Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 18 January 2023

Published 18 January 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: check your ILR data before R06 closes on 6 February 2023

Please log into the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard. We want you to review any queries we found in your latest data return. Please make amendments in your R06 data submission by 6 February.

Additional guidance is available for each monitoring report this year. It covers the actions to review data, holding relevant evidence and correcting data errors. You can find it in the ‘Report Information’ tab of the dashboard and the Financial Assurance: Monitoring post-16 funding for 2022 to 2023 document (which you can access by clicking on ‘View Monitoring Plan’ on the dashboard ‘Landing Page’).

We generate post-16 monitoring reports after the ILR submission window closes each month and identify data you may need to correct for your next ILR data return. You can also use the PDSAT online tool to help you check your data and make corrections before the next ILR submission deadline.

2. Action: check your provisional Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) (2021 to 2022) data

Provisional Qualification Achievement Rates dashboards were made available in View your education data on Thursday 12 January. A technical issue delayed the release of the QAR data download files, but they were added to View your education on Tuesday 17 January.

Due to the slight delay in sharing the download files, we have extended the period you have to review your data. Please review your provisional data and inform us of any concerns about how we have implemented our published methodology by 5pm on Thursday 9 February 2023.  Note: You cannot request fixes or adjustments to your 2021 to 2022 Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data.

2.1 Further support

Further information and guidance on QARs is available on GOV.UK. If you have any specific QAR data queries, download and complete the query form at the bottom of the QAR guidance page, referencing the data from the data downloads. Submit the completed form via our enquiry page, selecting the QAR ‘query type’.

3. Information: eligible institutions have been invited to attend webinars supporting the introduction of Accountability Agreements

Please register for the DfE led webinar via our registration page, noting that this is primarily aimed at general FE colleges and designated institutions. We are also contributing to webinars organised by HOLEX and the Sixth Form Colleges Association who will contact their members directly.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Information: allocation toolkits available to support 2023 to 2024 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations

Allocation calculation toolkits (ACT), confirming how we have used 2021 to 2022 individual learner record (ILR) data to calculate funding elements which will be used in the calculation of 2023 to 2024 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations, are being made available on Document Exchange this week.

This is the first year that ACT files are available for special post 16 institutions alongside other FE institutions.

If you have any questions after reading our guidance, please contact us using our online enquiry form.

7. Information: 16 to 19 and adult education budget (AEB) grant funding payment profiles payments

Following the reclassification of further education (FE) colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions in England to the public sector, the government committed to considering amending the existing payment profile for all institutions who receive 16 to 19 and adult education budget (AEB) grant funding. This includes:

7.1 16 to 19 funding

• FE colleges and all other FE institutions, including local authorities for their FE provision, independent learning providers and special post-16 institutions
• it does not include local authority school sixth form provision

7.2 Non-devolved adult funding

• all grant funded institutions, including colleges and local authorities
• it does not include independent learning providers

The first step is to bring forward payments from the 2023 to 2024 financial year into this financial year and therefore we will make additional payments to institutions in February and March totalling:

• 6.11% of your organisation’s 16 to 19 funding for academic year 2022 to 2023
• 4.02% of your organisation’s ESFA (non-devolved) AEB funding for academic year 2022 to 2023

We will split this in equal amounts between the 2 months, and only relates to funding already in payment profiles at the end of December 2022. In April and May 2023, we will recoup the additional payments, resulting in the smoothing of this year’s profile. From 2023 to 2024 a new payment profile will be in place.