Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 28 April 2021

Published 28 April 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Read the latest editions of ESFA Update for the latest news and information.

Applies to England

1. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Action: coronavirus (COVID-19) summer schools programme funding

As part of the wider recovery package to support children in catching up on missed face-to-face learning and development, and providing an opportunity to support their mental health and wellbeing, we are providing £200m to enable as many secondary schools as possible to deliver face-to-face summer schools this year.

Schools are free to identify the pupils who would most benefit from summer school. We recommend a focus on incoming year 7 pupils, giving those pupils an opportunity to build a community with their new classmates and teachers and familiarise themselves with their new school environment.

Funding is calculated based on 50% of a school’s year 7 cohort being offered a place on a two-week programme, or 100% of the cohort being offered a week-long programme and equates to £597 per two-week place (£1791 for pupils in special schools or units and alternative provision).

You can view each school’s funding allocation.

Eligible secondary schools should access the sign-up form to register their intent to run a summer school by 23:59 on 7 May 2021.

We will ask schools to confirm their plans in June. In September, schools will be asked to confirm that the summer school has taken place and provide information on the pupils who took part. Funding will then be provided. 

Further information is available in our summer schools guidance and any questions should be directed to learning.recovery@education.gov.uk.

3. Information: academies budget forecast return

We have published the budget forecast return Excel workbook to help academy trusts prepare their return for this year.

The workbook mirrors the online return questions and validations. It includes the combined BFRO and BFR3Y form as well as the reinstated 3-year forecasts.

4. Reminder: a new Document exchange service is now live

ESFA Information Exchange will no longer be accessible after Friday 30 April. 

A new Document exchange service is now live. 

We’ve automatically given ESFA Information Exchange users access to the new service. 

We’ve also uploaded any 2021 to 2022 academic year documents to it. 

We’re reviewing whether it would be helpful to our users to transfer more historical documents to the new Document exchange service.

ESFA Information Exchange users should now: 

• access the new Document exchange service using their existing DfE Sign-in credentials 
• follow the steps on the DfE Sign-in help page in the unlikely event of any access issues 
• read the guidance for information about how to use it
• use the new service to view, manage and submit documents, rather than ESFA Information Exchange 
• view, download and save any older documents they wish to keep from ESFA Information Exchange before 23:59 on Friday 30 April 2021 

Any documents not downloaded and saved before 23:59 on Friday 30 April 2021 will no longer be accessible from ESFA Information Exchange. 

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, access our help page.

If you have any other questions, please contact us. 

5. Reminder: the coronavirus (COVID-19) free school meals additional costs online form for schools and colleges is live

The coronavirus (COVID-19) free school meals additional costs online form went live on 7 April 2021.

You can claim eligible costs related to free school meals and free meal additional costs during the period 4 January up to the start of the Easter holidays (as applicable).

The deadline to submit your claim is 23:59 on 4 May 2021.

We have published guidance to help you complete the form.

6. Information: publication of the teachers’ pay grant (TPG) and teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) allocations and conditions of grant

Maintained schools and academies with post 16 pupils and early years settings currently receive allocations for teachers’ pay grant (TPG) and teachers’ pension employer contribution grant (TPECG) from ESFA. We are continuing to provide these grants to these schools as separate grants outside of the national funding formula (NFF) in 2021 to 2022. We have now published the allocations for the TPG and TPECG grants for the April to August 2021 period.

TPG and TPECG funding linked to pupils in the year groups reception to year 11 will be included within the NFF allocations from April 2021 for maintained schools and from September 2021 for academies.

We’ve published the TPG allocations and TPECG allocations for April to August 2021 for those institutions receiving these as separate grants. We’ve also published guides to the data sources used in the allocations for each of these grants.

Academies will also receive separate TPG and TPECG grants for the period April 2021 to August 2021. These allocations have also been published.

The per pupil rates which are used in the allocations are unchanged from 2020 to 2021 they can be found along with other guidance at the links below:

• Teachers’ pay grant methodology
• Teachers’ pension employer grant

We’ve also published a data sources document for TPG and for TPECG alongside the allocations.

7. Information: clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) staff returning to the workplace

We know that after a period of shielding, the transition back to the workplace may leave some staff feeling anxious.

Shielding advice was paused nationally from 31 March. Further information and ongoing advice for those that are clinically extremely vulnerable is available on GOV.UK.

Clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) staff in education and childcare settings are advised that if it’s possible for them to fulfil their role from home, they should continue to work remotely. If they cannot work from home, they should return to the workplace.

Where staff are feeling anxious, we would encourage leaders to discuss any individual concerns and to reassure staff of the system of controls in place. The system of controls in place in education and childcare settings when implemented in line with the setting’s risk assessment, create an inherently safer environment where the risk of transmission is substantially reduced. Further sector specific guidance is available on GOV.UK.

If you have members of staff who are feeling anxious about this change, there are a number of resources available to support their mental health and wellbeing, including:

• Mentally Healthy Schools
• Headspace for Educators
• a free 24-hour helpline offered by Education Support