Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 7 October 2020

Published 7 October 2020

This correspondence was withdrawn on 29 December 2021

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Read the latest editions of ESFA Update for up to date 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: 2021 to 2022 high needs place change notification process

The high needs place change notification process for 2021 to 2022 is now open. Institutions should engage in discussion with local authorities about their high needs places for 2021 to 2022.

We have published guidance on the high needs place change process and the spring 2020 census data for special academies and free schools to help you and inform local discussion.

3. Information: 16 to 19 tuition fund

Revised allocations statements are now available on Information Exchange for providers that returned a completed opt-in form by the 21 September. The statement confirms the new total funding allocation inclusive of the 16 to 19 tuition fund. Payments will normally commence in November. For FE institutions and local authorities (where maintained sixth forms have opted in) contract variations will be issued during October and will need to be signed by the end of the month to ensure payment in November. This contract variation can only be issued where there are no variations currently awaiting signature. Please review your account on MYESF to ensure you have nothing outstanding.

For those providers who have not yet responded, opt-in templates can still be completed and returned to ESFA by Wednesday 14 October 2020. Eligible providers will find their template on the ESFA Information Exchange, which you can access by logging into DfE Sign-In.

Full details of eligibility are given in the guidance on the 16 to 19 tuition fund. Note that special schools and special academies are not in scope for the 16 to 19 tuition fund as all of their provision is covered by the schools catch-up premium funding.

4. Information: school census post-16 reports

The ESFA school census autumn 2020: 16 to 19 reports are now available in COLLECT. The reports are available to schools and academies during the entire period the autumn census is open.

The report suite comprises 6 reports, three each for the current year (2020 to 2021) and for the previous year (2019 to 2020).

We have developed the reports to help schools and academies quality assure their data and make more accurate census returns.

Information on the reports is available on GOV.UK.

It gives information about the reports’ contents and sets out some of the common data issues.

There are four new fields for the post-16 collection, to record data for the previous year. We encourage you to check that the data is accurate, as they may impact on your funding and whether the students meet the condition of funding. Please refer to the guidance on submitting your autumn census for more information.

5. Information: getting your school census data right

The school census post-16 interactive tool is available online. It is designed to help you understand how to ensure an accurate post 16 census return.

We have published an interactive flowchart to help you understand whether a student meets the condition, and what they can study.

Both the reports and the interactive tool include information on T Levels and two new elements of the funding formula:

• the level 3 programme maths and English payment, and
• the high value courses premium (HVCP)

6. Information: reducing workload online events

DfE is hosting three online events on reducing workload featuring school leaders and Ofsted.

Whilst reducing teacher workload in such demanding times may sound like an impossibility, these live online events will showcase how, over 2019 to 2020, a range of schools across the country have achieved workload reductions and increased teacher wellbeing as a result.

The hour-long events will start with a presentation from Ofsted on the expectations of inspections and workload, followed by a choice of one presentation from a school (primary, secondary or a special school).

The events could be used by individual teachers or within a department or staff meeting and are timed for this purpose.

Please book for your preferred date:

• 13 October at 3pm
• 14 October at 3.30pm
• 16 October at 11am