ESFA Update further education: 9 January 2019
Published 9 January 2019
Applies to England
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1. Action: qualification achievement rates (QAR) 2017 to 2018 provisional data window
We will publish your provisional QAR 2017 to 2018 data this week. The data will be available in the ‘QAR reports’ section of the Data Returns page on the Hub.
You will have until 5pm on Friday 1 February to inform us of any concerns about how we have implemented our published methodology. You cannot request fixes or adjustments to your 2017 to 2018 individualised learner record (ILR) data.
If you have any queries with the provisional data, please complete a data query form and email this to the service desk at sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk. Please put ‘ESFA Business Operations QAR’ at the top of your query.
We will also publish an updated QAR reports user guide and dataset specifications this week.
2. Information: high needs funding announcement
On 17 December the Secretary of State announced additional high needs funding for local authorities, alongside the 2019 to 2020 dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations to local authorities.
The government is providing an additional £125 million for both the 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020 academic years.
The Secretary of State also announced a further £100 million top-up to the special provision capital funding for local authorities in the 2019 to 2020 academic year. This takes the total investment to £365 million across 2018 to 2021.
This funding helps local authorities invest in improved facilities and additional school and college places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
3. Information: funding methodology reports guidance 2018 to 2019
We have published the funding monitoring reports user guide 2018 to 2019. The guide explains how to access the reports and correct your data if required. It also details the action we will take to rectify any identified funding issues at the end of year.
This supports the financial assurance: monitoring the funding rules for apprenticeships and adult skills plan.
The funding rules monitoring reports for 2018 to 2019 are available on the Hub. We have published dates for report releases on the ILR freeze schedule.
For further information, please contact the service desk via email at sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.
4. Information: remittance advice descriptions
In response to your feedback, we are updating the payment transactions names to use the full adult programme descriptions. These will start to appear in your remittance advice and the manage your education and skills funding from January 2019.
The change will apply to programmes paid on actual performance from January, and programmes paid on a contract profile from February.
We will update the ILR funding reports guidance this week to account for this change.
We have also added new detailed sections for the earnings adjustment statement report and the ESF supplementary data report.
If you have any queries, please contact the service desk via email at sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.