ESFA Update further education: 17 April 2024
Published 17 April 2024
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2024
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Action: Review your hours for 16 to 19 qualifications and non-qualifications delivery before submitting your R09 individualised learner record data return
The Education Skills and Funding Agency (ESFA) has identified 2 specific areas where numerous providers have data errors. To reduce your errors, and the chance of being selected for audit, use the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard to review the following reports:
- FRM43 – 16 to 19 study programme students on qualifications with no planned learning hours (PLH)
- FRM56 – 16 to 19 study programmes with PLH but no regulated qualifications
You must ensure your PLH and employment, enrichment and pastoral hours hours accurately reflect the qualifications and non-qualifications activity being delivered in the current academic year.
The PLH field must reflect the total planned timetabled hours spent on Department for Education (DfE) approved qualifications only. You must record PLH for these qualifications on the individualised learner record (ILR).
You need to return a value of zero PLH if the learner is participating solely in employability, enrichment, and pastoral activities during the year, and is not enrolled on a 16 to 19 study programme including qualifications. Do not record a value above zero in the PLH field for non-qualifications.
Information: ESFA funded adult skills fund – level 3 charts
We have published the level 3 qualification flowcharts for the adult skills fund 2024 to 2025. These charts set out the pathway options available to a learner who wishes to enrol on a level 3 qualification.
If you have any questions after reading this information, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support on our customer help centre.
Information: 16 to 19 Bursary Fund audit guide
ESFA has published the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund audit guide, which includes the audit working papers we use. This guide is designed to help local authorities obtain assurance that institutions are administering the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund properly and refers to activity in the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Although the guide is aimed primarily at local authorities, other institutions may find it helpful to review the information about ESFA assurance and audit as they review their bursary fund processes and policies ahead of the new academic year.
Information: Adult Education Budget and Adult Skills Fund – repeat webinar
As part of the skills reform, the Adult Education Budget (AEB) will be transitioning to the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) in the academic year 2024 to 2025.
In the ESFA funded areas, the transition to the ASF will encompass new funding changes which will include the replacement of Community Learning with Tailored Learning and the new AEB funding rates.
For those who were unable to attend last month’s webinar, we are repeating the session that provides an overview of the forthcoming changes for the academic year 2024 to 2025. This is for existing ESFA AEB contracts and grant agreements. Do not book into this webinar if you attended on 27 March 2024.
The webinar will be at midday, Tuesday 30 April.
Information: Publication of the FE Workforce Technical Specification 2023 to 2024
ESFA has published the Further education workforce data collection technical specification and privacy notice for the academic year 2023 to 2024.
We’ll publish further documentation and guidance to help you with the data collection in due course.
Information: Apprenticeship Accountability Framework – updated
DfE published an updated Apprenticeship Accountability Framework (AAF) on Thursday 11 April 2024.
This update confirms an intention to take a more robust approach towards poor quality provision. We have introduced higher thresholds for some indicators to support the early identification of poor quality. This strengthened approach will take immediate effect and the new thresholds will be used in performance conversations from June 2024.
The AAF dashboard has been updated with R07 data. To support provider self-improvement, it now also includes comparative benchmarking data setting out providers’ overall, Sector Subject Area, and Standard level 2022 to 2023 Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR) against national equivalents.