Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 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. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 schools’ 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.

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

We have published the high needs place change 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 a provider is not listed, this means no change was notified for that provider and the published place numbers for 2022 to 2023 will be used as the basis of the allocation for 2023 to 2024.

Local authorities and providers can contact ESFA to query their place numbers for 2023 to 2024 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.

8. 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.

9. 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:

9.1 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

9.2 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.

10. 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.