Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 27 March 2024

Published 27 March 2024

Applies to England

Action: Maximise the use of your National Tutoring Programme funding with holiday tuition

Schools can use the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to contribute to 50% of tutoring costs until 31 August 2024. This includes using your school’s grant to deliver tuition in the school holidays, to help pupils get a head start in preparing for the new academic year.

For more information:

• read the blog by Harvey Grammar School on the impact of tutoring in the summer
• watch our webinar for schools, with practical advice on delivering tutoring in the summer term and school holidays

webinar for schools 

• access the NTP guidance for schools for information on which pupils you should consider for tutoring

Information: COVID-19 recovery premium grant allocations 2023 to 2024 – March 2024 allocations

The recovery premium grant is part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by COVID-19.  Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) has now published the allocations for March 2024.

Information: Consistent financial reporting framework for 2024 to 2025 is now published

ESFA has published the consistent financial reporting framework (CFR) 2024 to 2025.

The CFR framework provides guidance for maintained schools and pupil referral units on reporting their income and expenditure for the 2024 to 2025 financial year.  If you have any questions about the guidance, please contact the customer help portal.

Information: 2024 to 2025 student financial support scheme guides published

ESFA student financial support scheme guides set out the funding rules for the different schemes. We review and update them annually and we have recently published the guides for the 2024 to 2025 academic year for:

• free meals in further education
• residential bursary fund 
• residential support scheme

Please review the updated guides and remind yourself of the funding rules which apply to each scheme to ensure you understand them, and that your processes and documentation comply with them, including audit requirements.

We aim to publish the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund and Care to Learn guides later in spring.

Information: Changes to the national non-domestic rates payment process for local authority-maintained schools

We have published the national non-domestic rates (NNDR): guidance for billing authorities, confirming your billing authority’s NNDR payment process from April 2024.

If your billing authority is implementing the central NNDR payment process, you:

• should not pay your business rates bill to the billing authority – ESFA will do this on your behalf 
• will continue to receive a rates bill from the billing authority; this is for information only 
• will not receive NNDR funding as you did previously 

If your billing authority is remaining on the old NNDR arrangements, you: 

• should pay your business rates bill directly to the billing authority as previous year’s arrangements, or as instructed on your rates bill for April 2024 to March 2025 
• must contact the billing authority directly for any adjustment queries related to your rates bill 
• will continue to be funded for NNDR as per current arrangements  

For NNDR enquiries, please contact us via the customer help centre.

Information: Update to dedicated schools grant allocations for 2024 to 2025

ESFA has updated the 2024 to 2025 dedicated schools grant (DSG) funding allocations to reflect recoupment and high needs deductions for academies as of 1 March 2024.

ESFA has also updated the early years block of the DSG to reflect the increase in the number of funded weeks for both the under 2’s entitlement and the under 2’s early years pupil premium to fund up to 26 weeks of provision in 2024 to 2025 across the 2024 autumn and 2025 spring terms.  

Note: the adjustment to reflect funding for 26 weeks has been applied to the estimate part-time equivalent (PTE) numbers.

Information: Delay in publishing initial pupil premium allocations for 2024 to 2025 financial year

The Department for Education (DfE) has been made aware of a problem with its identification of reception aged pupils who qualify for pupil premium. This means it needs more time to ensure that the 2024 to 2025 pupil premium allocations are accurate and we will now publish the initial allocations, the week commencing Monday 6 May. 

Please be reassured that this will not impact the timeline for payments in June 2024. We hope that this does not cause any disruption to your planning for the academic year.

The final allocations for 2023 to 2024 financial year will be published by the end of March 2024 as planned.

Please contact the customer help centre if you have any questions.

Information: Tailored Learning aims for 2024 to 2025 published

On Tuesday 12 March, ESFA published the new learning aims for non-regulated Tailored Learning for the academic year 2024 to 2025.

The new learning aims cover the existing Community Learning aims. We have added levels to some aims to support evidencing of progression, including sub-levels for some entry level essential skills aims. These aims also replace the existing non-regulated formula funded learning aims which will no longer be in use. 

We have also introduced a set of aims for employer-facing provision that are based on Sector Subject Areas. The new aims can be found by using the new non-regulated Tailored Learning category code (75) on the Find a Learning Aim service.

Information: Employment law workshop for Risk Protection Arrangement members

Willis Towers Watson is providing risk management support for all Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) members through audit, guidance and advice. As part of the risk management support, RPA members are invited to a workshop covering employment law. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Book your place now:

• 10am to midday, Thursday 18 April 2024
• 10am to midday, Wednesday 24 April 2024

Cyber security for schools is one of the benefits of the RPA. Check out our blog post for a quick reminder of the 4 conditions to ensure you are fully covered. You’ll hear from 3 RPA members who were glad of this cover when a cyber incident happened in their school.

Information: Funding guidance for young people 2024 to 2025

ESFA has published 2 documents from the Funding guidance for young people 2024 to 2025:

• funding rates and formula
• funding regulations

We will publish the individualised learner record (ILR) funding returns guidance later in spring.

Information: Capital funding to improve the condition of schools 2024 to 2025

On Tuesday 26 March, DfE announced £1.8 billion for the financial year 2024 to 2025 to improve the condition of the school estate. This means the department will have invested over £17 billion since 2015 to support responsible bodies to keep their estates safe and operational.

The £1.8 billion includes almost £1.2 billion in School Condition Allocations (SCA) including for local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary-aided school bodies not eligible for the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), to invest in improving the condition of their schools.

The department has published the provisional SCA amounts for financial year 2024 to 2025 for eligible bodies responsible for schools. We have also published provisional Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) amounts for individual schools to spend on local capital priorities. Allocation amounts, the condition funding methodology and spend guidance are all available in School capital funding.

Final SCA and DFC allocations will be published later in the spring, based on information about schools and their responsible bodies at the start of April 2024, and may differ from provisional allocations in some cases.