Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 7 July 2021

Updated 8 July 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Information: additional funding for those currently undertaking induction

In recognition of the challenging initial teacher training and induction newly qualified teachers (NQTs) have experienced, all state funded schools that currently have an NQT who is due to complete induction this summer will have access to a one-off payment to further support the development of this cohort.

Schools will have access to funding for the equivalent of an additional 5% off timetable for next academic year. This time off timetable is not statutory but has been designed to be used flexibly:

• time off timetable can be grouped together in different ways, for example, taken as whole days or half days.
• schools will be able to access DfE-accredited development materials for use during this time off timetable.
• schools will receive this funding in summer term of 2022. Funding will be based on School Workforce Census returns.

Read the latest on the changes to statutory induction from September 2021 on GOV.UK.

3. Information: reformed National Professional Qualifications (NPQ)

From autumn 2021, a reformed suite of NPQs will be available for teachers and leaders. These reforms include:

• reforming the 3 existing NPQs in senior leadership, headship, and executive leadership
• replacing the current NPQ in middle leadership with 3 new NPQs for those who want to develop their expertise in specialist areas of teaching practice.

As part of the government’s long-term education recovery plan, £184 million of new funding for NPQs was announced on 2 June 2021. For information on the full scholarship funding with no cost to the participant, available to teachers and leaders visit GOV.UK.

Teachers and leaders can now apply with one of 9 providers accredited to offer these qualifications. The first step to apply is to sign up with a provider.

The easiest way to do this is to contact your local teaching school hub. To find your local teaching school hub, please search ‘teaching school hubs’ on GOV.UK. You can also contact Lead Providers, or other known delivery partners, directly.

Once you have selected your course and provider, you will need to register for your programme using the DfE’s online service.

To receive direct updates on these reforms, fill in this form.

4. For information: school improvement, monitoring and brokering grant: updated grant conditions

On 28 April, we launched a public consultation on our intention to ring-fence and place conditions on the school improvement, monitoring and brokering grant to ensure it is supporting urgent school improvement priorities relating to COVID-19 recovery.

On 1 July, we published the government’s response to this consultation, confirming that we are implementing these changes, effective immediately. The updated terms and conditions have been set out in local authorities’ grant determination letters and will apply until further notice.

Having already paid 60% of the of the total grant allocation covering the period April to August 2021, we will pay the remaining 40% to local authorities at the end of July. The published allocations can be accessed on GOV.UK .

Beyond the current academic year, we have signalled our intention to continue paying the grant for the period September 2021 to March 2022, whilst adjusting its size in line with the reduction in the number of maintained schools since the grant was introduced in 2017.

5. Information: changes to T Level funding guidance to include further detail on programme cost weighting

The T Level funding guidance on GOV.UK has been updated to outline the approach for programme cost weighting (PCW) which will be applied to T Levels, after T Levels are brought into the lagged student methodology.

It details how the PCW will be applied at occupational specialism level for T Levels and how PCW for the T Level transition programme will be applied at route level.

6. Information: Post-16 Monitoring: Reports Dashboard, survey and recording loans provision

Please can all providers of post-16 education and training log into the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard in View Your Education Data and action errors prior to the R12 ILR submission. To access the dashboard, you need an IDAMS account with the ‘view your education data – post-16 monitoring’ user role. The dashboard links to all supporting guidance and indicates what actions are taken for each report.

We have identified high volumes of records in our FRM20 and FRM21 (‘Loans not in the ILR/SLC’) reports. Some providers have not recorded the advanced learner loans indicator (ADL) against provision. Please ensure you correctly identify loans-funded learners and only record the ADL flag for learners with an approved loan.

Thank you to colleagues who have completed our user survey via the dashboard. It is open until 9 July and we encourage you to complete it as it helps us develop our service further.

7. Information: postcode files and guidance

We have published the latest set of postcode files to support the devolution of the Adult education budget (AEB) with an accompanying guidance document. These files include the latest postcode validity (the dates these postcodes apply to), and the new Source of Funding (SOF) codes to support devolution to Sheffield City Region and West Yorkshire from August 2021.

You can use this data to aid your learner enrolment and complete your ILR, by assessing which learners will be funded by each funding body based on their postcode at the start of their learning.

We have also published the latest set of disadvantage factors, both at postcode level and at Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level. These have changed this year to accommodate factors set by devolved authorities for learning starting at devolved authorities from August 2021. For the 2021 to 2022 funding year, bespoke factors have been set by West of England Combined Authority, Greater London Authority and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. The remaining authorities will use the same factors as the ESFA. For the 2021 to 2022 year, the ESFA and aligning devolved authorities have switched to using factors based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019.

We have also published the latest Area Cost factors at postcode level. The structure of this file is the same as in previous years.

8. Information: The National Apprenticeship Awards 2021 are now open for entries

Back for their 18th year, the National Apprenticeship Awards are a fantastic opportunity to showcase the apprentices, employers and champions who have gone above and beyond, despite the challenges faced in the last year.

Entries to the awards are open until 28 July. It is free to enter the awards, and all entries must be made through our application website.

There are nine categories to recognise exceptional employers, apprentices and apprenticeship champions:

8.1 Employer of the Year categories

• SME Employer of the Year (for organisations with 1 to 249 employees).
• Large Employer of the Year (for organisations with 250 to 4,999 employees).
• Macro Employer of the Year (for organisations with 5,000+ employees).
• Recruitment Excellence.

8.2 Apprentice of the Year and Apprenticeship Champion categories

• Intermediate Apprentice of the Year (level 2).
• Advanced Apprentice of the Year (level 3).
• Higher or Degree Apprentice of the Year (level 4 or higher).
• Rising Star of the Year.
• Apprenticeship Champion of the Year.

Webinars to explain the awards process in more detail, including hints and tips on completing applications are available.

For more information contact: Apprenticeship.AWARDS@education.gov.uk.

9. Information: publication of 2021 Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)

We have published revised statutory guidance, Keeping children safe in education 2021 and the Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges advice, which provides schools and colleges with more detailed advice to support part five of KCSIE.

This is for information only, neither document comes into force until 1 September 2021. Until then, KCSIE 2020 and the Sexual violence and sexual harassment advice 2018 remain in force.

We know this is later that previous years but we delayed the publication of these documents this year to allow us to reflect on the Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges and its recommendations, which has helped us to further strengthen the guidance.

The guidance is clear that there should be a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence and sexual harassment and that schools and colleges should take a “it can happen here” attitude, being clear abuse could be happening even where it is not being reported.

The government response to KSCIE 2021 consultation is available on GOV.UK.