ESFA Update academies: 20 November 2019
Published 20 November 2019
Applies to England
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1. Action: prepare now for TPECG supplementary fund claims
The first application window for the teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) supplementary fund opens on Monday 2 December 2019.
To make a claim for supplementary funding, mainstream schools will first need to register with the DfE sign in service. Make sure you are prepared by signing up now, if you haven’t already done so.
You can find more information about eligibility for the grant and how the funding will be calculated on the supplementary fund guidance page.
We will notify you how to make a claim when the application window opens.
2. Reminder: pensions re-enrolment
Under the Pensions Act 2008, every employer in the UK must put certain staff into a workplace pension scheme and contribute towards it. This is called ‘automatic enrolment’.
Many academy trusts are approaching their ‘re-enrolment window’. This is a legal duty that employers must comply with as part of their automatic enrolment duties – every three years they need to ‘re-enrol’ certain staff who may have left/opted- out of their workplace pension scheme.
The Pensions Regulator has published guidance on re-enrolment to help academy trusts understand what their duties are, what they need to do to comply with the law, and by when.
3. Information: updated high needs allocated place numbers and dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations 2019 to 2020
We have updated the dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations tables for 2019 to 2020 to take into account the academy conversions from August to November 2019. We have also updated the high needs allocated place numbers for 2019 to 2020 to include recent in-year academy conversions.
We have updated the high needs allocated place numbers for 2018 to 2019 to show the final position at the end of the 2018 to 2019 academic year. We publish this information to encourage collaboration between local authorities and institutions.
4. Information: building component reminder
The Department for Education (DfE) wish to remind building owners of a message issued in December 2018 about a building component failure in a property constructed using Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (RAAC). RAAC was generally used in construction in the UK between the mid-1950s and 1980.
LGA has published advice along with suggested steps to take. This includes a link to additional information from the Standing Committee on Structural Safety.