Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 22 September 2021

Updated 23 September 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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

Applies to England

1. Action: Recruit an Apprentice legacy technology

The Recruit an Apprentice (RAA) team is looking at updating legacy technology including RSS feed, AV Live Widget and SOAP API.

If your organisation uses any of these, please complete this survey by 30 September. Some questions may need to be answered by your technical team.

2. Feedback: please tell us about your experience with digital forms

We are seeking volunteers to participate in our user research panel to inform the ongoing development of digital forms. We’d like to hear from schools, academies, local authorities and colleges who can tell us about their experience of using our digital forms, particularly for submitting data to us for grant funding.

If you’d like to take part please complete our on-line form and we will be in touch.

3. Reminder: 16 to 19 tuition fund 2021 to 2022 form

Eligible institutions are reminded to complete the 16 to 19 tuition fund form.

The deadline for your submission is 11.59pm on 12 October 2021.

You can read the guidance document to help you complete the form.

4. Reminder: FE workforce collections

4.1 FE workforce staff and vacancy data collection

We have extended the deadline for returning FE workforce data to Friday 22 October 2021 at 4pm. This provides an additional 4 weeks for the data return.

Providers are encouraged to send a return to familiarise themselves with the data items required and the methods of completing the data return. If you haven’t already, please submit your data.

Returned data provides an initial view of the sector to support policy development and allows for feedback across the sector.

The data return will be mandatory for the 2021 to 2022 academic year.

You should complete a return if you receive funding through one or more of the funding models listed in the governor collection section below. Returns are not required if you are a school or academy which returns the school workforce census or a HE provider which returns the HESA staff record.

More information is available in the technical specification and support manual.

4.2 FE workforce governor data collection

We would like to remind FE and sixth form colleges that the FE workforce governor data collection is now open, for 2020 to 2021 academic year. The collection closes on 22 October 2021 at 4pm. This is an annual return.

The governor data collected will provide a snapshot of board composition in the FE sector to the Department for Education and used to feedback for 2020 data to the sector.

The supporting guidance to assist providers with making a return is available on the FE Workforce page.

You should complete this return if your organisation is an FE or sixth-form college and receives funding through one or more of the models listed below.

4.3 Funding Models:

• 16-19 (excluding apprenticeships)
• adult skills
• apprenticeships (from 1 May 2017) including levy funding
• Community Learning
• European Social Funding (ESF)
• other adult
• other 16-19

Both collections are hosted within the submit learner data (SLD) service. Users will need an IDAMS account and appropriate ‘roles’ assigned to their profile to access the collection.

For users who do not have an IDAMS account, refer to instructions on how to register for IDAMS.

You can contact us with queries about FE Workforce collections:

• Telephone: 0370 267 0001 (Monday to Thursday 9:00am to 5:00pm, Friday 9:00am to 4:00pm)
• Email: sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.

5. Information: Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers: market entry process for identified gaps in provision

We would like to remind the sector that the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (the Register) is open only to new providers that are able to fulfil a gap in provision identified by an employer.

Training providers cannot apply directly to the Register and will be invited to apply only if they have been named as a preferred provider in an employer business case.

All training providers will be able to apply to the Register only once within a 12-month period.

Employer providers must follow the published process, full details on this process can be found on GOV.UK.

6. Information: list of declared subcontractors

The final publication of the 2020 to 2021 list of declared subcontractors has been published on GOV.UK. It is based on information from declarations submitted by ESFA funded providers. 

The list of declared subcontractors shows subcontractors with contracts worth at least £100,000 in total, with one or more ESFA-funded providers of post-16 education and training services, including AEB, Traineeships, Apprenticeships, ESF and 16 to 19 Programmes. The list also includes the individual values of these subcontracts.  

For further information, please refer to the list of declared subcontractors page.

7. Information: letter to college accounting officers

John Edwards, interim Chief Executive and accounting officer of ESFA, has written to college accounting officers setting out his thoughts and expectations in relation to a number of current matters concerning the financial management, control and governance of college corporations.

8. Information: Skills for Jobs webinar – opportunity to hear from policy experts and feed into consultation

The Department for Education is holding a Skills for Jobs: A New Further Education Funding and Accountability System webinar on 29 September 2021.

The event will be chaired by DfE Director Keith Smith and policy experts and will be an opportunity for you to feed into the consultation through Q&A sessions, and to gain an insight into the wider skills reforms and the approach across Education.

Register your attendance here