ESFA Update academies: 19 September 2018
Published 19 September 2018
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1. Information: letter to academy trust accounting officers
Eileen Milner, chief executive and accounting officer of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), has written a letter to academy trust accounting officers copied to chairs of trustees.
The letter includes important information about academy trust financial management, accountability and governance.
2. Action: school workforce census 2018
The school workforce census (SWF) opens on Thursday 8 November 2018. It is a statutory data collection required for all publicly funded schools. Academies and free schools are responsible for making their own return.
The COLLECT familiarisation blade for SWF 2018 is available via Secure Access. The familiarisation blade mirrors the look, feel and functionality of the live COLLECT blade. All data providers are strongly encouraged to use this facility to assist in assessing the quality of their data in preparation for the live collection. COLLECT guidance is available for users.
The statutory date for returns is 7 December 2018.
3. Information: schools efficiency metric tool
We have now updated the primary and secondary schools efficiency metric tool with data based on the 2016 to 2017 academic year.
The efficiency metric provides mainstream schools with an indication of their efficiency, based on pupil attainment and the money used to achieve it, relative to statistically similar schools. We have published the metric is to prompt schools to think about where they can become more efficient and how they could focus their resources to support measures to increase attainment.
4. Information: school resource management self-assessment tool
DfE has published a new school resource management self-assessment tool for academies.
You can use the tool to identify possible areas for change to make sure resources are being used effectively. You can send feedback on the tool and guidance to the school resource management team.
5. Information: academy benchmarking report cards
We emailed benchmarking report cards to academies on 13 September 2018 to the contact email address recorded on get information about schools (GIAS).
Based on data from the 2016 to 2017 academic year, the report cards contain highlights of a school’s spending compared with statistically similar schools, in terms of levels of deprivation and special educational needs.
You can read detailed benchmarking information on the schools financial benchmarking tool page on GOV.UK.
6. Information: teachers’ pay grant methodology
On Friday 14 September, the Department for Education (DfE) confirmed the 2018 pay award for teachers and published the revised school teachers’ pay and conditions guidance.
DfE also announced the per-pupil rates for the new teachers’ pay grant, which will provide funding for schools to implement the pay award. The funding will cover, in full, the difference between the 2018 award and the cost of the 1% award that schools would have anticipated under the previous public sector cap.
Further guidance and allocations will be available in October.
7. Information: schools forum operational and good practice guide
We have updated the schools forum guidance following the recent survey of schools forum clerks, and the updated pre-16 schools funding guidance. This guide is for all parties interested in schools forums. It details the requirements of the meetings as well as setting out roles and responsibilities of the schools forum members.
8. Information: 16 to 19 funding - update to advanced maths premium guidance
We have updated the advanced maths premium guidance on GOV.UK. It
- confirms how the premium will be calculated in the national funding formula
- includes a link to previous academic years’ accountability measures, which confirms the qualifications eligible for the premium in each year
9. Information: update to FE free meals guide
We introduced transitional protections to protect students from uncertainty during the changes to free meals eligibility. This was for students in receipt of FE free meals immediately prior to 1 April 2018 and those who become eligible during Universal Credit rollout. These students will retain eligibility until the end of this rollout period. Following this, if they are still in education they will continue to be eligible until the end of their phase of education.
Colleges should not remove FE free meals eligibility from students until either the end of their education or at least 2023. Students that were eligible for free school meals (FSM) at school will also retain eligibility upon entering college. More information is available in the FE free meals in further education guide for 2018 to 2019, or you can contact the FE free school meals team at Freeschoolmeals.MAILBOX@education.gov.uk.
10. Information: school business professional contact list
If you would like to receive occasional updates from DfE on topics and products related to school resource management, please sign up to our schools business professionals contact list.