Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 31 October 2018

Published 31 October 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 21 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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: ESFA Information Exchange access information

We have changed the access to the Information Exchange system. From now on you will need to access the Information Exchange system through DfE Sign-In instead of through Secure Access (SA). You will need to follow this process to set up your new account:

1. Visit the SA homepage, which will re-route you to the DfE Sign-in homepage.
2. Enter your SA username and password.
3. Once your details have confirmed your identity, you will begin an on-boarding journey to create a DfE Sign-in account.
4. Confirm personal details.
5. Enter email address (your new username).
6. Verify email address (you’ll receive an email, containing a link)
7. Create a new password for DfE Sign-In.
8. At the end of this process, you must re-enter your new username (email address) and password one final time.

For further information and support, please contact the DfE Sign-in service desk.

2. Action: ESFA Information Exchange folders

We will permanently remove folders for the academic years 2015 to 2016 and 2016 to 2017 from Information Exchange from Friday 9 November 2018.

Before this date, please check in the Document Exchange part of the system, that if there is information shown in these academic year folders, you have downloaded and saved a copy.

3. Reminder: autumn school census deadline

The deadline is for approved submissions for the autumn school census 2018 is today, Wednesday 31 October 2018. The database will close to amendments from schools and local authorities on Wednesday 28 November 2018.

We would like to remind all schools with a return status in COLLECT of ‘loaded and validated’ or ‘amended by source’ that, until your return has been ‘submitted’ in COLLECT, it will be deemed outstanding and will not be processed further by DfE.

When you have completed any validation or editing of your return, and the status has changed to ‘loaded and validated’ or ‘amended by source’, you must press the ‘submit’ button in COLLECT to confirm you are content for your return to be processed by DfE.

4. Information: updated high needs benchmarking tool for local authorities

The updated high needs benchmarking tool includes the latest data for 2018 to 2019, including the:

• provisional 2019 to 2020 high needs national funding formula allocations
• 2018 to 2019 section 251 (s251) budget data
• latest special education needs data

We aim to develop the tool further in response to feedback. More information about the local authority high needs review and planning role is available in the latest high needs funding operational guide.

5. Information: Analyse school performance update

Key stage 2 (KS2) provisional data for 2018 is now available in Analyse school performance (ASP). This includes disadvantage data, 3 year average and 3 year time series data.

New data management functionality allows users to create a custom view by removing one or more pupils from their phonics, KS1, KS2, or KS4 data to consider ‘what if’ scenarios.

Data management is available for the most recent year’s data held in ASP and will be updated when new data becomes available. There is also an improved functionality to export most files to PDF or Excel.

Over the coming weeks, provisional 2018 phonics, KS1 and KS4 data will also be available.

Access to ASP previously through the Secure Access portal, has been replaced by DfE Sign-in. All users were sent details of how to migrate to the new service. Please ensure your log in credentials are kept confidential.