Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 19 April 2023

Published 19 April 2023

Applies to England

1. Reminder: updated effective practice guides on estates planning and management accounts

A reminder that the following guides, produced by the FE Commissioner Team and LocatED, are available for the sector and have recently been updated to take account of sector reclassification:

• Further education estates planning
• Management accounts: good practice guide for colleges

They are intended to be “hands-on” and full of practical hints and tips, including college case studies and real life examples. They also offer relevant document templates and report exemplars.

The FE Commissioner team are keen to hear your views on the guides and will explore ways to take account of any feedback, and suggestions for improvement, as part of further updates planned for later in the year.

2. Information: publication of 16 to 19 Bursary Fund audit guide for the 2023 to 2024 academic year

We have published the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund audit guide, which includes the audit working papers ESFA use.

Although the guide is aimed primarily at local authorities, other institutions may find it helpful to see the information about ESFA assurance and audit as they review their bursary fund processes and policies ahead of the new academic year.

3. Information: ESFA grant and contract funded adult education budget (AEB) thresholds for academic year 2022 to 2023

In March, we confirmed a permanent increase to the over-delivery threshold for ESFA grant and contract funded AEB skills from 103% to 110%.

We’ve published further information about these thresholds and we will update the performance management section of the AEB funding rules for 2022 to 2023 with this information by the end of May.

4. Information: temporary funding for institutions losing significant amounts of Advanced Maths Premium

We updated the baseline to calculate the Advanced Maths Premium in the 16 to 19 funding allocations for 2023 to 2024. The new baseline uses an average of academic year 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 data to calculate your allocation. This means any increase in student numbers you had in the old baseline data will no longer attract funding.

We updated the baseline used for the Advanced Maths Premium to encourage more institutions to grow maths provision but recognise updating the baseline has led to a reduction in funding for some institutions that made early progress in growing advanced maths.

We want to help institutions maintain their levels of advanced maths participation, so we are providing one year of additional temporary funding for institutions that would otherwise lose £20,000 or more in Advanced Maths Premium in 2023 to 2024 compared with 2022 to 2023. This one year of temporary funding is being provided while we look at how best to achieve the Government’s ambitious goals for growing participation in maths, including options for funding in 2024 to 2025 and beyond.

This change will mean an increase to the Advanced Maths Premium in the 16 to 19 funding allocation for 2023 to 2024 for those institutions that would otherwise lose £20,000 or more in Advanced Maths Premium in 2023 to 2024 compared with 2022 to 2023. Those institutions in scope will have their premium topped up so they will receive the same amount of premium they received in as their previous year’s allocation, 2022 to 2023. Those institutions in scope have already been contacted directly about this and will receive an amended allocation and funding statement later in the summer.

5. Information: 16 to 19 subcontracting

We have published the 16 to 19 subcontracting data for the 2021 to 2022 academic year on GOV.UK.

This publication includes subcontracting data for FE institutions, schools and academies funded by ESFA. It is based on the R14 individualised learner record (ILR) return produced by FE institutions, and the autumn census return for schools and academies.

6. Information: Senior Pay Controls

Colleges are reminded that senior pay controls come fully into effect from 1 May 2023. This means that:

• for new appointments with proposed remuneration at or above £150,000 or performance related pay above £17,500, approval is required before the post is advertised
• for existing staff whose remuneration exceeds £150,000 and who are awarded a pay increase above 9%, approval is required before the pay increase is confirmed
• for existing staff whose current remuneration is below £150,000 but a pay award of over 9% takes it to or above that figure, approval is required before the pay increase is confirmed

Further details are provided in the DfE apply for FE senior pay approval guidance.

7. Information: the next round of Taking Teaching Further has launched

The next round of Taking Teaching Further (TTF) has launched, providing funding for FE providers to recruit and deliver early career support to those with the relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers. Recruitment is across the 15 technical routes, the core skills that underpin good technical education (English and maths) and for supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities.

TTF is a two-year programme, with up to £18,200 available per eligible recruit. Funding is to cover the cost of the recruit undertaking a teaching qualification, the provider to deliver mentoring support, and to allow the recruit to have a reduced timetable by covering the costs of backfilling.

For TTF 2023, we are piloting a financial incentive for recruits, which is available in addition to the TTF support offer, for TTF recruits who are recruited to teach in some of the most hard-to-fill subjects (digital; construction and the built environment; engineering and manufacturing; and maths). Eligible recruits will receive a £6,000 incentive payment: £3,000 at the end of year one of the programme and £3,000 at the end of year two of the programme.

FE providers can register to the programme until 30 November 2023, and successfully registered providers can register recruits until 31 January 2024. Further information on the financial incentive and the TTF programme can be found on the TTF GOV.UK page.#

If you have any questions or require more information, then please contact the Taking Teaching Further team on TTF.Enquiries@education.gov.uk.

8. Information: Skills Bootcamps delivery

The Department for Education (DfE) has now published a Prior Information Notice (PIN) relating to the next phase of Skills Bootcamps delivery, which will cover a range of occupations.

This notice invites interested Suppliers to engagement events in respect of potential competitions for Skills Bootcamps via the Skills Bootcamps Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). This PIN is for market engagement only. It does not signify the commencement of any call for competition process and does not constitute any commitment by DfE.

DfE would like to invite suppliers to attend engagement events. These events will:

• provide an overview of Skills Bootcamps.
• provide information about where suppliers can find out more about being a supplier of Skills Bootcamps.
• test requirements for potential future competitions with the market.

Please forward this invite to any training provider or organisation that you think would be interested in finding out more about delivering Skills Bootcamps.

The events will be focused on specific categories, and we encourage suppliers to sign up to those in which they are interested.

9. Your feedback: evaluation of functional skills qualifications (FSQs)

DfE and Ofqual are evaluating reformed FSQs in English and maths. We want to explore whether FSQ subject content meets the needs of employers, and supports learners to progress to higher levels of study.

We’ll also be talking to providers to explore how FSQs are taught. Details of how to get involved with this are below. Ofqual is currently conducting an evaluation of its approach to the regulation of reformed Functional Skills qualifications in English and maths.

DfE wants to understand your experience of delivering reformed English and maths FSQs, to be used as evidence to support our evaluation. We are interested in hearing from heads of maths and English as well as teachers.

If you would be willing to share your experience of FSQs in a confidential online interview with one of our independent advisors please contact us via email.

The interviews are expected to last around 30 minutes and will take place at a time convenient for you. All views collected through the interviews will remain anonymous.

10. Your feedback: learner survey on Essential Digital Skills

We want to get feedback from learners about our new essential digital skills offer for adults, particularly Essential Digital Skills qualifications (EDSQs) and the pipeline to EDSQs and how it is being received by learners.

We have developed a survey to gather information about learners’ experiences in accessing and studying essential digital skills training, particularly:

• Essential Digital Skills qualifications (EDSQs) which cover the essential digital skills required for life and work.
• The essential digital skills courses students take without a qualification, for example, informal essential digital skills training taught in community settings like, schools, libraries and community centres.

The survey is open from Monday 17 April until Sunday 7 May. To help us gain this essential feedback, please encourage your learners to complete this short survey.