ESFA Update academies: 25 October 2023
Published 25 October 2023
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2023
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1. Information: national professional qualifications (NPQs) targeted support fund 2022 to 2023 allocations
We’ve published the revised national professional qualification (NPQ) targeted support funding 2022 to 2023 grant allocations on 25 October, for participants who started in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.
If you think your school or organisation meets the eligibility criteria but has not yet already received a payment or due to receive a sweep up payment as indicated on the published grant allocations, please contact your training provider to check confirmation of training engagement has been submitted to the Department for Education.
Please note, any further eligible payments for the 2022 to 2023 grant funding period will be paid in the 2024 payment.
If you do not have a training provider or have any queries, please contact continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk .
You can read further information on targeted support funding and more information on NPQs currently available can be viewed in our course prospectus.
2. Information: exceptional in-year growth for 2023 to 2024 for 16 to 19 education
Each year (subject to affordability) we award in-year growth funding to those grant-funded institutions which have recruited significantly more students than allocations were based on. For academic year 2023 to 2024 only, we are publishing the rules for calculating in-year growth awards early. This does not guarantee that we will do the same for the 2024 to 2025 academic year.
By publishing this early, it provides a guarantee that growth will be funded, giving certainty to providers to aid with their financial planning. There are some important changes this year to the methodology from the one used in 2022 to 2023, we have:
- reintroduced the adjustment for under-delivery in the previous year. We removed this last year as a response to COVID
- reduced the threshold for the free meals in FE growth awards
We have now published the details of the calculation for awarding exceptional in-year growth for 2023 to 2024. We will be informing institutions eligible for growth by mid-February 2024 and revised funding allocations will be available through Document Exchange. Eligible growth will be paid from spring 2024.
3. Information: teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG) 2023 to 2024 school level allocations October 2023
We have now published the allocations that mainstream schools will receive for the teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG).
This follows our announcement in July 2023 of £482.5 million for mainstream schools through the TPAG in 2023 to 2024. We are allocating this funding to support schools to meet the costs of the 2023 to 2024 teachers pay award.
In February 2024, the first payment allocations for “new and growing” schools (that is, schools that have opened in the past 7 years and are still adding year groups in the 2023 to 2024 academic year) will be published. These allocations will also include the first TPAG payment for schools that have opened since September 2023.
Local authorities will receive their mainstream school payments in late October, whilst academies will receive theirs in early November.
4. Information: school staff instructor (SSI) funding grant, conditions of grant and allocations for 2023 to 2024
We have now published the allocations for the school staff instructor (SSI) funding grant for 2023 to 2024.
We have also published the conditions of grant, setting out the terms and conditions academies, maintained schools, FE institutions and local authorities must follow.
5. Information: mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) school level allocations: September 2023 to March 2024
We have published the allocations for the second payment of the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) for 2023 to 2024.
This follows the 2022 Autumn Statement announcement that the core school budget will increase by £2 billion for the 2023 to 2024 financial year (and the following financial year), over and above the totals announced in the 2021 Spending Review. The MSAG allocates mainstream schools’ portion of this funding increase.
First payments of the MSAG were made to schools (both academies, and via their respective local authority for maintained schools) in spring 2023. The second payment of the MSAG will be in October 2023 for local authorities, and November 2023 for academies, to cover September 2023 to March 2024.
In March 2024, the second payment allocations for ‘new and growing’ schools (that is, schools that have opened in the past 7 years and are still adding year groups in the 2023 to 2024 academic year) will be published. These allocations will also include the first MSAG payment for schools that have opened since September 2023.
As academies’ funding follows an academic year rather than a financial year, an additional payment will be made to academies to cover April to August 2024. This will be allocated using the same rates and pupil numbers as the 2023 to 2024 grant and will represent five-twelfths of their 2023 to 2024 allocations.
The MSAG funding will then be rolled into core funding allocations from the 2024 to 2025 funding year onwards.
6. Information: just launched – a brand new series of Schools Resource Management (SRM) webinars
We have now launched our new series of free-to-attend School Resource Management (SRM) training webinars.
Delivered by Entrust on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE), this is our fifth series of SRM webinars. With our previous webinar series having received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees, we are back again this year with fresh content designed just for you.
The webinars are open to school business professionals, headteachers, senior leadership teams, curriculum leads, governors and trustees, estates staff, HR and IT staff at both maintained schools, academy trusts and local authorities.
They will cover a range of areas within SRM, all designed to help you plan and use your resources more effectively. You will be shown how to achieve your core strategies by creating a holistic and proactive approach to strategic planning including financial, workforce, digital and estates, helping you direct your resources in a way that most impacts pupils in your school or academy trust.
This year’s webinar series includes modules on:
- Integrated curriculum financial planning (ICFP) practical examples
- Funding and financial management
- Strategic financial planning
- Procurement: compliance and maximising value
- Strategic estate management
- Strategic workforce planning
- Staff wellbeing and engagement
- Getting the right technology in place
The webinars are delivered live so you can interact and ask questions throughout.
You can choose which modules you would like to register for, however we recommend you join all webinars, so that you can gain a full understanding of SRM and how to successfully implement it in your school or trust.
Don’t miss out on this new content. Sign up now!
7. Information: register for a National Tutoring Programme webinar
Schools have now received their first instalment of this year’s National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funding. Payments to maintained schools were made via local authorities in September, and payments to academies and non-maintained special schools were made in October.
After half term, DfE is hosting webinars on this year’s tutoring arrangements and how to make the most of your funding.
Please register using the links below - the content will be the same on both days:
8. Information: York and Stratford-upon-Avon school business professional (SBP) roundtables – spaces available
Are you responsible for buying for your school or trust? There are spaces available at our York and Stratford-upon-Avon roundtable events.
If you are based nearby and would like to join colleagues from across your region to network, share your procurement issues and priorities, and find out more about the free procurement support available from the DfE, book your place now:
9. Your feedback: user research opportunity on general annual grant (GAG) digital statements
Digital GAG allocation statements are in development and user feedback is invited to help shape the digital service.
During the session you will be able to explore the prototype and feedback directly to service designers.
Meetings will take place online using Microsoft Teams and will last up to 60 minutes.
To register interest in taking part, please fill out this form.