Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 8 September 2021

Published 8 September 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Reminder: update your information – changes to governance roles

As the new academic year starts, have you welcomed new members or trustees to your board? Do you have a new chair of trustees, chief financial officer or accounting officer?

If so, you need to update the information and contact details held for your trust on the Get information about schools (GIAS) service.

If you are unsure what to record or where, then the updating your GIAS contacts video may help.

GIAS video

2. Information: ESFA extends School Resource Management Adviser (SRMA) programme

We have extended the programme to provide resource management experts to schools until August 2024.

You can read more about arrangements in this GOV.UK news story.

If you are interested in working with a SRMA, please contact ESFA.

3. Action: call for academies to submit historic claims for unclaimed years

From 1 April 2022 academies will not be able to submit historic claims for previously unclaimed years. Academies have until the end of March 2022 to submit any outstanding historic claims relating to the 2015 to 2016 financial year onwards via the NNDR portal.

From 1 April 2022, ESFA will no longer accept, process, or reimburse academies for historic claims relating to unclaimed years. This applies to years from 2015 to 2016 up until 2021 to 2022 which have not already been claimed for.

Academies will continue to be able to claim for historic adjustments to claims made from 1 April 2017 onwards through the NNDR portal after April 2022.

We’d encourage academies to submit any historic NNDR claims for unclaimed years at their earliest convenience, so that the department can meet such claims promptly.

4. Action: call for academies to register multi-use sites

ESFA will cover additional rates costs associated with additional buildings on a school site which are used to deliver education for pupils at the school (for example, a sports hall that is used during school hours and at evenings by the wider community).

We will not cover the additional rates costs associated with buildings which are not used to deliver education for pupils at the school.

For a smooth transition to the new payment system, we’d encourage schools to register buildings which are not used to deliver education for pupils at the school as a separate entity on the Valuation Office Agency’s (VOA) rating list.

This ensures that two individual bills are produced, meaning the bill data uploaded to ESFA by billing authorities will only relate to the parts of a school site used to deliver education and will exclude any other buildings.

This is likely to apply to schools which contain:

• several service providers (for example, a private nursery attached to a primary school)
• other bodies which occupy specific buildings (for example, a caretaker’s house or community swimming pool)

5. Information: change to the payment process for business rates

We’ve published the government response following our consultation on centralising the payment of business rates. This confirms that, from 1 April 2022, ESFA will pay business rates directly to billing authorities on behalf of schools for 5 to 16-year-olds.

From next year, academies will no longer need to submit rates claims via the NNDR portal to recoup their rates. This academy upload function will be removed. Instead, all billing amounts, including any adjustments, will be uploaded by billing authorities.

Academies will not need to make payments to billing authorities in respect to their 2022 to 2023 rates bill.

Academies will remain accountable for making payments to billing authorities for any outstanding rates bills in relation to 2021 to 2022 or earlier years.

The consultation response contains further details on the changes, and how centralisation of payments will be implemented.

6. Information: land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) 2021 guidance updated

We have updated the land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) guidance documents for the 2021 collection. Our GOV.UK page also includes details of MS Teams dial-ins from 7 October 2021 to help with any queries you might have about this year’s return.

We have updated the main LBCT guidance document, the Excel workbook and the guide for diocesan users. We have also added a new guide for LBCT data adjustments to help users to understand what to do with any data adjustments we suggest in their return as a result of last year’s review of LBCT data.

This year the LBCT form will go live on 5 October 2021 with a deadline of 9 November 2021.

7. Information: webinars on approved frameworks

The Department for Education (DfE) is hosting webinars on how using our approved frameworks could help your school get value for money.

If you are responsible for buying goods and services for your schools check out the range of informative webinars that could help you save time and money.

All sessions are free, use these Eventbrite links to join the Schools Commercial Team and take the opportunity to ask providers the questions you may have from buying your electricity to IT leasing, legal services to network connectivity.

The sessions are available on multiple dates. Find out more:

• renewing your gas or electricity contract
• legal services available to schools
• supply teachers and agency workers framework
• network connectivity and telecommunication solutions framework
• IT leasing requirements
• Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA)

8. Information: consultation on prioritising schools for the School Rebuilding Programme

The Prime Minister announced the School Rebuilding Programme (SRP) in June 2020 to carry out major rebuilding and refurbishment projects at schools and sixth form colleges in England over the next decade. We have previously announced the first 100 schools in the programme. Details of these and the programme are available on GOV.UK.

We are now consulting on the approach to prioritising schools for future places in the programme, to identify schools most in need of major rebuilding or refurbishment. Further information on the consultation process and how you can contribute your views can be found on GOV.UK. The consultation runs until 8 October, and we would welcome your views.

To find out more about why we are consulting, and the approaches under consideration, please join our Teams live event on 14 September by registering online.

9. Information: new funding reports guidance

We have published version 1 of the guidance on the 2021 to 2022 ILR funding reports. These reports are generated when providers submit a file to Submit Learner Data. This guidance for young people and adult programmes covers:

• 16 to 19 (excluding apprenticeships)
• adult education budget (devolved and non-devolved)
• all apprenticeships
• European Social Fund
• advanced learner loans bursary
• community learning

The key changes from last year’s reports are:

• the Cross Year Indicative Payments Report is no longer a BETA report. We issued this at R12 2020 to 2021 and we will issue this again between R01, R02 and R03 in 2021 to 2022 (building towards when we merge payments on your remittance for R02 and R03 with the R13 and R14 from the previous ILR respectively). This helps explain apprenticeship payments during the period of the year where two ILR years are open and being paid for in your remittances
• the 16 to 19 Funding Claim report does not have a filter on it this year. Instead, there two additional columns that reflect the data that the filter previously showed