ESFA Update local authorities: 16 October 2019
Published 16 October 2019
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2019
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1. Action: funding claims 2018 to 2019 – final claim
Due to unforeseen circumstances there will be a slight delay with the final claims window opening. In light of this the deadline dates for submission and signing will be extended by one day.
Your 2018 to 2019 final claim form will be available on Submit Learner Data from 9am Tuesday 22 October and will close at 5pm, on Wednesday 30 October.
You must sign your claim digitally on Manage your education and skills funding by 5pm on Thursday 31 October by your principal or a delegated authority. You will need to submit and sign a claim if you receive funds through:
- a grant for your adult education budget (AEB)
- a grant for your 16-19 funding
- a grant with an Advanced Learner Loans Bursary contract
- a Learner Support contract
Once you have submitted your claim on Submit Learner Data, you will be able to view it and sign it on Manage Your Education and Skills Funding within 15 minutes.
We have guidance on the funding claims and the separate 16 to 19 education funding guidance. The funding claims user guide will help you complete the form. If you have any queries about this, please contact your territorial manager.
2. Action: Condition Data Collection - accessing condition reports for your schools
The Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme collects condition, contextual and building management data for every state-maintained school and college in England. We are now in the final phase of the programme and wanted to thank you for your support.
Over the past three years we have:
- visited 22,000 schools
- shared over 19,500 school condition reports and will share the remainder in October and November
- gathered a robust evidence base to inform how we target future capital investment to where it is needed most
If you have not already accessed your school’s condition report, providing they have been released, you can download them from the CDC portal. You should have already been given access to the CDC portal and received instruction on how to access your school’s report. If you require further information on how to access your school’s report, please submit your enquiry using our enquiry form.
3. Reminder: complete your autumn school census return by 30 October 2019
It is vital that school census returns are accurate as this is the basis for much of your revenue funding calculation.
To help schools and academies quality assure their census data prior to final submission, we have made a range of reports available in COLLECT. These will allow you to check the accuracy of the data that we will use to calculate your pre-16, and 16 to 19 funding.
Full information on the reports’ content and some of the common data issues is available on GOV.UK.
The school census post-16 interactive tool is available online. It is designed to help schools and academies with sixth forms understand how to ensure an accurate 16 to 19 census return. We have also published an interactive flowchart to help you understand whether a student meets the condition of funding, and what they can study.
4. Information: national funding formulae provisional allocations
On Friday 11 October, we published the national funding formulae (NFF) provisional allocations for schools, high needs and central school services for 2020 to 2021.
The changes this year are set out in the national funding formulae policy paper.
We will shortly upload tables to COLLECT, which show the NFF calculations for the schools block. This allows each school to view the calculation of the notional allocation for their institution. Local authorities can view the calculation for all schools in their area.
We will also publish the 2020 to 2021 technical notes for the:
- high needs NFF
- schools NFF
- central school services NFF
For early years (EY) funding we’ll increase the hourly funding rates for all local authorities for the two year old entitlement and the vast majority of areas for the 3 and 4 year old entitlement. The small number of councils, which have been protected from large drops to their EY funding rate as a result of the ‘loss cap’ will have their 2019 to 2020 hourly funding rates for 3 and 4 year olds maintained in 2020 to 2021. We will publish further details in due course.
5. Information: consultation on revised arrangements for the dedicated schools grant
On Friday 11 October, the consultation on changing the conditions of grant and regulations applying to the dedicated schools grant opened.
The consultation page outlines the proposals, and informs you on how to respond.
The consultation closes on Friday 15 November 2019.
6. Information: School Places and Spaces Conference – Tuesday 12 November, Birmingham
The Department for Education and Educational Building and Development Officers Group (EBDOG) invite representatives from local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and dioceses to the School Places and Spaces conference. Hear from Lord Agnew (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System), Rory Kennedy (Director of Capital Directorate), and Andrew Warren, RSC for West Midlands.
There will also be a range of workshops available throughout the day on topics such as:
- good estate management for schools
- spending well on school places
- energy efficiency and school maintenance
7. Information: updated provider data self-assessment toolkit (PDSAT)
We have released an updated version of the provider data self-assessment toolkit (PDSAT) on the PDSAT section of GOV.UK.
This update enables both XML and funding information system (FIS) import and report output for the 2019 to 2020 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.
For further information, please email pdsat.ESFA@education.gov.uk.