Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 24 July 2024

Published 24 July 2024

Applies to England

Information: New update to ESFA adult skills fund and funding and performance management rules 2024 to 2025

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has published version 2 of the new adult skills fund (ASF) funding rules for 2024 to 2025. They replace the adult education budget funding rules 2023 to 2024.

When we published the ASF rules in June, we said we would release a further update in the summer to provide clarification and respond to sector feedback.   

We have: 

• added a new section for performance management 

• updated sections on residency, unemployed people, English and maths assessments, tailored learning and job outcome payments for grant providers 

• clarified parts in the free courses for jobs for 19 to 23 year olds 

For any queries or support, contact us using the customer help centre.

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Information: Teachers’ pension employer contribution grant allocations for centrally employed teachers

ESFA has now published the allocations that local authorities will receive for their centrally employed teachers (CETs) through the teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) 2024.   

This follows our announcement in March 2024 of an additional £1.1 billion for mainstream schools, high needs settings, and local authorities with CETs, to cover the increase to the employer contribution rate from 1 April 2024.  

TPECG 2024 will provide funding to local authorities for teachers categorised as centrally employed on the schools’ workforce census 2023. Local authorities will receive their payments in late October, alongside payments for mainstream schools and high needs.

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Information: Dedicated schools grant updated allocations for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025

ESFA has updated the 2023 to 2024 dedicated schools grant funding allocations to reflect the final early years block position.  

In previous updates we used January 2023 census data. In this latest update we used a combination of both January 2023 and January 2024 census data. 

We have also updated the 2024 to 2025 dedicated schools grant funding allocations to reflect in-year recoupment, high needs deductions and early years block update.

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Information: Adult skills fund – funding rates and formula guidance 2024 to 2025 (version 3)

ESFA has now published version 3 which: 

• incorporates amendments to the free courses for jobs section to align with the latest ASF funding rules 

• includes new annexes to help you understand how each element of funding is claimed and recorded under each of the funding models 

• reflects Ofqual’s title change to sector subject area 6 

If you have any queries after reading our guidance, contact us through the customer help portal, marking your query for the attention of the 19+ calculations group.

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Information: Updated dedicated schools grant deficit management plan template and accompanying guidance 2024 to 2025 for local authorities

ESFA has published version 8 of the dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficit management plan template, which is available on Document exchange, and updated the supporting guidance for local authorities alongside this.

We encourage local authorities to download this new version of the template.

We have removed SEN2 data for 2019, and SEN2 data for 2024 is now pre-populated.  

The template helps local authorities meet the requirements of the DSG: conditions of grant. It allows local authorities to: 

• forecast and monitor DSG spending and numbers of education, health and care (EHC) plans  

• form evidence-based plans for the provision of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) 

If you have any questions about the template or guidance, contact us using the customer help portal.

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Information: Early years supplementary grant updated allocations for 2023 to 2024

ESFA has updated the allocations for the early years supplementary grant (EYSG).   

In the EYSG methodology published in July 2023, we explained initial allocations would be paid based on the part-time equivalent (PTE) data from the January 2023 early years, schools and alternative provision censuses, followed by a final adjustment in summer 2024.   

This final adjustment reflects the actual numbers of children taking up the entitlements, using information taken from the January 2024 censuses (with the exception of the disability access fund (DAF)).   

Payments for these adjustments will be made in August 2024.