Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 6 July 2023

Published 6 July 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: 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.

2. Action: contact us if you made T Level data errors in your R04 or autumn census that are impacting your 2023 to 2024 allocations

We will consider business cases if data errors have an impact on 5 or more of your T Level carry on students in next year’s allocation.

What you need to do:

• Contact us through our online enquiry form, clearly stating the nature of your business case.
• Have authorisation from the head or institution

Please do not upload business cases to the Document Exchange without first submitting an online enquiry form as these will not be retrieved automatically.

3. Reminder: college financial forecasting return and recording the conversion of commercial loans to DfE/ESFA loans

We would like to remind colleges preparing their College Financial Forecasting Return (CFFR), to ensure they record the conversion of a commercial loan according to the instructions set out in section 14.4 of the CFFR User Guide.

When a college is planning to convert an existing commercial loan to a DfE/ESFA loan, as a requirement of Managing Public Money, the conversion should be recorded on the Loans sheet as two separate transactions:

• the value of the settlement of the original commercial loan should be entered in the appropriate Early Repayment row (for example, for Loan 1, it would be in the relevant column of row 60, with date of repayment entered in K13)
• the college should then record a new DfE/ESFA loan, with the same start date as the end date of the commercial loan, regardless of when funds are actually expected to be received

Therefore, the CFFR will record the transfer as two separate loans.

Please also note that returns are due for submission by 31 July 2023.

4. Information: 2022 to 2023 year-end forecast funding claim – indicative reconciliation statement(s)

Following submission of your year-end forecast funding claim we will upload your indicative year-end reconciliation statement(s) through Manage your education and skills funding by mid-July 2023 for the following ESFA grant funding streams:

• AEB (Adult Skills and Community Learning)
• 19 to 24 Traineeships
• National Skills Fund (Level 3 Free Courses for Jobs)
• Advanced learner loans bursary (ALLB)

These statements are indicative and based on your recent year-end forecast claim return, so that you are aware of the indicative reconciliation position before we publish your final reconciliation statements in November 2023.

Where appropriate, we will show any funding monitoring return errors and the indicative earnings boost value within your indicative reconciliation statement. This is so you are aware of the potential impact before final claim reconciliation statements.

You can find the original ESFA Update article relating to earnings boost on GOV.UK.

If you have any queries, please contact the Enquiry Service.

5. Information: R10 in-year qualification achievement rate (QAR) 2022 to 2023

We are planning to release your in-year 2022 to 2023 QAR data week commencing 10 July and will confirm when this data is available through ESFA Update and Communities. All data will be made available through the View Your Education Data portal.

We have published the qualification achievement rates business rules for 2022 to 2023.  We recognise this is delayed as development work is continuing on the QAR calculations to utilise the Unique Learner Number in matching records across years replacing the use of the Learner Reference Number.  We will confirm if this change will go ahead alongside the release of the in-year data.

In addition, following feedback we have updated the terminology and data field references across the business rules and technical specifications to reflect the final position for 2021 to 2022.

5.1 Further support

If you have any queries in relation to Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR), please contact us via our online enquiry form, and select the QAR query type. Further advice and support can also be found under the Help Centre articles and Communities section for peer support.

6. Information: register now for Taking Teaching Further 2023

Are you looking to recruit and support new teachers in a technical subject area, English or maths resits, or a SEND specialist teaching role?

If so, read the Taking Teaching Further (TTF) 2023 college or provider guidance and register your interest to the programme.

TTF provides grant funding of up to £18,200 per recruit (subject to eligibility) to cover the costs of:

• the recruit undertaking a teaching qualification – a level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET), or higher
• additional teacher time to provide the recruit with intensive support – for example through team teaching, work shadowing and mentoring arrangements
• the recruit having a reduced teaching timetable over the 2 years of the programme

In addition to the above, TTF 2023 includes a financial incentive pilot, which is available on a first-come, first-served basis. New teachers recruited to either digital, construction and the built environment, engineering and manufacturing, or maths could receive a financial incentive of £6,000, subject to places still being available.

If you have any questions or require more information, then please contact the Taking Teaching Further team on TTF.Enquiries@education.gov.uk.

7. Information: fully funded professional supervision for further education college leaders

Education Support, the only charity dedicated to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all education staff, is offering FE college leaders fully funded access to professional supervision.

The service provides a safe and confidential space for FE leaders to talk about, and process what is going on for them at work.

They will work with trained professional supervisors to focus on their mental wellbeing and help to develop new coping strategies to feel more fulfilled and in control.

During the supervision leaders will receive six free one-to-one sessions by Zoom or telephone, which are completely confidential.

For those who need it, Education Support also offer access to counselling, delivered by qualified BACP accredited counsellors.

Find out more and apply online.