Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 4 July 2018

Published 4 July 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 20 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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: school capacity survey guidance

We have now published the guidance for the school capacity survey. The deadline for local authorities to complete the survey is Friday, 27 July.

We ask that academies co-operate with local authorities in providing their capacity information. Academies, free schools and University Technical Colleges (UTCs) need to provide or confirm their total capacity and capacity by year group figures to their local authority.

Capacity by year group is often the same as the Published Admission Number (PAN) for each year group. This is the number of places to which you planned to admit pupils when that year’s cohort joined the school.

The guidance above may assist academies in determining the figures they should report.

2. Information: academies risk protection arrangement (RPA) enhancements from September 2018

From September 2018, DfE has added to the existing RPA cover:

• overseas travel – including winter sports
• cultural assets – including a free valuation service

These enhancements will be included with no extra general annual grant (GAG) deduction. GAG deductions are currently £20 per pupil per year (per place for special or alternative provision academies).

All academies, free schools, studio schools and university technical colleges (UTCs) can opt into the risk protection arrangement (RPA) as an alternative to commercial insurance.

For further information, please contact the RPA team.

3. Action: DfE schools business professional contact list

The Department for Education (DfE) is looking to improve how we communicate directly with school business professionals.

If you would like to receive occasional updates from DfE on topics and products about school resource management, please sign up to our schools business professional contact list.

4. Information: 16 to 19 bursary fund

We have published an update to the institution guide for the 16 to 19 bursary fund for 2018 to 2019. The update includes:

• advice about how institutions may wish to use Universal Credit award notices where students/families provide these as evidence of household income as part of applications for the discretionary bursary

• a link to the key to success website which can be a useful way of identifying students who may potentially need help from the bursary fund but who may not ask for it

• a reminder for institutions that making flat rate bursary fund payment does not address individual need, as the bursary is designed to do - information about discretionary bursaries has been expanded to set this out more clearly

5. Information: 16 to 19 advanced maths premium

We have updated our advanced maths premium factsheet to show:

• how we will calculate baselines for new providers
• the funding rate for funding qualifications of 235 guided learning hours or above, completed within one year
• the qualifying period for students covered by the premium

We will contact institutions between 6 and 13 July to confirm their baseline data.

6. Information: section 96 and qualification queries - change of responsibility

We have updated the section 96 webpages on GOV.UK. As well as all the content from before, we have added an online search function, so you do not have to download the full qualification lists. The downloads will still be available.

Awarding organisations should send any queries to qualifications.ESFA@education.gov.uk. Institutions should send any queries to SDE.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.

7. Information: provide information about your banking and payments to DfE

We have published a new digital bank details capture form replacing a series of separate excel forms.

The new digital form replaces the:

• EFA and SFA suppliers’ bank details form (BAN1 forms)
• academy bank details form – for new and open academies
• DfE suppliers’ bank details form
  • change of bank account details
  • change of address or other information

The digital form is for use by:

• suppliers of goods and services
• providers of education and training, e.g. academies, colleges and training organisations

The form allows these organisations to securely register and amend the banking and payment information held by DfE. The security controls operated to verify changes and protect public monies remain unchanged.

8. Information: ESFA customer commitment

Many thanks to everyone who helped with the development of our customer commitment. We have now published our customer commitment statement on GOV.UK.

The commitment will help us to continuously improve our services. It shows you, our customers, how you can expect to see us work. It also helps us to increase our understanding of your needs and challenges, keeping our work customer focused.

9. Action: managing your school estate - have your say in what support you would like to receive

ESFA recently published guidance called good estate management for schools. This guidance is for anyone involved in managing or overseeing the school estate. We are now looking to build on this by offering more focused support on how to manage the estate.

To do this we want to hear from you about the challenges you face, what you would find beneficial, what would work and what would not. We are looking to hear from anyone who is responsible for the school estate, so please complete this short survey to help us deliver more support for the sector.

10. Information: information exchange and the skills funding service – opportunity to inform developments

Thank you to all of you who have already signed-up to join our feedback community. We want to talk to a broad mix of customers in different roles and organisation types. Your input helps us make user centred improvements and prioritise future developments.

Can you give us 45 minutes of your time to join us for a research session? We can do this over the phone, via web meeting, visit you at your place of work, or you can come to us at our Coventry location.

To sign up to share your views and experience, please complete our form. We will only invite you to research that is relevant to you:

• I would like to be invited to feedback on the skills funding service
• I would like to be invited to feedback on the Information Exchange

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at pds.mailbox@education.gov.uk.