Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 29 July 2020

Published 29 July 2020

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This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-29-july-2020/esfa-update-local-authorities-29-july-2020

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. Information: high value courses for school and college leavers: a one year offer for 18 and 19-year-olds

On 8 July the Chancellor announced exceptional funding as part of the wider COVID-19 skills recovery response to support 18 and 19-year-olds. The additional funding will be available for one year to encourage and support delivery of selected level 2 and 3 qualifications in specific subjects and sectors in response to coronavirus (COVID-19).

We have published guidance about what the funding is and how it can be used to support 18 and 19 year olds.

We have also updated the following guidance and documents to include this additional funding:

3. Information: 16 to 19 tuition fund

Last week we confirmed details of the 16 to 19 tuition fund for 2020 to 2021.

The 16 to 19 tuition fund is £96 million one-off funding for the 2020 to 2021 academic year only. The funding is ring-fenced and provided to support small group tuition for 16 to 19 students in English, maths, and other courses where learning has been disrupted as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19).

We have published full details of who is eligible for this funding and how it will work during 2020 to 2021 on GOV.UK.

4. Information: version 2, ESFA adult education budget (AEB) funding and performance management rules 2020 to 2021

We have published version 2 of the ESFA AEB funding and performance management rules 2020 to 2021. This version includes more information and updates on the COVID-19 Skills Recovery Package.

Main changes for version 2 are:

  • sector-based work academies
  • high value courses for college and school leavers: one year skills offer for 18-19 year olds
  • performance management section updates to cover the COVID-19 skills recovery package

We have published a full summary of all the changes on page 84 of the document.

Please be aware that the following sections will be updated in version 3 early August and these include:

  • traineeships
  • sub-contracting response

The rules apply to all providers of education and training who receive AEB funding from the ESFA. If you have any queries, please use our online enquiry form.

5. Information: individualised learner record (ILR) funding returns guidance for 2020 to 2021

We have published the ILR funding returns guidance for 2020 to 2021. This guidance includes detail in paragraph 48 and a new Annex E on data checks that can help reduce funding audit errors.

In order to help reduce the risk of “funding audit or eligibility data errors” in ILR data before it is either loaded on the ILR hub or presented to a funding auditor it would be helpful if institutions undertake some checks in accordance with the newly published advice in Annex E. We hope this advice helps reduce the levels of 16 to 19 funding audit data mistakes that result in more work for both us and our funded institutions.

The ILR funding returns guidance completes the funding guidance for young people series of booklets for 2020 to 2021.

6. Information: qualification achievement rates (QARs) for 2019 to 2020

We previously confirmed that we will not publish any institution-level QARs in the national achievement rate tables for the 2019 to 2020 academic year in response to COVID-19.

We also announced that data will not be used by others, such as Ofsted, local authorities or devolved authorities or within ESFA and DFE, to hold institutions to account. Therefore, we will not supply 2019 to 2020 QARs for institutions to use internally themselves.

We are currently reviewing what data we will publish for statistical purposes in 2021 for the 2019 to 2020 QARs but, it will not contain any data at institution level.

You are still able to check your data is accurate. The Inform May 2019 article explains which funding monitoring reports impact on QARs and some of the common data issues we encounter.

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