Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 6 July 2023

Published 6 July 2023

Applies to England

1. Information: Academy Trust Handbook 2023

We’ve published the Academy Trust Handbook 2023, which comes into effect on 1 September 2023, as a PDF available to download.

Over the last eight months we have worked closely with a range of trusts and sector bodies to make sure that the financial oversight framework remains easily understood and straight forward to use, reflecting the development and maturity of the sector.

This years’ handbook is a materially shorter and sharper document. It contains several key changes, including:

• Related party transactions: an increase in the threshold beyond which ESFA approval is required for related party transactions from £20k to £40k
• Annual reporting: removing the requirement for explanations in annual accounts when holding fewer than 6 board meetings per year
• Budget setting: providing an additional month to submit annual budget forecast returns
• Budget monitoring: providing more discretion in the distribution of management accounts
• Sustainability: confirming that salary sacrifice schemes can be set up for electric vehicles, in most cases without our approval

A full list of changes can be found on page 7 of the handbook.

The digital version of the handbook will be updated on 1 September.

You can read further detail on our simplification work and how stakeholders have fed into this on our LinkedIn page.

1.1 Letter to accounting officers

We’ve issued a letter today to academy trust accounting officers from David Withey, chief executive and accounting officer of ESFA.

The letter includes information about the handbook.

2. Information: Academy Finance Professionals July Power Hour on the Academy Trust Handbook

Join our next Power Hour on 19 July 3pm to 4pm to find out more about financial simplification and the changes to this year’s Academy Trust Handbook.

This session will be led by ESFA’s Schools Financial Support and Oversight Team and Financial Frameworks Team. The session will include:

• financial oversight simplification review, including background, feedback, and action taken

• Academy Trust Handbook 2023, including background, annual review process, and what has changed

There will be an opportunity to ask questions and ESFA colleagues will answer as many as possible during the event.

Register now to guarantee your place.

3. Information: high quality trust commissioning guidance

Today, the department has published high quality trust commissioning guidance, one of the key commitments set out in the academies regulatory and commissioning review.

The commissioning guidance increases transparency around how Regions Group makes decisions about the creation, consolidation and growth of academy trusts: It covers decisions:

• for schools to join or form a new academy trust
• to move underperforming schools to new trusts
• to approve applications to merge trusts or transfer schools
• to approve which trusts can open new free schools

Alongside the guidance are the trust quality descriptions, which set out what we want trusts to deliver for students, parents and areas, and trust quality evidence, which sets out the quantitative and qualitative information that Regions Group will use to inform its decisions.

4. Information: submit your 2022 to 2023 16 to 19 tuition fund spend and tell us how you have used your additional hours

You will need to submit a digital form if your organisation either received 16 to 19 tuition fund for the academic year 2022 to 2023 and/or received the additional hours baseline data report, which was based on returns your institution made in academic year 2020 to 2021, and we supplied to you in June 2022.

Please note: failure to submit a report on 16 to 19 tuition fund spend will result in recovery of 100% of your academic year 2022 to 2023 tuition funding.

We have produced a digital form so you can tell us:

• how much tuition fund you have spent in the 2022 to 2023 academic year
• what your institution used additional hours for and account for how you delivered the expected average increases in hours above your academic year 2020 to 2021 baseline

You will need to submit the form as soon as you can confirm your full year’s tuition fund expenditure, and no later than 11:59pm on 13 October 2023.

Guidance on how to complete the form can be found on GOV.UK.

5. Information: prepare to complete your Year End Statement for the 2022 to 2023 National Tutoring Programme (NTP) grant

All organisations that received the 2022 to 2023 NTP grant are required to complete a Year-End Statement, which will be available at the start of September. This is a mandatory return and you must complete the form, even if you did not use any of your NTP funding.

To prepare, we encourage schools to collate clear and accurate records of all tutoring delivered this academic year. This should include:

• how much your school spent on tutoring – the total amount you spent on tutoring (the portion funded by the NTP grant and the contribution from your school)
• how many hours of tutoring your school delivered – every hour delivered per pupil (for example, if you delivered a 15-hour course to 3 pupils, you would count it as 45 hours)
• how many pupils in your school have received tuition – if pupils received tutoring in multiple subjects, you should only count each pupil once.

Schools can continue to use this year’s NTP funding until 31 August 2023, including tuition delivered in the summer term and school holidays to help pupils prepare for the next academic year. Any unspent funding will be recovered.

6. Information: crime, fire safety and Health & Safety workshops for RPA members

Willis Towers Watson is providing risk management support for all RPA members through audit, guidance and advice. As part of the risk management support, RPA members are invited to a workshop covering:

• overview of the crime, fire safety and Health & Safety resilience programme
• information/advice on maintaining internal fire doors and fire compartmentation

Place will be allocated on a first come first served basis:

• 13 July 2023

7. Information: Buying for Schools still have some great webinars running – book your place now

If you buy goods and services for your school or trust, come and join one of our free webinars.

Our final webinars of the summer term will be taking place week commencing 10 July. Click the links below to book your place:

• Risk protection arrangement, an alternative to commercial insurance – 13 July
• Leasing and loan finance – 13 July

8. Information: book a 1:1 chat to discuss your school’s buying needs – spaces available 11 July

The Schools Commercial Team are offering the opportunity for a free, virtual 1:1 conversation with a member of the team to see how we can support you.

You can speak to us about anything you like to help you make informed buying choices for your school.

There is no pressure or obligation to take any of our recommendations forward following the conversation.

Book your 1:1 conversation now.

9. Information: my experience of buying catering and cleaning using Get help buying for schools

In our latest Buying for Schools blog post, Jason Murgatroyd, Executive Head at Grangetown Primary School in Middlesbrough, shares his positive experience of using Get help buying for schools to buy catering and cleaning, and how it could help you with your buying too.

I will definitely use Get help buying for schools again now that I know it exists. I would be daft not too! I’m not a businessman, I’m a teacher. We are a small trust, we don’t have a huge infrastructure, and so it comes down to me. I need that specialist support when it comes to big spend contracts, to ensure compliancy and save time.

You can read the full blog post on GOV.UK.