ESFA Update academies: 30 June 2021
Published 30 June 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
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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. Reminder: suitability checks for academy trust chairs of trustees
Academy trust chairs of trustees must complete a suitability check as soon as they are appointed. This is in addition to any checks arranged locally by the academy trust.
ESFA conducts suitability checks to support the safeguarding requirements set out in legislation.
If your trust has recently appointed a new chair of trustees who has not yet applied for a suitability check, they should do this without delay.
If an existing chair of trustees’ term of office has recently been extended, and they did not receive a check when originally appointed, please ensure they apply for a suitability check now.
3. Information: publication of pupil premium allocations for 2021 to 2022
On 24 June we published the pupil premium allocations for 2021 to 2022.
You can read more about pupil premium funding including an impact analysis of the move from January to October census for calculating allocations.
4. Information: Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) funding allocations
We have published the final UIFSM allocations for the academic year 2020 to 2021 and provisional allocations for 2021 to 2022.
We have also published conditions of grant for the academic year 2021 to 2022.
Due to school opening restrictions in place this year, we asked schools to report in the school census the number of meals taken as would be the case on a typical day. As there were inconsistencies in this data, we were unable to use it for funding purposes.
The methodology for calculating the UIFSM funding allocations has therefore been updated for the final allocations for 2020 to 2021. The calculation uses the total number of UIFSM eligible pupils from the current academic year and applies the school level take-up rate from the January 2020 census, the last reliable pre-COVID-19 data available.
Using this data is the fairest and most consistent way to calculate the allocations and has resulted in a higher total allocation when compared to using the January 2021 census data.
The provisional allocations for 2021 to 2022 are the same as the final allocations for 2020 to 2021.
Please be aware that July 2021 UIFSM payment (final payment for 2020 to 2021 plus first payment for 2021 to 2022) will be paid to academies on 8 July this year rather than on the 1st of the month, as in previous years.