Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 6 July 2022

Published 6 July 2022

This correspondence was withdrawn on 27 December 2023

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Action: academies national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claim form is live for historical claims for unclaimed years

The academies NNDR claim form for unclaimed years is now live. You can submit claims for years 2017 to 2018 up to 2021 to 2022.

The deadline to submit your claim is 11.59pm on 31 January 2023.

ESFA will not, under any circumstances, accept claims for previously unclaimed years after this date.
You can access the academy NNDR guidance and form.

All academies and trusts can continue to submit changes to previously paid claims on the existing service for claims from April 2017. Claims must be submitted by 31 January 2023.

Academies that remain under the current NNDR arrangements because their billing authority has decided to not implement the new payment process for April 2022 must submit new claims for 2022 to 2023 by 31 January 2023.
We will contact you before March 2023 to confirm your NNDR payment process for April 2023 onwards.

2. Action: consultation on proposed early years funding formulae and maintained nursery school supplementary funding

We have launched a government consultation seeking views on proposed updates to the early years funding formulae and maintained nursery school supplementary funding.

We are proposing to update and adjust the national funding formulae for the early education entitlements for children aged 2, 3 and 4. These formulae are no longer using the most recent data available. Using up-to-date data will help to ensure the funding system remains fair, effective, and responsive to changing levels of need.
We are also investing an additional £10 million into maintained nursery school supplementary funding from 2023 to 2024 and proposing reforms to create a fairer distribution of this funding.

The consultation opened on 4 July and will run until 16 September 2022. You can access the early years funding formulae consultation. We look forward to hearing your views.

3. Action: facility time reporting

The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULRCA) stipulates that employers have statutory obligations for granting time off for their own employees who are trade union representatives, to enable them to carry out union duties and activities.

In accordance with the 2017 trade union facility time publication regulations, all local authority maintained schools, free schools, and academy trusts, are legally obligated to report their data about trade union facility time usage and representative activity. They must do this on an annual basis and can use the facility time reporting service.

Employers of more than 49 employees who do not employ at least 1 trade union representative should submit a nil return.

If you require additional support facility time guidance provides further detail or email facilitytime@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

The deadline for reporting facility time is 31 July 2022.

4. Reminder: access and submit your budget forecast return (BFR) 2022

Thank you to those academy trusts that have already submitted their BFR. If you haven’t submitted your BFR, the deadline is close of business on 26 July 2022.

If you’ve not accessed the form yet, we recommend that you do so. We know that users prepare the return offline using the Excel workbook, however we recommend you start using the online form as soon as possible. This is so you have more time to download the report which includes your pre-populated balances.

You can read more information about the BFR on GOV.UK. This includes details of the weekly MS Teams dial-in calls, where you can ask us questions.

5. Information: automated draft trust financial statements now available

Trusts using automation will be able to download their draft trust financial statements from September 2022, via the academies accounts return page.

This report is available to view and test now, using the Excel workbook. We welcome any feedback you may have, ahead of the release in early September 2022. Please send any feedback to api.finance@education.gov.uk.

Due to the nature of trust’s size and complexity, there may be areas such as the funding note, where feedback would be welcome.

You can find the workbook on the academies chart of accounts and automating the accounts return page.

Further guidance on the financial statements workbook can be found in the quick start guide to automating the academies accounts return and financial statements.

6. Information: coronavirus (COVID-19) mass testing allocations and payments – final arrangements

We have published the final set of mass testing allocations, which include data for on-site asymptomatic testing site (ATS) tests carried out from 8 January 2022 to 18 February 2022 for mainstream settings, and to 31 March 2022 for special settings.

After these dates ATS testing was no longer required in schools and colleges.

As detailed in the conditions of grant, we will be making the payments for this period at the end of July 2022 which will finalise this funding stream and bring it to a close. You should note that in closing this funding stream, no further adjustments to allocations or payments can be made.

Any queries relating to this funding should be submitted via the online ESFA enquiry form.

7. Information: coronavirus (COVID-19) 12 to 15 vaccinations programme funding – final payment arrangements

We have published the 12 to 15 vaccination programme funding allocations and made the one-off payment to the majority of establishments at the end of April 2022.

There were a small number of establishments who had yet to register their bank details with us and we will be making a final payment at the end of July to include those who have registered after April.

Once we have made these payments, we will finalise this funding stream and bring it to a close and therefore will be unable to make any further payments after this point.

Any queries relating to this funding should be submitted via the online ESFA enquiry form.

8. Information: join these webinars on approved frameworks and see how you could save money for your school

The Department for Education (DfE) is hosting webinars on how using our approved frameworks could help your school get value for money.

If you are responsible for buying goods and services for your schools, check out the range of informative webinars that could help you save time and money.

All sessions are free, use these Eventbrite links to join the Schools Commercial Team and take the opportunity to ask providers the questions you may have about:

• hiring supply teachers – find out how you can save money on temp-to-perm fees
• the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) – an alternative to commercial insurance
• the alternatives available to traditional grass pitches
• the level of cyber cover included in the Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA)

Follow our ‘Buying for Schools’ LinkedIn page to learn more about how we can support your school to buy goods and services.