Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 17 October 2018

Published 17 October 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 21 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Find the latest information from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the latest ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Reminder: autumn school census 2018 COLLECT reports

It is vital that school census returns are accurate as this is the basis for much of your revenue funding calculation.

To help academies quality assure their census data prior to final submission, we have made several reports available in COLLECT. These reports allow you to check the accuracy of the data that we will use to calculate your pre-16 funding.

For academies with sixth forms, we have also produced reports to help quality assure your 16 to 19 census data.

You can see the full list of COLLECT reports in section 9 of the census guidance.

In addition, our post-16 interactive census tool will help academies with sixth forms understand how we use your data to calculate your 16 to 19 funding, as well as helping you understand common errors and how they affect the funding we calculate.

You need to submit your approved return by 31 October 2018.

2. Action: academies land and building collection tool (LBCT)

Due to essential maintenance this weekend, the online form for the land and buildings collection tool will be unavailable between 7am on Saturday 20 October and 8am on Monday 22 October 2018.

We are now half way through the collection period for the land and buildings collection tool (LBCT). Thank you to all trusts that have already submitted their return. For those still working on it, you have until 5 November 2018. If you have church owned land, please allow plenty of time for diocesan checks before the deadline.

If you have any church owned land you must enter a diocesan user email in the form when prompted. This user confirms all the church owned land details entered in your form. If you’re not sure which email to add, please contact your local diocese or church trustees to find out.

We are holding a series of weekly Skype calls and webchats to answer any queries you may have about the LBCT. The next event will be via webchat on 19 October. Please visit our LBCT page on GOV.UK to view the full timetable and joining instructions. You can also watch the LBCT webinar held on 10 October on our LBCT page.

If you’re not able to join the weekly calls you can send any questions to us via the enquiry form quoting LBCT and the your UPIN.

3. Action: condition spend data collection (CSDC) 2018

DfE is conducting a data collection, to understand the use made of the school condition allocation (SCA) for the 2017 to 2018 financial year.

Data can only be submitted using DfE’s online portal, we will send details via email to SCA recipients. We are unable to accept copies of the data sent by email.

Please refer to the user guide when completing the return.

The deadline for submitting data is Friday 30 November 2018.

If you have any queries, please contact: ConditionSpend.COLLECTION@education.gov.uk.

4. Action: academies complaints procedures

We are experiencing an increasing number of complaints coming through to the ESFA where an academy’s complaints procedure is not compliant with the standards.

The standards are set out in Education (Independent School Standards (England) Regulations 2014 Schedule 1, Part 7. These set out how a school should draw up its complaints procedure and use it effectively to handle complaints from parents of pupils.

If a complaint comes to us we will check whether the academy has dealt with it properly. We will consider complaints about academies that fall into any of the following three areas:

1. Where there is undue delay or the academy did not follow its own complaints procedure when considering a complaint
2. Where the academy is in breach of its funding agreement with the Secretary of State
3. Where an academy has failed to comply with any other legal obligation

Where we find an academy did not deal with a complaint properly, we will ask the academy to look at the complaint again. We will also make sure the academy’s complaints procedure meets the requirements set out in the regulations.

If the academy’s complaints procedure does not comply, we will ask the academy to put this right. We may seek to enforce our decision under the terms of the funding agreement on behalf of the Secretary of State.

You can read further information in our setting up an academies complaints procedure guide.

5. Information: funding for increases to Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) employer contributions

On 6 September 2018, HM Treasury published draft Directions departments must use in completing valuations of their pension schemes.

This included a review of the Office for Budget Responsibility fiscal outlook, which determined that the long-term GDP forecast had fallen. The discount rate used to set employer contributions will therefore be adjusted, and we estimate that the new rate for the TPS will increase to approximately 23.6%. The rate will be finalised in spring 2019.

We are conscious schools may be concerned about the budgetary impact. The Department for Education intends to fund fully the contribution increase for state funded schools and academies.

Recognising when schools set budgets, we have also worked with HM Treasury to delay the implementation of the change in contribution rate until September 2019.

We will now consult with sector representatives and announce decisions on distribution of this additional funding in good time before schools experience the pressures in September 2019.

6. Information: the bidding round for the 2019 Education Services Fund (ESF) closes on 19 October 2018

The Secretary of State for Defence has announced the extension of the ESF until 2019 to 2020. £3 million is available in 2018 to 2019, and £2 million is available in 2019 to 2020.

To be eligible for a grant a school must be in the UK and must have at least one service child, subject to exceptional mobility or deployment.

We accept applications from:

• maintained schools
• academies
• free schools
• sixth form colleges
• groups of any schools described above (referred to as ‘cluster bids’ and are strongly encouraged)
• local authorities on behalf of the publicly funded schools in their area

Full details of the Education Support Fund grant and how to apply, are available on GOV.UK.

7. Information: T levels provider list updated

We have updated the list of providers delivering T levels in 2020 to 2021 academic year.

This follows the opportunity to express an interest to deliver the Building planning, surveying and design T Level.

8. Information: EpiPen and EpiPen Junior shortage advice for schools

Due to the current shortage of EpiPens, the Department for Health and Social Care has issued EpiPen guidance for schools drawn up by NHS allergy experts.

9. Action: schools and academies apprenticeship advice survey

We are conducting research into how careers advisors get information about apprenticeships.

The apprenticeship advice survey should only take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. Your responses will help us to understand the effectiveness of the resources we provide.