ESFA Update further education: 6 July 2022
Published 6 July 2022
Applies to England
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1. 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 GOV.UK Facility Time reporting service to do so quickly and easily.
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.
2. Reminder: tell us how we can improve our services
As mentioned in last week’s update, our customer experience team would like you to complete a short survey about your experience of working with ESFA.
Please complete the survey, which takes no longer than 10 minutes to complete, by 5pm on Wednesday 20 July.
Your feedback will help us improve our services for education and training providers.
To ensure your responses stay anonymous, please do not use identifying details within your answers.
The information will be collected, used and stored in line with our privacy policy.
If you’d like to contact the team directly, please email customer.experience@education.gov.uk.
3. Information: coronavirus (COVID-19) mass testing allocations and payments – final arrangements
We published the final set of mass testing allocations on 27 May 2022, which included 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.
4. Information: ESFA adult education budget (AEB) funding rules 2022 to 2023 version 1
The rules apply to all providers of education and training who receive AEB funding from ESFA.
A full breakdown of the changes is included in the ‘what’s new’ section of the rules.
We have:
- removed the ‘response to coronavirus (COVID-19) section’ and made amendments to the support funding section
- simplified government contribution tables
If you have any questions, please contact us using our enquiry form.
5. Information: Further Education (FE) Workforce data collection
Last year we launched the FE Workforce data collection to:
- provide a better understanding of the implications of government policy reforms and their impact on the composition of staff and their specialisms, for example the impact of the introduction of T Levels
- provide a greater understanding of pay in the sector, such as the impact of pay on staff recruitment, gender pay gap, underfunding in the sector compared with other education sectors
- reveal skills gaps in the sector and model skills gaps and their impacts.
In its first year, participation in the collection was voluntary, but from September 2022, submitting a return is mandatory for all eligible providers. This collection will allow us to build reliable data sets to help design effective and impactful policy to support the sector going forwards.
We will be publishing outcomes in Spring 2023, for the benefit of providers and key stakeholders, such as Ofsted and sector representatives.
The FE Workforce data collection for the 2021 to 2022 academic year will open on 12 September 2022 and will close on 25 November 2022.
Revised documents have been published on GOV.UK:
- FE workforce vacancy data collection: supporting document 2021 to 2022
- FE workforce governor data collection: supporting document 2021 to 2022
Note there are no changes to the FE workforce vacancy and governor data collections for 2021 to 2022.
Other documents that require updating will be published later.
6. Information: ESFA education and skills agreements 2022 to 2023 table of changes published
We have now published a table of changes made to the terms and conditions of the education and skills agreements for 2022 to 2023 in comparison to those in place for 2021 to 2022.
The changes cover the following funding agreements: College, Employer, Higher Education Institution, Independent Training Provider, Local Authority, Trust, Special post-16 Institution, and Non-maintained Special School. Full versions of the funding agreements will be published at the same link during July.
We will also shortly be publishing funding agreements for 2022 to 2023 to providers for signature via the Manage your education and skills funding service (MyESF) and providers are reminded to ensure that all users continue to have the correct level of access so agreements can be accessed and signed in advance of the new funding year user roles and permissions for MyESF can be found here: User roles and permissions (skillsfunding.service.gov.uk).
7. Information: new online toolkit for European Social Fund performance review points
We are introducing a new online toolkit for European Social Fund (ESF) providers to use as part of future performance review points until the end of the contracts for services in March 2023. The toolkit will replace the spreadsheet currently used at performance review points and is accessed through Submit Learner Data. To ensure a smooth transition, please ensure that all relevant staff have the required user roles to IDAMS to access Submit Learner Data. User roles can be added or amended by your organisation’s super user.
A webinar will be held at 2.30pm on 19 July 2022 to demonstrate the new online toolkit and further information regarding this will shortly be provided via your ESF adviser.
8. Information: change to payment dates from August 2022
From August 2022 we are combining the payment dates for the grant funded adult programmes and 16 to 19 funding. Currently adult grants are paid on the 14th working day and they will move to the 18th calendar day or first working day prior.
- adult education budget (grant funded)
- advance learner loans bursary (Grant funded)
In August 2022, payments will reach bank accounts on the same date (18 August), however, in September adult grant funding will paid on 16 September instead of 20 September.
If you are in receipt of both adult funding and 16 to 19 funding these will be paid together and if applicable will be offset against one another when payments are processed.
If you have any questions, please contact the enquiry service.
9. Information: Further Education Professional Development Grants pilot resources
The Department for Education’s (DfE) Further Education Professional Development Grants pilot programme, which concluded on 31 March 2022, sought to improve professional development for the FE workforce through FE provider collaboration.
22 applications, involving 90 providers, were granted funding across the three priority themes, programme themes included workforce capability and confidence to use technology effectively in education, subject specific professional development and supporting new and inexperienced teachers. FE providers and staff will benefit from the new resources that have been created.
10. Information: launch of the 2022 to 2023 Further Education mentoring programmes
Applications are now open for the mentoring professional development programmes, tailored to support both new and experienced Further Education (FE) mentors or coaches.
To help improve high quality mentoring provision in the FE sector, these DfE-funded programmes will be delivered by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) over four months, starting in October. Participating FE providers will be allocated a grant of up to £4,000 per mentor to help facilitate programme participation and cover remission costs for the participating mentor and mentee(s).
Places are limited and applications will be scored on a first come first served basis so make sure you register now to ensure you do not miss out on this fantastic opportunity. In line with our commitment to diversity, 25% of places are ringfenced for applicants who 1) work in one of the 24 priority education investment areas 2) are disabled 3) are from black and minority ethnic communities.