Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 16 September 2020

Published 16 September 2020

This correspondence was withdrawn on 29 December 2021

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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

Applies to England

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.

There is also guidance on the apprenticeship service about COVID-19.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Action: Additional traineeships performance-management point

On 8 July, the Chancellor announced that the government will provide additional traineeships funding this year. As a result, we will be launching an additional performance-management review for 19 to 24 traineeships and the 16 to 18 traineeships with a standalone traineeship contract (without wider 16 to 19 mainstream funding) on 15 September.

We will increase allocations for current 16 to 18 traineeships with a standalone traineeship contract and 19 to 24 traineeships allocations in line with the AEB performance-management rules. You do not need to complete a request form if you currently deliver traineeships, we will calculate increases using a nationally consistent methodology taking into consideration your previous years delivery.

Providers with ESFA funded adult education budget who do not currently have a 19 to 24 traineeships allocation can request an allocation of up to £25,000 using the AEB request form. The deadline for requests is 29 September. You will not be able to request a 16 to18 traineeship allocation for the first time and more details will follow next month on a 16 to 18 traineeship market entry process.

Please note where you have a contract for service for ESFA funded AEB, these contracts will expire on 31 July 2021 and the contract will not be extended again. Providers who wish to deliver traineeships beyond 31 July 2021, when existing AEB Contracts for service will terminate, must bid through the traineeship procurement. More details will follow later this month on the in-year growth process for traineeships delivered through mainstream 16 to 19 funding.

3. Action: Call out for user testing

As part of the exam support service, we are currently developing an on-line form for schools and colleges to claim essential additional costs associated with running exams in the autumn, including exam fees charged by awarding organisations, alternative sites and invigilation. We want to make sure this claim form works for your organisation so are asking you to help us with testing it.

We are looking for all types of schools, colleges and other exam centres who planned to enter pupils for 2020 summer exams and assessments which were cancelled, and as a result will be running the GCSE, A level and AS level and Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs) exams in autumn 2020 and VTQ exams in spring 2021. We specifically want to talk to Business and Finance managers that would normally deal with submitting reimbursement claims to ESFA.

Would you be available for a 1-hour chat in the coming week so we can discuss this further? You can book your preferred time here.

This session will last approximately 60 minutes and it is anonymous.

This will give you the opportunity to provide feedback and shape future government service.

4. Reminder: FE teacher training grants and bursaries for 2020 to 2021 academic year

The Department for Education (DfE) is continuing to offer financial support for FE teacher training for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, for skilled non-graduates as well as graduates.

DfE is keen to receive applications from FE providers for the in-service training grants, worth £18,200 each, which support those training in-service to teach maths, English or to teach learners with SEND.

The grants are paid to a trainee’s employer (e.g. FE college) to help provide the trainee with a specified teaching qualification (Level 5 or above), remission from teaching time, and additional support (such as mentoring).

Bursaries are also available to trainees who are training pre-service to teach high-priority shortage subjects in the FE sector.

Both grants and bursaries are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, and will continue to be awarded until available funding has been exhausted.

For further details visit FE funding: initial teacher education (ITE), academic year 2020 to 2021.

5. Reminder: Colleges, please submit the DfE educational settings status form each day

We would like to remind colleges, to submit responses to the Department for Education’s ‘educational settings status form’ each day. The data you submit is crucial to enabling us to build a national picture of educational provision so that we can focus support more effectively, monitor the impact of the virus, and ensure all students are safe. The Government also uses this data to inform public health management and planning.

We have listened to the issues colleges have found with the form and will be making changes to the form for colleges from today.

In summary:

1. Colleges will still be asked to complete the form by noon each day but the attendance reported will be for the previous day. This addresses the difficulty reporting attendance for all students attending in the afternoon and evenings.
2. Colleges will report the number of all students expected to attend on the relevant day rather than the number on roll. This will give a more realistic baseline against which actual levels of attendance can be assessed.
3. We are amending the wording of the form and adding specific guidance for colleges to the form so that it better meets their needs.

We will continue to develop the form and would appreciate you continuing to report problems and suggested improvements via your ESFA local team, or representative association.

Guidance and frequently asked questions are available on GOV.UK.

6. Information: National Apprenticeship Awards 2020 open for entries

The National Apprenticeship Awards 2020 are now open for entries.

Back for their 17th year, the National Apprenticeship Awards are a fantastic opportunity to highlight business and individual success in apprenticeships and are particularly poignant this year, given the challenges many employers and apprentices have faced during the pandemic.

Entries to the awards are open until 25 September 2020, and this year winners will be recognised at online broadcast ceremonies. These ceremonies will also showcase good news stories from COVID-19, with examples of where apprentices have gone above and beyond to make a difference.

Regional ceremonies will take place between 2 and 6 November, with the national ceremony taking place on Wednesday 25 November.

Apprentice employers, apprentices and apprenticeship champions from all sectors are invited to enter the awards - from engineering, digital, healthcare and science, to beauty, manufacturing and education.

To enter the National Apprenticeship Awards 2020, or to sign up to our mailing list, please visit: appawards.co.uk.

7. Information: Funding Higher Risk Organisations and Subcontractors Policy

The ‘Funding Higher Risk Organisations and Subcontractors Policy’ document has been reviewed and updated.

The policy sets out the circumstances and criteria under which the ESFA would define a provider as high risk and what courses of action are available. The ESFA must ensure that the funding it is accountable for is used for the purposes intended by Parliament and has a responsibility to achieve value for money for the taxpayer and protect the public purse.

Whilst the majority of education and training providers deliver activity or services in accordance with the associated terms and conditions of funding, we recognise there is a minority who seek to use public funds for purposes other than those intended or agreed. It is important that the ESFA can take action when such situations arise. The ‘Funding Higher Risk Organisations and Subcontractors Policy’ has therefore been revised, bringing it up to date with organisational change (the amalgamation of the Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency) and providing further clarity regarding the situations under which the ESFA would consider an organisation high risk and take action. It is relevant to most providers of education and training in post 16 settings (except for schools and academies).

8. Information: View Your Payments public beta

From Tuesday 22 September we will be rolling out a new, replacement View Your Payments interface to all post-16 MYESF users as part of a public beta.

When you login to MYESF you will access the new Payments interface via the existing ‘Payment History’ tile. Until you have been assigned with the new payments role, you will still be able to view the existing Payments interface. To access the new Payments interface, your IDAMs super user will need to set you up with the role ‘PaymentsViewer’.

The new ‘Payments’ interface allows you to:

• view your payment history and filter results by a date range (up to 3 years old)
• view individual payment details and export details as CSV or PDF downloads
• view detailed remittance transactions at budget group summary and detailed levels
• filter transactions by date range (up to 3 years old) and by transaction type
• sort results to suit your needs and then export detailed results as CSV downloads

You can provide feedback at any time during the public beta by using the ‘Feedback’ button at the top of the View Your Payments pages. If you have any queries please use the ‘Contact us’ option at the bottom of each page.

9. Information: Reminder of business case deadline 30 September 2020: financial support for independent learning providers (ILPs) delivering 16 to 19 study programmes

In June, we published the criteria for ILPs delivering 16 to 19 study programmes who may be eligible for financial support. This is to support ILPs whose recruitment of 16 to 19 students has been affected because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

You should only submit a business case if you have received a subsidiary statement setting out the provisional ILR R10 value of the maximum possible relief available. The subsidiary statement is alongside the usual R10 reconciliation statement. We will update these statements at the R13 collection. If the reconciliation statement in Table 3.9 shows a zero value for coronavirus (COVID-19) relief no business case can be submitted.

To submit a business case, you should complete the template, and return it through the ESFA online enquiry form after the R13 reconciliation (between 23 and 30 September 2020).

10. Information: Launch of NHS COVID-19 Test and Trace App

The NHS Test and Trace App (‘the App’) will be launched in England and Wales on Thursday 24 September 2020, available to people aged 16+.

Downloading the App to mobile devices and booking tests via this method will capture results.

The App is a key part of the country’s ongoing COVID-19 response, aiming to extend the speed, precision and reach of NHS Test and Trace.

Working together, NHS Test and Trace and The App are designed to slow the spread of the virus by alerting people who may have been exposed to infection so that they can take action.

Providers of Further Education should familiarise with the features of the App, including the use of the ‘Check-in’ facility if the institution operates commercial training environments such as hairdressing, beauty salons, sports and fitness facilities or restaurants.

Further guidance on the App to support its use in education settings will be provided.

11. Information: reviewing qualifications before the moratorium in the November 2020 review month

We have added another qualification funding approval review opportunity to our existing schedule, to take account of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on awarding organisations.

This means that in November 2020, we will review qualifications for funding that:

• were delayed in being added to Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications because awarding organisations were focussed on the COVID-19 response
• appear on Ofqual’s register of regulated qualifications between 1 September and 19 October 2020
• do not fit into the exemption criteria for the moratorium on qualification funding approval

Awarding organisations can ask us to review these qualifications, and we must receive these requests by Monday 19 October 2020. You can find more information about this process in the qualification funding approval manual.

12. Information: FE Mentor Training Programme

Applications are now open for two new Education and Training Foundation (ETF) programmes designed to develop high-quality mentoring in the Further Education and Training sector. Places are available for 245 FE practitioners to undertake one of the two professional development programmes.

The ‘New to mentoring’ programme, which will run from October 2020 to March 2021, is suitable for FE practitioners who are new or relatively new to mentoring or coaching in the FE sector. It will provide participants with opportunities to experience and practice a variety of mentoring techniques and undertake 40–50 hours of supported mentoring.

Running during the same six-month period, the ‘Advanced mentoring’ programme is for FE practitioners who have one to two years’ experience in mentoring or who have mentoring qualifications. This will offer CPD activities for more experienced or qualified mentors who will also undertake a small project to improve mentoring in their organisation.

The programmes will be provided at no charge and participation will be supported with a grant to individuals’ organisations of up to £6,000. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. Mentors who complete the courses will be awarded a digital badge. The application form can be accessed here.

13. Information: Oversight of ITPs and large provider team

We are continuing to improve our oversight of independent training providers (ITPs) and as part of this we are establishing a dedicated team to manage large providers. We recognise the importance of ITPs to the skills infrastructure and the key role they play in supporting employers and the economy to recover.

To support this approach, we have established a specialist team consisting of experienced ESFA contract managers who will solely focus on working with ITPs in receipt of the highest values of funding from the ESFA. The team will allow us to work closely with our key strategic partners to better understand their priorities and challenges, and support employers and the economy to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Closer working relationships will also ensure that we effectively maintain oversight as set out in our published operational guidance.

The Large Provider Team will be in place from October 2020 and providers who will be managed by this team have already been notified during early September.

14. Information: English and maths requirements in apprenticeship standards at level 2 and above

We have updated the list of acceptable current and prior qualifications for English and maths requirements in apprenticeship standards at level 2 and above. The updated list now includes English and maths units achieved as part of Access to HE Diplomas before 2014 as acceptable equivalents.

15. Information: changes to funding rules monitoring reports

Following your feedback about accessing your reports earlier, we will produce some of your reports when you submit your ILR returns. We have selected certain reports that are suitable for producing when you submit your data, they will be available alongside your funding reports in Submit learner data from R02.

We have selected the following reports that are suitable for production on submission (the report references are from the 2019 to 2020 guidance).

• FRM06 – Continuing learners from 2019 to 2020 who do not appear in the 2020 to 2021 ILR (will be available later this period)
• FRM07 – Breaks in learning where the learning is not re-planned when the learner returns
• FRM08 – Breaks in learning which exceed 12 months / 365 days
• FRM09 – Transfers with no new learning recorded in the ILR (withdrawal reason 40 only)
• FRM15 – Apprenticeship standards with no end-point assessment organisation (EPAO)

If you have any questions, please contact the Post-16 funding monitoring team using the enquiry form.

16. Feedback: 16 to 19 statement and supporting guidance

The Manage your education and skills funding service (MyESF) team are looking to speak to individuals that work with the 16 to 19 allocation statement.

We are particularly looking to increase representation from:

• Independent learning providers (ILPs)
• Local authorities
• Special education providers

This piece of research will be looking at user interaction with the 16-19 statement and its supporting guidance. The results will feed into the design of digital allocation statements. Participation is welcomed from new and experienced users.

What this would involve:

• We will invite you to an online remote meeting with a researcher
• A conversation about your experience and current behaviour of reading the 16 to 19
• Showing you our prototype for feedback on look and feel

The session will last approximately 60-90 minutes and will give you the opportunity to provide feedback to government service designers.

To take part, please complete our 3-minute survey, and our researcher will be in touch to agree a meeting time to suit.