Guidance

How to complete the high needs place change workbook for 2023 to 2024

Updated 22 July 2024

This guidance was withdrawn on 4 September 2024

Find the latest guidance in our high needs funding collection.

Applies to England

1. About this guidance

This guide explains how the workbook should be completed for local authorities requesting changes to their 2023 to 2024 high needs place numbers. It provides technical guidance for those who are completing and submitting the return.

Refer to the guidance ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for further information about the high needs place change notification process and how the outcomes will be managed.

Changes to the workbook for 2023 to 2024

The workbook supporting the place change process is similar to last year. However, please note the following changes:

• removal of the ESFA Unique Provider Identification Number (UPIN) data in the ‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’ worksheet
• requirements for submitting a ‘Deed of Variation’ (DoV) to the schools funding agreement with ESFA have been updated in the ‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’ worksheet
• updated the ‘Validation’ checks relating to the ‘Hospital Education Template’

Expiry or review date

ESFA will review this guidance in autumn 2023.

2. Accessing the workbook

Local authorities can download the workbook from their Galaxkey account. We have contacted local authority designated users with information on how to register with Galaxkey and access the workbook.

If you are not sure who the designated users are at your local authority for this exercise, please contact ESFA.

What is Galaxkey

Galaxkey is a data protection company providing corporate data protection products to secure all data and support multinational data compliance regulations. They provide an identity-based security solution for data transfer and is now ESFA’s preferred provider for the safe exchange of electronic files. We use their systems as and when appropriate.

When you first open the link issued to you, you are prompted to select your own password.

To download a file

Once you have signed into Galaxkey and your workspace has opened, you will be able to see an MS Excel file listed for the high needs place change exercise. Select the file and then the ‘Download a file’ icon in the toolbar.

Galaxkey will save the file to your usual ‘Downloads’ folder. You should navigate to that area and move it to where you wish to work on it.

To return the file to ESFA

Once you have completed the return, sign into Galaxkey. When your workspace opens, click on the ’Upload a file’ icon. Select ‘Browse’ on the following dialogue box.

Choose the file you wish to upload. Make sure the file has your 3 digit local authority code at the start of the file name.

Select OK and the file upload process will begin. When presented with the dialogue box, select ‘Yes’.

This will allow you to alert ESFA and your colleagues working on the same workspace that a file has been uploaded.

Add any text you feel appropriate in the message box, plus any additional contacts you want to receive the alert and then select ‘Send Email’.

You can then sign out of Galaxkey, by clicking on the Workspace menu button in the top right-hand corner and select ‘Logout’.

ESFA will be in contact if we need to discuss your submission with you.

3. Completing the workbook

This guide shows local authorities how to navigate and complete the high needs place change workbook.

Local authorities must submit the workbook via your Galaxkey account by 18 November 2022. We may not consider submissions received after this date.

The workbook is only available as an MS Excel spreadsheet currently. We are looking at changing this in future to enable the use of other accessible communication formats.

A 2023 to 2024 place change notification by a local authority must meet the requirements set out in this guide. Contact ESFA if you have any questions about completing the workbook. Please do not email copies of your completed workbook, unless requested to do so by ESFA.

General principles

To successfully complete the workbook, you should:

• (for each entry) start at column A of the ‘Place Change Notification’ (PCN) workbook and work along the row
• recorded the change as either ‘agreed’ or ‘not agreed’ with the school or college
• not enter data into greyed out cells
• only make one entry per academy, college, or other provider
• enter the total place numbers you require after any adjustment has been applied (where a change in the place number is required)
• if no change is needed, leave the cell blank (if ‘0’ is entered into the 2023 to 2024 revised place number columns, the final place numbers will be set at zero)
• ensure all validation markers show as ‘pass’ before submitting the completed workbook to ESFA
• enter schools and colleges into the correct section of the PCN worksheet:
• the first section is for new or existing ESFA funded schools and colleges with changes other than to current high needs places
• the second section ‘change from current high needs places’ is for schools and colleges funded for high needs places via ESFA in 2022 to 2023

‘Cover’ worksheet

Enter the contact details of the person who is responsible for completing the workbook in the ‘Primary local authority contact details’ section. ESFA will use this information if there is a query regarding your submission.

For ESFA to accept the workbook, you must enter primary contact details, however you may wish to include additional contact details in the second and third columns.

The primary contact should complete the declaration for every submission. If the primary contact does not complete the declaration correctly the submission will be rejected, and a resubmission requested.

To successfully fulfil the declaration, complete the following steps:

• check the tick box (row 34) to confirm your agreement to the statement included in the declaration

• insert an electronic signature or typed name into the section headed ‘Signature or typed name’ (cell D42)
• enter the date of completion into the ‘Date completed’ cell (D44)

Director of Children’s Services (DCS) sign-off is required where the ’Hospital Education Template’ worksheet is completed. Note that:

• this must be an electronic signature (cell M42)
• where this cannot be entered directly into the ‘Cover’ worksheet, a signed copy of the agreed declaration can be inserted into the designated cell K47 on the ‘Cover’ worksheet

The validation on this page will show as a ‘Fail’ if the primary contact details have not been entered. It will also fail if the declaration is not completed correctly - you must make sure the statement is ticked and both a signature and date are entered.

Additional information is included in the ‘Cover’ worksheet, giving a brief description of the areas covered by the workbook and hyperlinks to help navigate to the different worksheets.

These are:

• ‘2022 to 2023 HN Data’
• ‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’
• ‘Hospital Education Template’
• ‘Validation’

‘2022 to 2023 HN Data’ worksheet

This worksheet contains pre-populated details of the 2022 to 2023 high needs data (correct as of 1 October 2022) for those provider types that are in scope for changes from current high needs places. Refer to the ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for the types of provider that are in scope.

Filters are applied to allow you to search the data, but the worksheet is protected, and you will be unable to change this data. Details of any school or college you identify as requiring a change in this worksheet, will be replicated in the ‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’ worksheet.

‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’ worksheet

You should use this worksheet to notify ESFA of changes from the 2022 to 2023 high needs places and place values for academies with hospital education funding.

Validation rules are built into the worksheet to ensure correctly formatted data is entered into the cells. In addition, the ‘Validation’ worksheet will highlight instances where information is entered incorrectly (for example, if data is entered into greyed cells or a UKPRN appears more than once).

At the top of the worksheet is the current validation status (see the section headed ‘Validation worksheet’ for more details). This will show as ‘Pass’ if the worksheet is completed correctly.

The worksheet is split into two sections depending on the reason for change:

• in the first section, local authorities must enter those schools and colleges with the reason for change identified as ‘New provider’ or ‘Existing provider’, and select the relevant option from the drop-down list
• any ‘Change from current high needs places’ should be entered in the second section - entries here must relate to schools and colleges in the ‘2022 to 2023 HN data’ worksheet

There are two links at the top of the PCN worksheet that will help you to navigate between the different sections of the worksheet.

The workbook is designed so that when the reason for change, URN and/or provider type is entered, cells requiring completion will open and change from grey to white backgrounds. For each entry, start at column A and work along the row.

Infrastructure changes (for example, mergers and amalgamations – including mergers across local authorities) may affect more than one school or college. Each school or college may fall into a different category (new, existing, or change) of the workbook depending on the status of that organisation. You should consider the steps below when notifying ESFA of infrastructure changes:

• each school or college that will receive ESFA funding, and is affected by the change, will need to be listed separately in the workbook and added to the section appropriate for that school, whether it be a change from current place numbers, a new provider or a change to an existing ESFA funded provider that has not received high needs funding from ESFA in the past
• do not add any affected maintained schools that are not converting to an academy as a separate school (see the comment on ‘notes’ for additional actions)
• each school or college should show the impact on its own place numbers within columns K to AW of the PCN worksheet
• the notes section for each affected school or college should name all providers (including maintained schools) impacted by this change and identify any closing and lead school’s along with any other information that will help ESFA to process the merger/amalgamation data

The process for completing the two sections of the worksheet is set out below.

Section 1: ‘New providers / Existing providers’

The first section of the worksheet (rows 13 to 27) focuses on new and existing reasons for change in the academic year 2022 to 2023. Refer to the ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for the types of provider that are in scope.

Use the ‘New/Existing’ link at the top of the worksheet (row 4) to navigate to this section of the workbook.

Select the appropriate drop-down option in column A of the worksheet.

• New providers

You should use ‘New providers’ when notifying ESFA of the high needs place activity for new schools and colleges. ESFA consider a school/college as new if ESFA did not fund any activity as of 1 October 2022, but is within scope to receive funding, and requires high needs place funding in 2023 to 2024 academic year.

This includes:

• Special Post-16 Institution (SPIs) that require funding for high needs places in 2023 to 2024 that were not ESFA funded in academic year 2022 to 2023 (subject to due diligence process)
• schools or pupil referral units that were local authority maintained on 1 October 2022, but will convert to an academy on or by 1 January 2023 and require high needs place funding in 2023 to 2024
• special free schools located in the local authority’s area that were not open by 1 October 2022 (and are not therefore included in the pre-populated data) but that are due to open on or by 1 January 2023

Supply as much information as possible about the new school to enable ESFA to process the change.

• Existing providers

You should select ‘Existing provider’ to inform ESFA of changes to schools and colleges funded by ESFA on 1 October 2022 and are in scope of this data collection exercise, but who did not receive funding from ESFA for high needs places in 2022 to 2023. Any school or college listed in the ‘2022 to 2023 HN Data’ worksheet is not eligible for this option.

Where such changes are applied to existing provider’s, the schools existing funding agreement with ESFA may need amending to include clauses supporting the delivery of high needs. A signed and sealed DoV supporting this change must be submitted to ESFA by 9 December 2022

You should also complete the following fields for the proposed change to be processed correctly:

i. ‘Has the change been agreed?’ (column B):

Select from the options ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Please advise ESFA of the ‘agreed’ status with the school or college, at the point of completing the form. It may be that discussions with the school or college are ongoing, and you should document this in the notes section. If you select the option ‘No’ you will still be able to complete form and there will be an opportunity to advise ESFA of progress during the enquiry window phase of the data collection. See High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024 for further information.)

ii. ‘Deed of Variation (DoV) has been submitted to ESFA by 9 December 2022’ (column C):

Requests to change the age range at a school that is currently receiving high needs funding from ESFA or add a new high needs unit to an existing school, may need a corresponding variation to the schools funding agreement with ESFA. Please consult with the school and advise ESFA of the status of the DoV at the point of completing the form. The workbook will present you with the following options:

• ‘The funding agreement already covers the required position’
• ‘A DoV is being developed to permit the required position’
• ‘A DoV is required’

If you select ‘A DoV is being developed to permit the required position’ or ‘A DoV is required’ you will still be able to complete the form and there will be an opportunity to advise ESFA of progress during the enquiry window phase of the data collection. However, you should ensure that the school is progressing this action. See ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for further information.

Where ESFA agree to the requested change, and for ESFA to reflect these changes in the school or colleges 2023 to 2024 General Annual Grant (GAG) statement issued in March 2023, the school must submit a signed and sealed DoV to ESFA by 9 December 2022. See High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024 for further information.

If the funding agreement does not reflect the requested activity, or the school / college does not submit a DoV, ESFA cannot support the change.

This option is not required for ‘new providers’.

iii. Proposed date of change’ (column D):

Enter the date the change is expected to come into effect, this cell will only accept the date the workbook is completed (or a later date) and use the format dd/mm/yyyy

iv. ‘UKPRN’ (column E):

This must be an eight-digit number (with no letters) - you can get this from ‘Get information about schools’ (GIAS)

v. ‘LAEstab’ (column F):

This must be a seven-digit number (with no letters) - if unknown, leave blank

vi. ‘URN’ (column G):

This must be a six-digit number (with no letters) - you can get this from ‘Get information about schools’ (GIAS)

vii. ‘School or college name’ (column H)

You can get this from ‘Get information about schools’ (GIAS)

viii. ‘Provider type’ (column I):

Select your option from the drop-down list linked to the cell (refer to the ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for the provider types that are in scope) - by selecting the provider type the cells that require updates will become available (changing from grey to white)

ix. ‘Notes’ (column J):

Ensure that you supply sufficient detail to enable ESFA to process the change (for example, details of all schools and colleges involved in a merger and for new schools and colleges, contact details of the new provider must be provided such as their address, email and telephone contact information or full contact details of any new SPIs)

Where needed, add 2023 to 2024 revised place numbers to the open columns in the table (columns K to AW). 2022 to 2023 numbers will not be pre-populated but local authorities may manually enter the 2022 to 2023 place numbers on which a school or colleges 2022 to 2023 place funding is based, for information.

Section 2: Change from current high needs places

The second section (rows 30 to 120) allows you to request changes to high needs places for academic year 2023 to 2024 for any schools or colleges where ESFA fund high needs places in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The types of changes could include:

• a change in place numbers
• a change in the age range (for example, where a school was funded for pre-16 high needs places in the 2022 to 2023 academic year, but this now needs to be extended to include post-16 high needs provision, such as the inclusion of a new sixth form, for the 2023 to 2024 academic year)

The request to change the age range may need a corresponding variation to the schools funding agreement with ESFA. A signed and sealed DoV supporting this amendment must be submitted to ESFA by 9 December 2022.

Use the ‘Change’ link at the top of the worksheet (row 7) to navigate to this section of the workbook.

In this section of the worksheet cells are protected stopping you from entering data (for example, there is no drop-down option in column A and the reason for change is fixed).

The following cells must be completed for the proposed change to be processed correctly:

i. ‘Has the change been agreed?’ (column B):

Select from the options ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Please advise ESFA of the ‘agreed’ status with the school or college, at the point of completing the form. It may be that discussions with the school or college are ongoing, and you should document this in the notes section. If you select the option ‘No’ you will still be able to complete form and there will be an opportunity to advise ESFA of progress during the enquiry window phase of the data collection. See High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024 for further information.)

ii. ‘Deed of Variation (DoV) has been submitted to ESFA by 9 December 2022’ (column C):

Requests to change the age range at a school that is currently receiving high needs funding from ESFA or add a new high needs unit to an existing school, may need a corresponding variation to the schools funding agreement with ESFA. Please consult with the school and advise ESFA of the status of the DoV at the point of completing the form. The workbook will present you with the following options:

• ‘The funding agreement already covers the required position’
• ‘A DoV is being developed to permit the required position’
• ‘A DoV is required’

If you select ‘A DoV is being developed to permit the required position’ or ‘A DoV is required’ you will still be able to complete the form and there will be an opportunity to advise ESFA of progress during the enquiry window phase of the data collection. However, you should ensure that the school is progressing this action. See ‘High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024’ for further information.

Where ESFA agree to the requested change, and for ESFA to reflect these changes in the school or colleges 2023 to 2024 General Annual Grant (GAG) statement issued in March 2023, the school must submit a signed and sealed DoV to ESFA by 9 December 2022. See High needs place change process: academic year 2023 to 2024 for further information.

If the funding agreement does not reflect the requested activity, or the school / college does not submit a DoV, ESFA cannot support the change.

iii. ‘Proposed date of change’ (column D):

Enter the date the change is expected to come into effect, this cell will only accept the date the workbook is completed (or a later date) and use the format dd/mm/yyyy

iv. ‘UKPRN’ (column E):

This must be an eight-digit number with no letters.

When you enter the UKPRN, the school or college details and place numbers will automatically populate the appropriate fields. This default information is retrieved from the ‘2022 to 2023 HN Data’ worksheet. Where a UKPRN is unknown or has not been assigned, it may have been necessary to create a temporary UKPRN for the workbook to populate correctly. If you are unsure what the UKPRN should be, go to the ‘2022 to 2023 HN Data’ worksheet and filter by the school’s name. The UKPRN is listed in column A.

Previously greyed out cells will change to white and open to allow you to enter data where applicable. If cells remain grey, then these columns will not relate to the provider type associated with the school and they should not be completed.

Enter the ‘2023 to 2024 revised place numbers’ in the cell that you want to change. Only whole place numbers will be accepted. Enter the total number of places you require, not the difference between the new and old place numbers. For example, if a school has 13 pre-16 high needs places and a total of 20 places is required, enter 20.

The difference between the new and old place numbers will appear in the following cell ‘Difference in 2023 to 2024 against 2022 to 2023’.

Where no change is required, leave the cell blank and the 2022 to 2023 place numbers will automatically roll-forward. If ‘0’ is entered into the ‘2023 to 2024 revised place number’ columns, the final place numbers will be set at zero.

Columns AN to AP calculate the total high needs places (excluding hospital education) for each school or college.

Columns AQ to AV allow changes relating to hospital education place numbers and/or the per-place amount for academies only. The difference in place numbers and per-place funding when compared to 2022 to 2023 is calculated in columns AS and AV, respectively. The calculations in these cells will be displayed if the provider type in column I is selected. The total hospital education funding is calculated in column AW for each applicable school or college.

A summary of all place changes applied to the 2023 to 2024 data is set out at the top of the worksheet in row 5, starting at column K.

‘Hospital Education Template’ worksheet

This worksheet can be used to submit requests to change hospital education funding for 2023 to 2024 at a local authority level through the dedicated schools grant (DSG) high needs funding block.

Use the ‘Hospital education funding: guidance for 2023 to 2024’ to help you apply for changes to this funding.

If, because of this change, there is also an impact on the number of funded hospital education places at an academy, you should notify ESFA of changes to the provider level allocations via one of the sections on the ‘Place Change Notification (PCN)’ worksheet.

To submit this request, you must confirm this intention by checking the tick box ‘Confirm funding’ in cell A4. This will release the form so all sections of the template can be completed. The ‘Confirm funding’ tick box should not be unticked if the template is populated.

An error notification will be displayed if data is entered into the hospital education template and the ‘Confirm funding’ tick box is unticked. This must be rectified before submitting the worksheet.

For all changes, provide:

• ‘Hospital provider details’ (cell A6): including NHS provider, the change in medical provision, date of change and confirmation that NHS evidence is attached
• ‘Hospital education provider details’ (cell A21): including name of education provider, education provider type, LAEstab (if relevant), current hospital education funding and the change in funding required - please also set out (in the additional information box at cell A35) the impact of the change in medical provision on the education provision required
• ‘Resources’ (cell A41): including a breakdown of additional resource required and associated costs - total funding will be calculated in cell D55
• ‘NHS evidence’ (A57): the evidence ESFA require is set out in the Hospital education funding: guidance (instructions on how to insert a document is set out in cell A68)

‘Validation’ worksheet

The ‘Validation’ worksheet has been added as a check for local authorities to ensure the workbook is completed correctly. Prior to submitting the completed workbook to ESFA, you should check that all values in the validation table show as ‘Pass’. ESFA will request corrective action and a resubmission where a validation result shows as ‘Fail’.

Key points to note about the ‘Validation’ worksheet are:

• cell D2 gives the overall validation status of the workbook – this should show as ‘Pass’ before submitting the completed workbook to ESFA
• cell D4 and D6 show the final validation status concerning the ‘Cover’ worksheet with focus on the primary contact details and the primary contact signed declaration
• cell D9 indicates if the DCS signature has been completed by showing ‘Yes’ (the DCS signature is only required if the ‘Hospital Education Template’ worksheet is completed)
• cell D11 shows the status of the PCN worksheet, where this shows as a ‘Fail’ refer to row 18 - starting at column D - this gives the summary status for each column where data can be entered (where a ‘Fail’ appears search that column in the table below to identify the cell containing the error, this will be highlighted in red – the table below reflects the format of the PCN worksheet and you can use this to locate the cell that has been populated incorrectly on the PCN worksheet)
• cell D13 displays ‘Yes’ when the ‘Confirm funding’ box on the ‘Hospital Education Template’ worksheet has been completed

As with the PCN worksheet, links at cells A17 and A19 have been added to the ‘Validation’ worksheet to direct you to the two sections of the workbook relating to ‘New/Existing’ entries and ‘Change’ from current high needs places.

‘PCN Lookups’ Worksheet

The information contained in this worksheet is lookup data that supports drop-down functionality.