ESFA Update further education: 22 January 2020
Published 22 January 2020
Applies to England
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1. Action: mid-year funding claims for 2019 to 2020
The mid-year funding claim window will open at 9am on Monday 10 February 2020.
You must submit a mid-year funding claim by 5pm on Thursday 13 February 2020. The claim form will be available on Submit Learner Data. Failure to submit the form will be a breach of your agreement
You will need to submit a claim if you receive funds through:
- adult education budget (AEB) (Adult Skills and Community Learning) – grant-funded
- Advanced Learner Loans Bursary (ALLB) – grant-funded
- Learner Support for AEB procured (adult skills and 19 to 24 traineeships) – paid-on-profile
Once you have submitted your claim you will also be able to view it on the Manage your education and skills funding.
For colleges due to submit the integrated financial model for colleges (IFMC) at the end of February, please ensure figures in the mid-year claim are used to inform the financial planning you are currently undertaking.
If you have any queries about this please contact your territorial manager.
2. Information: Learning Records Service temporarily closed due to data trust breach
Due to a recent data breach by a UK Register of Learning Provider, we have temporarily closed the Learning Records Service whilst we complete investigations.
We are continuing to monitor access and audit logs to highlight unusual activity to ensure this situation does not happen again via any provider.
Our checks are almost complete and we will start to provide access to the Learner Record Service from tomorrow. We will endeavour to get the service fully up and running as quickly as possible.
We will leave no options off the table when it comes to taking action or seeking for others, such as the Information Commissioner, to take action against any learning provider that has breached its agreement with us and wrongly shared data.
3. Information: 16 to 19 revenue funding allocation calculation toolkit for further education institutions
We have uploaded 16 to 19 revenue funding allocation calculation toolkits (ACTs) for academic year 2020 to 2021 for most further education institutions to ESFA Information Exchange. You will find your ACT file in the Document Exchange ‘Revenue Funding’ folder, under ‘AY 2020-21’. We will upload ACT files for schools and academies in early February.
Our guidance will help you understand the information in your ACT file.
Please do not submit a business case about your data until you have reviewed your 16 to 19 revenue funding allocation statement. The deadline for business cases is Thursday 30 April 2020. Please contact us using our online enquiry form if you have any questions.
4. Information: 16 to 19 business cases to correct major data errors
Please read our information on business cases about 16 to 19 funding allocations for academic year 2020 to 2021.
This information helps you to understand when you can and cannot submit a case and the thresholds we use to make decisions.
5. Information: high needs place change request outcomes 2020 to 2021
We have published the place change request outcomes: 2020 to 2021 that will inform the funded place numbers for the 2020 to 2021 academic year in academies, free schools, further education colleges and independent learning providers.
You should review the published outcomes as soon as possible, to ensure the numbers reflect those expected. If an institution is not listed, this means no change was notified for that institution and the published 2019 to 2020 place numbers will be used as the basis of the 2020 to 2021 allocation.
A local authority, academy or further education institution may contact ESFA to query their 2020 to 2021 place numbers within the enquiry window, which closes on Friday 7 February 2020. Requests to change place numbers received after 7 February are unlikely to be considered. More information about the enquiry window can be found in the place change notification process: technical note.
6. Information: new apprenticeship service webinars from January to March 2020
We are holding several webinars from January to March aimed at employers, training providers, 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.
Attendees will have the opportunity to ask experts questions in a live Q&A and take part in interactive polls.
Topics include:
- apprenticeship eligibility
- apprenticeship funding rules
- moving from apprenticeships frameworks to apprenticeships standards
- off-the-job apprenticeship training
- transitioning smaller employers onto the apprenticeship service
You can sign up now.
You can watch all apprenticeship service webinar recordings on YouTube.
You can follow @ESFAdigital on Twitter.
7. Information: upcoming apprenticeship provider roadshows
ESFA will host the second series of provider roadshows in February and March 2020 for main providers on the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP). Once again, the events will be collaborative and consultative.
The events will focus principally on the transition of smaller employers that do not pay the apprenticeships levy to the apprenticeship service. We will also talk about the full withdrawal of apprenticeships frameworks and end-point assessment organisations (EPAOs).
We will provide you with opportunities to network with other providers, and to feedback around key themes so that we all have a chance to share good practice and learn from experiences of others. We will write to you in January with more details about the agenda, and about the venues.
In the meantime, our roadshow dates are as follows.
- Tuesday 25 February – North East
- Tuesday 3 March – North West
- Monday 5 March – London
- Tuesday 24 March – Midlands
- Thursday 26 March – South Central
- Tuesday 31 March – South West
8. Information: webinar on the integrated financial model for colleges (IFMC)
We are hosting a Q&A webinar on Friday 24 January 2019, between 12 and 1pm, to answer your queries regarding the population of the new model.
To sign up to attend the webinar, please email financial.model@education.gov.uk.
9. Information: Quality in Careers Standard events
Is your organisation meeting its legal requirements on careers provision and supporting pupils to make informed choices about their futures?
The Department for Education (DfE) is funding 3 free to attend events for schools and colleges to learn more about externally validating their careers programme through the national Quality in Careers Standard.
These events involve testimonies from schools and colleges already holding the Standard and are hosted by the Quality in Careers National Director. They are intended for staff in schools and colleges that have not yet engaged with the Standard.
The event details, including the speakers from schools and colleges, have now been confirmed:
- Wednesday 4 March 2020, Newcastle upon Tyne
- Thursday 12 March 2020, Birmingham
- Tuesday 17 March 2020, Bristol
For more information and to book your free ticket, please visit the Quality in Careers website.