Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 29 December 2021

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Reminder: funding claims 2019 to 2020 – final claim

The 2019 to 2020 final claim form will be available on Submit learner data from 9am Monday 26 October and will close at 5pm Tuesday 3 November.

You must sign your claim digitally on Manage your education and skills funding by 5pm on Wednesday 4 November by your principal or a delegated authority. You will need to submit and sign a claim if you receive funds through:

• Grant Funded - adult education budget (AEB) (Adult Skills, 19 to 24 traineeships and Community Learning)
• Learner Support for AEB Procured (Adult Skills, 19 to 24 traineeships) – paid-on-profile
• Grant Funded - Advanced Learner Loans Bursary (ALLB)
• 16 to 19 education

Once you have submitted your claim on Submit learner data, you will be able to view it and sign it on Manage your education and skills funding within 15 minutes.

You can find the funding claims guidance on GOV.UK and there is separate guidance for 16 to 19 education funding.

The user guide to help you complete the form will be available here before claims open.

3. Reminder: 16 to 19 local authorities grant return and use of funds statement; process for 2019 to 2020

We sent an email to all local authority chief financial officers copied to chief executives on Monday 21 September highlighting the process for local authorities to submit their 16 to 19 local authority grant return and use of funds statement for 2019 to 2020.

ESFA will require local authorities to upload CFO/Section 151 Officer signed local authority grant return and use of funds statement to the ESFA’s Document Exchange accessed through DfE Sign In by 31 October 2020. Please note that you would still need to send us a nil return for this collection. We have published detailed guidance on GOV.UK.

4. Information: school improvement monitoring and brokering grant September 2020 to March 2021

We have published the school improvement monitoring and brokering grant allocations for the period September 2020 to March 2021.

The allocations will be paid to local authorities on 30 October 2020. We will confirm arrangements beyond March 2021 in due course.

This grant is to support local authorities in continuing to monitor performance of maintained schools, broker school improvement provision, and intervene as appropriate.

5. Information: high needs place change notification process

The high needs place change notification process for 2021 to 2022 is now open.

Local authorities can confirm their 2021 to 2022 high needs place numbers in ESFA funded institutions by 13 November 2020, via the ESFA data collections portal.

We have published guidance on the high needs place change process and how to complete the high needs place change workbook.

Local authorities should also make requests for changes to hospital education funding through the place change workbook. The hospital education funding guidance explains the criteria for this.

We will send local authorities their secure access login details by 7 October 2020. Please contact us if you do not receive your login details.

We’ve also published the spring 2020 census data for high needs pupil numbers in special academies and free schools, and the place numbers for 2020 to 2021. You can use this information to inform local discussion about commissioning arrangements for 2021 to 2022.

6. 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.

7. Information: 2020 to 2021 Advanced Learner Loans Performance Management Point 1

The first time request form for Advanced Learner Loans is now available on GOV.UK.

Completed request forms must be sent to AllFacility.REQUESTS@education.gov.uk before 5pm on Friday 16 October 2020.

For further information, please refer to the Advanced Learner Loans funding rules 2020 to 2021.

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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