Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 13 November 2024

Published 13 November 2024

Applies to England

Action: Record your T Level data accurately

Making errors in your T Level data recording could have a significant financial impact. It could lead to a larger than expected recovery of funding at the T Level funding reconciliation point in early 2025.

We strongly encourage you to submit your R04 before the return deadline of Thursday 5 December 2024 so you can review your submitted data and make amendments where needed.

You can review your 16 to 19 funding reports in the funding information system (FIS) submit learner data; this will identify your T Level students and the funding bands assigned to them.

If some T Level students are not displaying as you expected, you can use the checklist provided at the bottom of the record your T Level data correctly guidance to ensure you have recorded all programme elements correctly.

Information: Primary PE and sport premium guidance, reporting and allocations for the 2024 to 2025 academic year

We have published the PE and sport premium allocations for the 2024 to 2025 academic year. We have also published detailed PE and sport premium guidance including payment dates and increased clarity to help schools in the 5 key areas identified. To further support schools, we have included real-life case studies from schools making effective use of the funding.

The conditions of grant stipulate that all funding needs to be accounted for within the year it is allocated, but the Department for Education (DfE) has discretion on what course of action to take in terms of seeking the recovery of any unspent funding. 

The mandatory introduction of the digital reporting form for the 2024 to 2025 academic year will allow full transparency of spending. Details of reporting requirements can be found in the guidance as well as the new PE funding evaluation form and governors’ monitoring tool developed to support recording of spending through the year.

Information: Further education provider dashboard

The further education (FE) provider dashboard is a new tool bringing key published performance data on learner outcomes into one place for colleges and local authority FE providers in receipt of £1 million or more annually (from DfE or devolved funding), to identify effective practice and support continuous improvement.

The dashboard has been designed for colleges and local authority FE providers to use alongside other performance data to inform annual strategic conversations with DfE, and support planning and reviews with their leadership teams, governing bodies and other stakeholders. FE commissioner teams, combined authorities, and Ofsted will also be able to access the dashboard.

The dashboard is due to go live in December as a pilot (private beta non-public) on DfE’s View Your Education Data (VYED) platform. All dashboard data comes from publicly available official statistics sources.

Information: International fraud awareness week 2024

International fraud awareness week is 17 to 23 November and encourages business leaders and employees to proactively take steps to minimise the impact of fraud by promoting anti-fraud awareness and education. More information can be found on the official international fraud awareness website.

Information on how to report fraud to the ESFA can be found on report fraud or financial irregularity to ESFA.

Webinar: Risk protection arrangement (RPA) members only – flood / storm (resilience)

Thursday 21 November 2024, 10am to midday. Register online.

Webinar: Get help buying for schools

Tuesday 26 November 2024, 11am to 11:30am. Register online.

Webinar: RPA – an alternative to commercial insurance

Tuesday 26 November 2024, 9:30am to 10am. Register online.

Webinar: FE provider dashboard tutorial webinar and Q&A session

Register for your preferred date using the following links:

• Tuesday 26 November, 2pm to 3pm
• Tuesday 3 December, 2pm to 3pm