ESFA Update academies: 25 July 2018
Published 25 July 2018
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2018
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-25-july-2018/esfa-update-academies-25-july-2018
1. Reminder: academies budget forecast return 2018 update
The budget forecast return (BFR) 2018 submission deadline is 30 July.
Please ensure that you are able to access the online form. Please prepare your submission well in advance of the deadline and remember to save your form frequently to help avoid any potential loss of data.
If you have any question, please contact us using our online enquiry form.
2. Reminder: Trade union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017
The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 came into effect on 1 April 2017. This requires relevant public sector employers, including academy trusts, to report trade union activity for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 on their website and submit trade union facility time data to the Cabinet Office.
You do not need to submit data if there are no relevant costs. The deadline for submitting data is 31 July 2018, although the portal will remain open until the end of August 2018.
There is also a requirement to include this information in your trust’s audited financial statements for 2017 to 2018. The Academies Accounts Direction includes guidance on how to present this information.
3. Action: ISBL Professional Standards consultation
The Institute of School Business Leaders (ISBL) is consulting on its Professional Standards introduced in 2015.
You can contribute by completing the ISBL Professional Standard review 2018.
The consultation closes on 31 July 2018.
4. Information: 2018 to 2019 mainstream school funding formulae published
We have published a dataset showing local authorities’ funding formulae for allocating dedicated schools grant (DSG). This is for the allocation of DSG funding for 2018 to 2019 to mainstream schools and academies in local authority areas.
These formulae determine school budget share (SBS) funding for:
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mainstream maintained schools for the 2018 to 2019 financial year
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academies for the 2018 to 2019 financial year
We have also published a report providing further information and brief commentary.
5. Information: schools funding arrangements for 2019 to 2020
On 24 July 2018, the Minister of State for School Standards announced the schools funding arrangements for the 2019 to 2020 financial year.
The Department for Education (DfE) has published illustrative local authority and school level allocations for 2019 to 2020, based on the latest available pupil data.
DfE has also, as planned, updated elements of the national funding formula for 2019 to 2020. These are detailed in the published policy document.
We will publish technical notes on the methodology used for the national funding formula, the schools revenue funding operational guide, and issue the modelling version of the authority proforma tool (APT) for 2019 to 2020 shortly. We will let you know when these are available.
6. Information: workload reduction toolkit
The Department for Education has introduced a workload reduction toolkit with practical advice and tools for school leaders and teachers to help review and reduce workload.
The Department recognises that many schools will not be viewing the toolkit until the new term, but feedback from user research indicated that it was more important to have it publicly available as soon as possible. Further information will be available in September.