Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 6 November 2024

Published 6 November 2024

Applies to England

Information: Summary policy note for schools and high needs national funding formula 2025 to 2026

The Budget announced an additional £2.3 billion for mainstream schools and young people with high needs in 2025 to 2026. This means that core school funding will total almost £63.9 billion next financial year.

The Department for Education (DfE) is now in the process of calculating the schools and high needs national funding formula (NFF) for 2025 to 2026, to inform local authorities and schools of the funding they can expect to receive next year. We expect to publish the final NFF allocations and full schools operational guide by the end of November.

We have published an NFF policy note to support the sector with their planning ahead of the final NFF allocations. This document includes indicative schools NFF factor values, alongside information on the mainstream schools, high needs, and central school services funding for 2025 to 2026. It also includes details on the grants being rolled into the schools NFF from 2025 to 2026.

Information: The new financial benchmarking and insights tool is live

The new financial benchmarking and insights tool (FBIT) is now live.

Thanks to sector feedback, the new tool replaces the ‘View my financial insights’ and the ‘Schools financial benchmarking’ website, combining the best elements of the two.

FBIT can be used by anyone working in a role relating to school resource management to:

• benchmark a school’s spending against other similar schools
• identify areas for improvement and share best practice with other schools
• produce a workforce deployment plan via our curriculum and financial planning tool
• easily access commercial resources, guidance and frameworks provided by the DfE
• build a report to share analysis with governors, trustees and senior leadership

The newest budget forecast return data for academy trusts has been released on the FBIT, relating to the 2023 to 2024 financial year.

The service has also been launched with 3 years of historic data, so academies will be able to see their accounts return data from 2022 to 2023 until data for 2023 to 2024 is submitted in the new year.

Information: Updated good practice guide for academy trust reserves

The good practice guide for managing academy trust reserves was updated in October 2024. This guidance recognises the update to the 2024 academy trust handbook section 2.8, stating trust reserve policies must include a clear plan for managing reserves. We have also made a number of edits to the structure and layout of this guidance document to ensure it is fully accessible.

Information: Academies accounts return 2023 to 2024 online form now open

The academies accounts return online form is now live for users to complete and submit their trust’s return by the Tuesday 28 January 2025 deadline.

The academies accounts return can only be submitted by an external auditor approver. Please check that the external auditor details are correct as soon as possible. This is to ensure they have access to the return and avoid delays in submitting. For more information, see our guidance.

If you intend to use automation to complete your academies accounts return, please check your financial management systems provider’s automation status.

If you have difficulties accessing the accounts return form, please contact the DfE Sign-in (DSI) help assistant. If you don’t have a DSI account, you’ll need to register and create a DSI account to access the academies accounts return.

Reminder: 2025 to 2026 high needs place change process closes on Friday 8 November 2024

This is a reminder that the high needs place change process for 2025 to 2026 closes on Friday 8 November 2024. 

Schools and colleges should contact their local authority about their high needs places for the 2025 to 2026 academic year. Local authorities will use this process to notify us of changes to your high needs place numbers. In most cases, where no change is requested, your 2024 to 2025 academic year place numbers will be used to determine your funding allocation. 

We have published guidance on the high needs place change process.

We have also published the spring 2024 census data for high needs pupil numbers in special academies and free schools, and the place numbers for 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025. You can use this to inform local discussions about commissioning arrangements for the 2025 to 2026 academic year.  

Reminder: One week until the academies land and buildings collection tool  deadline

Thank you to those trusts who have already submitted their land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) return. For everyone else, this a reminder that the deadline for submission is Tuesday 12 November 2024.

The return must be completed by all academy trusts in scope. A trust is in scope if it had at least one open academy on the Wednesday 31 August 2024.

If you have church-owned land, diocesan review is required. You should speak with your local diocese as soon as possible to discuss diocesan review of your church-owned land by the deadline.

All trust users should have received an email from the DfE Sign-in (DSI) team about how to activate their DSI accounts. If you already have a DSI account, all you will need to do is sign-in as you normally would and select the LBCT service from the list on your services page. If you are a new user, you will need to create a DSI account. 

Visit LBCT to view the summary guidance, workbook and the link to the online form. You will also find details of our Microsoft Teams sector call for all LBCT users.

Your feedback: Tell us about your experience of our funding service

If you receive Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) funding, we want to hear about your experience of our service. Please complete this short survey by Friday 29 November 2024. It should take you 5 to 10 minutes to complete. 

We aspire to run an excellent education and skills funding service that gives providers as much certainty as possible. The survey asks whether we deliver:

• certainty on what we pay you and when
• clarity on how to comply with funding rules
• services that are accessible and easy to use
• answers when you have funding-related queries

We will keep your personal data confidential, and your feedback will help us to improve the service.

Your feedback: Improve communications around funding allocations

Are you responsible for receiving funding allocations and payment information for your academy or an academy trust?

ESFA is looking to redesign and streamline the current funding allocations communication process. Your feedback will help shape this digital service.

Meetings will take place online from 19 to 29 November using Microsoft Teams and will last up to 60 minutes.

Fill out this form to register your interest in taking part.

Webinar: Academy finance professionals national power hour with guest speaker Minister McKinnell

Thursday 21 November 2024, 10am to midday. Register on Eventbrite.

Webinar: Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) members only – flood / storm (resilience)

Thursday 21 November 2024, 10am to midday. Register online.

Webinar: Introduction to the financial benchmarking and insights tool

Various dates and times throughout November and early December: Register on Eventbrite.