ESFA Update academies: 23 January 2019
Published 23 January 2019
Applies to England
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1. Action: funding for the delivery of T Levels consultation – webinar
Colleges, schools and other post-16 providers are being encouraged to have their say on how new T Levels will be funded through a 3-month consultation, which was launched on 27 November 2018. The consultation will close on Tuesday 19 February 2019.
We have organised a webinar on Tuesday 5 February 2019 at 2pm to explain the government’s proposal. You can book your place for the webinar by registering online. You can also raise any questions you have in advance.
2. Action: fire safety advice for building owners – partial ACM cladding
Following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire, we identified the limited instances where Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding of concern was present on buildings in scope across education. This helped us to work with building owners to take remedial action.
Since then, you may have seen that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued further Building Safety Programme advice for the owners of buildings over 18 metres with partial ACM cladding.
This advice sets out the action building owners should take. It explains that the clearest way to ensure the safety of occupants, and the most appropriate remediation solution, is to remove all ACM, including small or partial areas of ACM, and replace it with a safe material.
If you have any concerns about your building we would encourage you to seek independent expert advice. Should you have any other questions please send them to DFE.FIRESAFETY@education.gov.uk.
3. Information: academies accounts return deadline now passed
The deadline to submit your accounts return has now passed.
Thank you to all trusts who submitted their accounts return before the deadline. If you have not submitted your accounts return, please make every effort to get your information submitted immediately.
If you are having difficulties completing or submitting the form, please see our guidance. You can also send us a query using our online enquiry form. Please put “accounts return” at the top of your enquiry and provide your trust’s UPIN.
We will publish the names of academy trusts who are late, or do not submit, two or more financial returns in each academic year. We strongly advise all users to allow sufficient time for all checks to be completed and signed off before any deadlines.
4. Information: review of end of year 16 to 19 study programmes data for 2016 to 2017
In December, we published our findings following our review of end of year 16 to 19 study programmes data for 2016 to 2017. We proposed a change to the young people’s funding guidance for academic year 2019 to 2020 about students with prior attainment in English and maths at grade 4 or above.
We received feedback on the change from a small but significant number of providers. We have decided not to apply the change in 2019 to 2020 and will discuss the responses with the sector over the next few months. We will then decide whether to proceed with this change for academic year 2020 to 2021. We aim to confirm our decision on this by the end of May 2019.
If you have any questions about this, please contact us using our online enquiry form.