Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 25 September 2019

Published 25 September 2019

This correspondence was withdrawn on 21 December 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Find the latest information from ESFA in the latest ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Information: land and buildings collection tool series (part 3 of 3)

This is the final of our three-part series on the land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) return. The online form for LBCT return will go live next week on Tuesday 1 October 2019. The deadline for submitting the LBCT return is Monday 4 November 2019. Please note if you have any church-owned land, your diocesan representative must have completed their review by this deadline as well.

This week we offer our 5 top tips for this year’s LBCT return. These are:

1. The “trust link” must be completed by all trusts.
2. Remember to double check the documents uploaded as they may need updating (see last week’s ESFA Update for more information on document upload).
3. The land for your school site must be entered as an “asset”.
4. Don’t forget to add your playing fields – including playing fields at a different location to your main site or provided by another organisation (e.g., your local authority).
5. If you have church owned land, contact your local diocese early to find out who will review your LBCT return.

This week we will be hosting 2 Skype calls:

• Thursday 26 September 10am to 10:30am is aimed at new academy trusts.

• Friday 27 September 10am to 10:30am is for all other users.

Please see the LBCT GOV.UK page for joining details.

In case you missed it, last week’s ESFA Update covered documentation to upload and suggested data adjustments.

2. Information: support for financial planning

The Department for Education has launched a suite of resources to support schools implementing integrated curriculum and financial planning (ICFP).

This has summaries of the common features of ICFP for trust leaders, governors and business managers. It also includes examples of best practice and free-to-download practical resources.

We have also updated the financial advice for schools service, which now includes providers who can provide face-to-face consultancy support and access to ICFP tools.

3. Information: buying for schools service

We’ve made it easier for you to find the right deal for your school with the buying for schools service. A new find a DfE-approved framework will help you to find the right deal for your school quickly and easily. It has advice and guidance on buying all together, making it easier to find what you need.

Buying for schools includes a new education technology deal as part of the suite of recommended deals.

Designed specifically for the education sector, the education technology deal offers a whole spectrum of IT requirements from small orders for hardware to broadband services, audio visual and IT solutions.

4. Information: schools causing concern guidance

The Department for Education has updated the schools causing concern guidance, which sets out how regional schools commissioners and local authorities may use their powers of intervention in schools and academies.

The update does not introduce any new policy that has not been publicly announced. It is to make the information easier to use and understand and to best reflect current policy. We have:

• brought the guidance in line with the most recent department policies including removing references to coasting and floor standards.
• added information about how the school support offer will work in 2019 to 2020.
• changed the guidance structure to avoid confusion between the academy and maintained school intervention frameworks and added a chapter called “academies causing concern”.
• included a new chapter on pupil referral unit intervention that was previously contained in a separate document.
• added a subsection to explain terminology.

5. Information: Updated pupil premium allocations for 2019 to 2020

We have updated the published pupil premium allocations for 2019 to 2020, to reflect quarter 2 payments.

6. Reminder: Autumn school census is approaching

The autumn school census 2019 opens on Thursday 3 October. You need to submit your information by Wednesday 30 October. These user reports explain how to use COLLECT.

A ‘beta’ release of the 2019 autumn school census live COLLECT blade is available. You should take this opportunity to load a file output from your management information system (MIS) into COLLECT before Friday 27 September at 4pm.

This will allow you to check all the required data has inputted correctly from the file output from your MIS into the autumn census return. Also allows you to check whether any validation errors or queries are generated against your data when loaded into COLLECT. These will need to be resolved before the collection goes live. For schools seeing COLLECT for the first time it will allow you to become familiar with the COLLECT database.

Our interactive post-16 census tool helps you return accurate 16 to 19 data. We will publish our usual suite of 16 to 19 funding reports in COLLECT along with user guides by the end of September.

DfE have recently been working to improve the school census guide following feedback from schools and local authorities. Following a full review, the 2019 to 2020 census guide has been replaced with a web based manual.

7. Reminder: Sustainability Award- entries close Friday 27 September

Last chance to put yourself forward for the Department for Education’s Sustainability Award, sponsored by Engie. Entries close on Friday 27 September.

This award is to be given to the school that demonstrates an innovative and impactful sustainability programme. The department wants to identify and share best practice across the education community. There will be a £2,500 reward for the winning school.

In order to be considered for this award, please include examples of policies that have been set up, the positive (or negative and how this was resolved) outcomes and how you have engaged the pupils and community to take these beyond the school day.

You can submit your entry here.