pm Friday 21 September.
You will therefore need to submit a claim if you receive funds through:
- a grant for your adult education budget (AEB)
- a grant for your 16 to 19 funding
- a grant with an advanced learner loans bursary contract
- a learner support contract
- a community learning contract
Once you have submitted your claim on the Hub, you will be able to view it on the Skills Funding Service within 15 minutes.
You can find guidance on funding claims and 16 to 19 funding on GOV.UK.
We have now published a user guide to help you complete the form.
For further information or related queries, please email the service desk.
4. Information: review of 2018 to 2019 adult education budget (AEB) allocations
In October 2018, we will review 2018 to 2019 AEB grant allocations against year-end claims for 2017 to 2018. If your forecast outturn is 20% and £200k or less than your allocation you may be in scope for a reduction. It is therefore important that you submit an accurate and timely year-end claim.
At the same time, we will review 2017 to 2018 outturn against 2018 to 2019 allocations for all AEB providers (grant funded and contract for services). We will increase 2018 to 2019 allocations in line with R13 data returns and year-end claims. Increases are subject to affordability and you meeting the track record criteria set out in the adult education budget funding and performance-management rules 2018 to 2019.
If you have any queries please contact your provider manager or intervention manager.
5. Information: adult education budget (AEB) 2019 to 2020 - residency funding calculations
In June this year, we wrote to all current AEB providers to explain changes in AEB that will affect provider allocations from 2019 to 2020. We have now produced a narrated presentation to explain this further.
The presentation sets out how we will use learner residency data from 2017 to 2018 to calculate budgets and inform non-devolved allocations. It will enable providers to see how we are analysing their data.
If you have any queries, please contact your provider manager.
6. Information: online form for 16 to 19 Bursary Fund (bursary for vulnerable groups) academic year 2018 to 2019
The online form to claim the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund (bursary for vulnerable groups) for the academic year 2018 to 2019 is now available on the Student Bursary Support Service portal.
7. Information: customer survey about 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations
Supporting the delivery of 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations with good customer service is important to us. We would like you to complete a short survey to help us understand how you feel about the service we provide and the products we publish to support 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations.
It should take less than 10 minutes of your time to complete and we appreciate all responses. The survey will close on Friday 5 October.
We calculate 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations using a national funding formula. We receive the data to feed into these calculations at set points throughout the year and this largely determines the timelines of the delivery of your funding allocation. We will use your feedback to inform decisions and improvements of our self-service materials. We will report on our findings in the early autumn.