Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 19 August 2020

Published 19 August 2020

This correspondence was withdrawn on 29 December 2021

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Read the latest editions of ESFA Update for up to date news and information.

Applies to England

1. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

There is also guidance on the apprenticeship service about COVID-19.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Action: further education (FE) college capital funding allocations available on Manage your education and skills funding service

The Prime Minister announced in June that an initial £200 million of the £1.5 billion in capital funding that will support the upgrading of the FE estate, will be brought forward to financial year 2020 to 2021. This will support FE colleges to undertake immediate remedial work in this financial year to upgrade the condition of their estate and provide a boost as the country and its education system emerges from lockdown. We aim to share more details on the wider funding programme this autumn. This will include plans for investment in future years.

Your grant letter and allocation amount are now available on Manage your education and skills funding service. You must sign your agreement by Friday 4 September to receive this grant in September.

This funding is for improving FE estates. It can only be used in accordance with the funded activities set out in both the project specific conditions and the Department for Education’s terms and conditions. We will contact colleges in administration separately about their funding allocations.

3. Reminder: subcontractor declaration 31 August deadline, including nil returns

Organisations delivering ESFA funded adult programmes including all apprenticeships and traineeships and, those FE institutions delivering 16 to 19 provision, must declare their subcontracting arrangements by Monday 31 August 2020.

Schools and academies are not required to complete this declaration for their 16 to 19 provision.

The current declarations relate to the following periods:

• 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 for the delivery of any apprenticeship non-levy and levy funded provision
• 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020 for all other adult education
• 16 to 19 programme for the year from 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020 (noting schools and academies are exempt)

Please note if you have submitted a declaration for the referenced 2019 to 2020 provisions you are required to submit this data for the second and final time. This information should be updated and reconfirmed in line with the funding rules which state we will collect this information at least twice a year.

Please also note that if you do not subcontract but receive direct funding from ESFA, you are still required to make a nil return.

The process for collecting subcontractor declarations is through the Manage your education and skills funding service (MYESF).

You will need one of the following MYESF roles to complete and submit a declaration:

• contract authoriser
• contract manager
• data returns and claims authoriser

You can check the user roles and permissions in MYESF.

If you have any questions, please submit an ESFA online enquiry form.

4. Reminder: preparing final ILR returns for 2019 to 2020

There are two more opportunities to submit Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data for 2019 to 2020. It is important that your data is submitted error free, accurate and complete because errors or incomplete returns can impact on the payments your organisation receives. The data cannot be updated or amended after R14 has closed.

You can find details of the R13 and R14 collection dates on GOV.UK. We recommend you submit your data as early as possible and that you check your validation and funding reports, available on Submit Learner Data. Providers leaving their submissions until the last minute run the risk of not having made a submission by the deadline to guarantee payments.

We have published some guidance to help you correct the most common data problems in the 2019 to 2020 ILR. This guidance will be expanded as we approach R14.

You can contact our Customer Service team for assistance on specific issues and support not covered by this guidance. Some issues may take some time to resolve and it may not be possible to clear those raised very close to the deadline, so we strongly recommend that you take prompt action to ensure your return is correct and complete.

You can contact us by using our enquiry form.

5. Information: version 3, ESFA adult education budget (AEB) funding and performance management rules 2020 to 2021

We have published version 3 of the ESFA AEB funding and performance management rules 2020 to 2021. This version includes an update on:

• traineeships
• sub-contracting
• breaks in learning
• learner support – COVID-19 recovery package
• performance management section

The rules apply to all providers of education and training who receive AEB funding from ESFA. If you have any queries, please use our online enquiry form.

6. Information: adult allocations for the 2020 to 2021 funding year

6.1 COVID-19 skills offer: high value courses and sector-based work academies

This week we will be issuing allocations to providers as part of the COVID-19 recovery package, this is in response to the Chancellor’s announcement for exceptional funding as part of the wider COVID-19 skills recovery response. More information can obtained from the ESFA funded adult education budget (AEB): funding and performance management rules 2020 to 2021.

Allocation statements will be available on Manage your education and skills funding (MYESF). Please pay attention to your allocation statement, as it will look slightly different to previous versions. Contracts will be updated prior to the October payment.

We will update our 19+ funding allocations page with more information on how allocations have been calculated.

You need one of the following roles on MYESF to view your allocation statement:

• contract authoriser
• contract manager
• contract user
• data returns and claims authoriser

Registration guidance and guides for users and super users can be found at on GOV.UK.

7. Information: new Apprenticeship Service webinars from September 2020

We are pleased to announce the Apprenticeship Service is holding several webinars from September aimed at employers, training providers, employer-providers, end-point assessment organisations and any organisations/individuals with an interest in the apprenticeship service.

All webinars are hosted by subject matter experts to help service users to understand more about the apprenticeship service and the apprenticeships programme.

Topics include:

• the value of assessment in apprenticeships
• how to apply for an incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice
• how to support employers to apply for an incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice
• funding rules update (coming soon)
• off the job training update (coming soon)

You can sign up now.

You can watch all apprenticeship service webinar recordings on our YouTube channel.

Follow @ESFAdigital on Twitter.

8. Your feedback: would you like to take part in research around education funding transparency?

The Manage your education and skills funding service (MyESF) team are looking to speak to individuals at FE colleges, school sixth forms and special post-16 institutions that work with the 16 to 19 allocation statement.

This piece of research will be looking at user interaction with the 16 to 19 statement and its supporting guidance. The results will feed into the design of digital allocation statements. Participation is welcomed from new and experienced users.

What this would involve:

• we will invite you to an online remote meeting with a researcher.
• a conversation about your experience and current behaviour of reading the 16-19
• showing you our prototype for feedback on look and feel

The session will last approximately 60 minutes and will give you the opportunity to provide feedback to government service designers. Sessions will run from Wednesday 26 to Friday 28 August 2020.

To take part, please complete our 3 minute survey, and our researcher will be in touch to agree a meeting time to suit.