Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 23 September 2020

Published 23 September 2020

This correspondence was withdrawn on 29 December 2021

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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

Applies to England

1. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

There is also guidance on the apprenticeship service about COVID-19.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Information: online portal for FE providers to order additional coronavirus (COVID-19) test kits

An online portal is now live for further education (FE) providers to order additional coronavirus (COVID-19) test kits if they have run out, or are running out of their initial 10 kits supplied for use in line with our guidance. You will be able to make a new order for test kits 21 days after you receive a delivery confirmation email telling you that your previous supply of test kits has been sent.

These kits are only for those who develop one of the symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) and face significant barriers to accessing a test. In particular, they will help FE providers get their symptomatic staff who test negative, back to work as soon as they feel well enough, to ensure the continuity of education for learners. FE providers will receive a unique organisation number (UON) via email from the Department of Health and Social Care which will be needed to place your order.

Please call the Test and Trace helpdesk on 119 if you have not received your UON or if you have lost your record of it.

3. Information: NHS COVID-19 App

On Thursday 24 September, DHSC will launch the NHS COVID-19 App which will help to control the spread of the virus by identifying if an individual has been in contact with someone who has tested positive with coronavirus. Staff and students aged 16 and over will be able to download the App.

The ‘Use of the NHS COVID-19 app in schools and further education colleges’, explains how the App will work in education settings. Please take time to familiarise yourselves with the guidance, how it will work for students and staff within individual settings and how it complements existing processes to respond to any infection, as set out in the current further education guidance for the autumn term.

In addition, the Department of Health and Social Care have issued guidance which provides further detail on maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace for some sectors which may be relevant to your setting.

4. Information: R14 ILR return webinar

In order to support organisations in their preparations for the closure of the 2019 to 2020 Individual Learner Record (ILR) on 22 October 2020, we will be running a webinar on Monday 28 September 2020 at 2pm which will offer helpful advice and tips on submitting a successful R14 return.

Whilst we would encourage all types of training providers who have made an ILR return in the 2019 to 2020 academic year to join the webinar, it will be particularly useful for organisations who successfully applied to the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP) since August 2019 and commenced delivery of apprenticeship training before the end of July 2020.

You can register for the webinar now. For any organisation unable to attend the webinar, a recording will be available from Tuesday 29 September on the ESFA GoToWebinar channel.

5. Information: Provider Relief Schemes – reconciliation returns

Recipients of funding via our Provider Relief Schemes are reminded that they are required to submit a reconciled summary of costs by 2 October 2020.

If you are in scope to submit a reconciliation return you will have received an email including a template, which should be sent to esfa.ppn220queries@education.gov.uk by 2 October 2020.

In the template, providers will need to evidence that each of their activities, as described by them in their application for support, have been delivered. They will also need to evidence that each of their eligible costs, as described by them in their application for support, has been spent accordingly.

Please note that we will recover funds which were not used for their intended purpose or where the funds were not required.

Submission of the reconciliation template is a condition of funding, and failure to return the template within the specified timescale may lead to the recovery of funds paid under the Scheme.

If you believe you should have received a template, please email esfa.ppn220queries@education.gov.uk. You should also use this email if you have any questions about the process or the template.

6. Information: how T Levels are funded from 2021 to 2022 academic year

We have published how T Levels are funded guidance regarding the size of the technical qualifications for the second wave of T Levels being delivered from 2021 to 2022.

7. Information: 16 to 19 tuition fund opt-in template

We originally set a deadline of 16 September for providers to opt-in to the 16 to 19 tuition fund. We are aware that some institutions did not see their opt-in template in time to respond by that date, and so we have a set up an additional window for further responses.

For those providers who have not yet responded, opt-in templates should be completed and returned to ESFA by 14 October 2020. Eligible providers will find their template on the ESFA Information Exchange, which you can access by logging into DfE Sign-In.

Full details of eligibility are given in the guidance on the 16 to 19 tuition fund. Special schools and special academies are not in scope for the 16 to 19 tuition fund as all of their provision is covered by the schools catch-up premium funding.

8. Information: 2019 to 2020 Year End for grant funded providers with AEB and ALLB delivery

We are finalising options for an appropriate mechanism to close the 2019 to 20 funding year. We recognise 2019 to 2020 has been a challenging year and our primary concern remains the stability of providers going into 2020 to 2021, alongside ensuring the proper use of public funds through an approach that will be fair, open, and transparent.

9. Information: apprenticeship standards – versioning

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) has changed the way it identifies apprenticeship standard version numbers. The new versioning approach applies to new apprenticeship standards and is being back dated to existing apprenticeship standards.

All apprenticeship standards begin at version 1.0 when they are first approved for delivery. When there is a revision the number will change.

The Institute identifies two types of revision. This is based on how the revision is implemented by the ESFA (Education and Skills Funding Agency), not the size of the changes.

• active revision: the new version has a different LARS (Learning Aims Reference Service) code to the old version. The training provider actively chooses the version through the choice of LARS code when they enrol the apprentice

• passive revision: both the new and old versions have the same LARS code. The version is passively inferred from the start date of the apprenticeship.

The two numbers are defined as:

• the primary version number (the first one) denotes the number of active revisions for this standard. This only increases when that apprenticeship standard gets a new LARS code. For example, the version number may move from 1.4 to 2.0

• the secondary version number denotes the number of passive revisions since the last active revision (or since first publication). For example, the version number may move from 1.0 to 1.1.

If you have any queries please email: Enquiries.IFA@education.gov.uk.

10. Information: non-levy apprenticeships extension allocations review

When allocations were issued we committed to reviewing them using R09 data (April data submitted in May) to make sure they were set at the right level to fund all carry-in learners. We postponed this review as not all providers were able to submit full R09 data. This review will now take place at the same time as the performance-management review set out in the apprenticeship performance-management rules for training providers. We will use R01 data returns to review allocations.

As usual process, your allocation may be adjusted (decreased or increased) in-line with your delivery. We will only increase funding for carry-in learners and adjustments will be subject to affordability. We will not increase funding for new starts as you can route any new starts that will cause you to exceed your new starts allocation through the Apprenticeship Service.

If you have any queries, please contact us using our ESFA online form.

11. Information: Capacity and Delivery Fund data returns

We have published a recorded presentation outlining information to assist Capacity and Delivery Fund (CDF) providers when completing ILR and school census data returns. Providers should view this to support the completion of end year data for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

This information will support the monitoring requirements of funds allocated for the delivery of industry placements through CDF. Further information on monitoring requirements can be found on GOV.UK.

YouTube video

12. Information: new college good practice guide on audit committees

ESFA has published a good practice guide on the scope of work of audit committees and internal auditors in college corporations.

The aim of the guide is to provide college leaders with non-mandatory guidance on how they can implement audit committee arrangements that meet the requirements of the Post-16 audit code of practice and enable them to better discharge their responsibilities for effective stewardship and oversight of their organisation.

13. Information: service improvements to submit learner data

As part of the planned service improvements to submit learner data (SLD), we will soon be switching off DCFT (the Hub).

If you need to keep reports for audit purposes from the 2013 to 2014 funding year onwards, please download and save them to a safe location. The final reports for each academic year will be migrated to SLD and will remain accessible there.

If you have questions about this change, please use the online ESFA contact form.

14. Information: New high needs funding operational guidance

We have published the 2021 to 2022 high needs funding operational guide which sets out:

• changes to the high needs funding system in 2021 to 2022

• a summary of key dates and actions for local authorities and institutions

• information on funding arrangements for alternative provision.