Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 26 September 2018

Published 26 September 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 21 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Find the latest information from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the latest ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Action: 2018 to 2019 advanced learner loans performance management point 1

The growth and new facility request forms for advanced learner loans are now available on GOV.UK.

You must send completed request forms to AllFacility.REQUESTS@education.gov.uk before 5pm on Friday 28 September 2018.

Providers must submit a growth request to be considered for an increase.

For further information, please refer to the advanced learner loans funding and performance management rules 2018 to 2019.

2. Action: advanced learning loan provision North East

We have launched an authorisation exercise to address a gap in the delivery of high-level interpretation skills the North East area. The total loans facility available is £250,000 and will be from 1 January to 31 July 2019.

You can find more details on Bravo. The exercise closes on 12 October 2018.

3. Information: financial assurance - funding rules monitoring reports

We are decommissioning the funding rules monitoring dashboard reports on Birst (My BI) on Monday, 1 October. We have published the R12 funding monitoring reports in the new location and format on the Hub and will publish the R13 reports at the end of this week.

We have also published the updated funding rules monitoring report user guide for the funding year 2017 to 2018 to explain how to use these new reports.

For further information, please contact the funding rules monitoring team through the service desk.

4. Information: AEB R14 Individualised Learner Record (ILR) return

Devolution of the adult education budget (AEB) from 2019 to 2020 means we are using funding and learner residency data from 2017 to 2018 to set devolved/non-devolved budgets and ESFA allocations for non-devolved delivery. We will use your 2017 to 2018 AEB data (ILR R14) in these calculations so it is important that you provide a full and accurate return. Your ‘learner postcode prior to enrolment’ data in your R14 return is key to residency funding calculations being accurate.

The published narrated presentation on the residency calculations enables providers to see how we are analysing their 2017 to 2018 data.

5. Information: high needs funding operational guide for 2019 to 2020

We have published the high needs operational guidance setting out arrangements for high needs funding in 2019 to 2020.

The guidance includes changes to the high needs funding system in 2019 to 2020, a summary of key dates and actions for local authorities and institutions, and information on funding arrangements for alternative provision.

6. Information: new further education group territorial teams

As part of the ESFA’s plans to continue to improve our customer-facing services from Monday 1 October, there will be 4 further education group territorial teams, headed by Peter Mucklow.

The territorial teams will combine the work of the former provider management and intervention teams, headed by a Deputy Director - Karen Sherry (North), Karen Riley (Midlands and East), David Jeffrey (London and South East), Paul Lucken (South West and South). Karen Sherry will continue to be responsible for managing provider performance and compliance on European Social Fund (ESF) nationally.

The teams will be responsible for the oversight of the FE provider base to promote high quality sustainable provision in each territory.

Our enquiry services will continue to operate on a national basis, but we will assign all providers a territorial caseload manager, and your manager will contact you over the coming weeks to confirm this.

7. Information: feedback on claiming funding as an apprenticeship training provider

We are conducting research on how training providers claim funding from ESFA for apprenticeship training.

Your feedback will help us discover ways of improving the services we provide.

We would like to hear about your experiences, challenges, and needs, particularly from the stage of enrolling apprentices through to the stage of receiving payment from ESFA. The survey should take approximately 5 minutes to complete.

8. Information: 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations customer engagement survey

Thank you to all those who have participated in our survey about the service we provide and the products we publish to support the 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations. Your input has been very valuable.

You still have an opportunity to provide your input. It will take less than 10 minutes of your time to complete and we appreciate all responses.

The survey will close on Friday 5 October.

9. Information: AELP Autumn Conference 2018, sponsored by City & Guilds

Hear from our Director of Apprenticeships, Keith Smith at this year’s AELP Autumn Conference.

Keith will be speaking about the current challenges and the non-levy transition, this will be followed by a Q&A session.

The year’s conference will be held on Tuesday 30 October 2018 at The Principal, Manchester. To register and for more details please visit the conference registration site.

10. Information: employers invited to feedback

We are introducing a new feature on the apprenticeship service - “what employers are saying”. We will be inviting employers who have registered apprentices on the apprenticeship service to feedback on specific aspects of their apprenticeship programmes.

The first beta version of the feature will ask for feedback on their training providers. We will publish the feedback on find apprenticeship training to help employers choose their training provider.

For more information read the ESFA Digital Blog.