Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 18 January 2023

Published 18 January 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: submit your resource management self-assessment checklist

The school resource management self-assessment checklist is now open for academy trusts to complete and return by Tuesday 15 March 2023.

All academy trusts with an open academy on 31 December 2022 must submit a checklist.

2. Reminder: academies accounts return deadline tomorrow - Thursday 19 January 2023

A reminder to all trusts that the deadline to submit your trust’s accounts return is Thursday 19 January 2023.

If you have not already completed the external auditor details section, please do so as soon as possible as this will give them access to the form. The return can only be submitted by the trust’s external auditor approver.

If you are having difficulties completing or submitting the form, please see our guidance or join either our MS Teams calls or web chat sessions.

3. Information: volunteer to help improve Related Party Transactions submissions

Have you submitted a related party transaction to the ESFA?

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) regularly conducts research to ensure our services are meeting your needs. This research involves confidential online interviews and prototype testing of the Related Party Transaction online submission service.

We invite you to:

• Register your interest to take part in this research.

4. Information: RPA Members - book your place on this Regulatory Mock Trial

The Department for Education, in conjunction with Willis Towers Watson, has developed a bespoke training seminar, ‘The Regulatory Mock Trial’.

The 3-hour workshop has been designed to assist governors, trustees, directors, and members of Senior Leadership Teams to understand the challenges they face in implementing compliant health and safety management systems, enhance the prospects of avoiding enforcement action and improve the school’s defensive capabilities where a prosecution is pursued.

Book your place on 24 February now.

You can find the full programme of Schools Commercial Team (SCT) webinars for the spring term on the Spring 2023 webinar page. Visit the page to find out more and book your place.

5. Information: mainstream schools additional grant 2023 to 2024 calculator tool and guidance

As part of the forthcoming mainstream schools additional grant for 2023 to 2024, we’ve published a calculator tool to accompany the existing grant methodology.

You can read the methodology, calculator guidance and access the calculator.

Schools can use the calculator to obtain a close estimation of school level allocations for the mainstream schools additional grant. We’ve published the calculator to enable schools to budget plan before the final allocations are published in spring 2023.

If you have any questions about this calculator, please refer to the guidance in the first instance and direct any further queries through the ESFA enquiry form.

6. Information: book a 1:1 chat to discuss your school’s buying needs – spaces available on 26 January

Schools Commercial Team are offering the opportunity for a free, virtual 1:1 conversation with a member of the team, to see how we can support you.

You can speak to us about anything you like to help you make informed buying choices for your school.

There is no pressure or obligation to take any of our recommendations forward following the conversation. Book your 1:1 conversation now.

7. Information: join these webinars on approved frameworks and see how you could save money for your school

Are you responsible for buying goods and services for your school? The Schools Commercial Team (SCT) within the Department for Education is leading on the Buying for Schools programme; delivering services to support schools to buy goods and services.

The team are hosting free webinars on how using our approved frameworks could save you time and help your school get value for money. Click on the links to find out more and book your place:

• How the Get help buying for schools service can support your school buying – 24 January
• Buying ICT for your school – 24 January
• Buying tailor-made audit services for academies and schools – 25 January
• The Risk Protection Arrangement - an alternative to commercial insurance – 2 February

You can find the full programme of webinars for the spring term on the Spring 2023 webinar page. Visit the page to find out more and book your place.

8. Information: academies national non-domestic rates (NNDR) historical claims for unclaimed years

This message is for all academies in relation to NNDR.

Academies can submit historic claims for previously unclaimed years. This applies to financial years 2017 to 2018 up until 2021 to 2022, which have not been claimed for.

Claims can be submitted on the academies NNDR service. Claims can be submitted up until 31 January 2023.

ESFA will not, under any circumstances, accept claims for previously unclaimed years after this deadline.

9. Information: academies national non-domestic rates (NNDR) new claims for 2022 to 2023

This message is for academies opted out of the new NNDR process. You can check if you still need to submit your own NNDR claim.

Academies that remain under the current NNDR arrangements because their billing authority has decided to not implement the new payment process for April 2022, should submit new claims for 2022 to 2023 by 31 January 2023.

Claims can be submitted on the academies NNDR service.

ESFA will not, under any circumstances, accept new claims after this deadline.

10. Information: academies national non-domestic rates (NNDR) adjustments to previous claims

This message is for all academies in relation to NNDR.

All academies and trusts can adjust previously paid NNDR claims for 2017 to 2018 to 2021 to 2022 using the academies NNDR service.

Claims can be submitted up until 31 January 2023.

ESFA will not, under any circumstances, accept adjustment claims after this deadline.

From April 2023 academies will only be able to submit adjustments for the previous financial year (2022 to 2023).

For academies whose billing authority has implemented the new payment process the previous financial year’s adjustments will be managed by the billing authority.

11. Information: spring school census 2023

The 2023 spring school census date is Thursday,19 January. The deadline for approved submissions is Wednesday,15 February 2023.

Where validation queries are raised in COLLECT, an explanation will be required for these queries in the return level notes field within COLLECT. The department will require sufficient detail in these explanations to allow the queries to be accepted and returns authorised. A guide is available on the school census website providing examples of what would be regarded as an acceptable notepad entry for any queries. Please note, it is the responsibility of the data provider to resolve any errors and/or queries on their return and they should not wait for the department to contact them before addressing such issues.

The school census data will be used to finalise funding allocations and published in national statistics. It is important that you check the accuracy of your returns before you submit them.

Full guidance to help with completing the census is available on GOV.UK.
If you have any queries about the school census, please use our service request form.

12. Information: academies and land building collection tool - the form is now live

The online form for the academies land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) is now live.

The deadline for submission is Tuesday 21 February 2023.

Please visit our LBCT page on GOV.UK where you will be able to view the summary guidance, the optional LBCT workbook and the link to the online form.

If your academy trust has any church owned land, contact your local diocese to arrange sign-off arrangements.

Your login details will be the same as those used for the budget forecast return and accounts return. If you are struggling to access the form or it’s your first time completing it, please read the registration guidance.

13. Information: high needs place change request outcomes 2023 to 2024

We have published the high needs place data outcomes for 2023 to 2024 that will inform ESFA funded place numbers for the academic year 2023 to 2024.

You should review the published outcomes as soon as possible to ensure the numbers reflect those expected. If your provider is not listed, this means no change was notified by your local authority and the published place numbers for 2022 to 2023 will be used as the basis of your allocation for 2023 to 2024.

Local authorities and providers can contact ESFA to query their 2023 to 2024 place numbers between 18 January 2023 and 3 February 2023.

More information about the enquiry window can be found in the high needs place change process guidance.

14. Information: Payment change date

We are changing the payment date for 4 of our funding streams:

• procured adult education budget including national skills fund
• procured 19 to 24 traineeships
• contract funded advanced learner loans bursary
• 16 to 18 traineeships

This change affects your organisation and will take place from April 2023.

The payment date will change from the 14th working day to the 16th working day of the month.

This means your April payment will be in your bank account on 26 April 2023, the 16th working day of the month. We will upload a contract variation to Manage your Education and Skills in February 2023 to reflect this change.

We will be sending letters to those who are affected by the change. If you have any queries relating to this, please contact the enquiry service.

15. Your feedback: survey on improving the Good Estate Management for Schools and Managing Asbestos guidance

The Capital Efficiency and Capability team at the Department for Education are working on improving the Good Estate Management for Schools and Managing Asbestos guidance.

This will help us make sure we update this guidance so that you can maintain your school buildings effectively and efficiently to meet current and future challenges.

To assist us in this important task, we would welcome your feedback. The survey should take no longer than 5 minutes and responses are anonymous.