Correspondence

Inform December 2020

Updated 18 January 2022

This correspondence was withdrawn on 25 September 2023

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date.

You can find the latest from ESFA in our weekly newsletter, ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Information: feconnect will be replaced by Communities

From Thursday 10 December, feconnect will be replaced by ESFA Communities.

Feconnect is being replaced by a more robust, accessible service. ESFA Communities is now live and so feconnect will be read only from Thursday 10 December 2020. From this date it will not be possible to create or reply to topics or posts. Feconnect users will need to create a new ESFA communities account to post, reply or subscribe for email alerts.

Please do encourage colleagues to create an account with the new service.

Feconnect will continue to be available as a read only site. We will track usage over the coming months to understand when the site can be closed down.

If you have any questions email us at customer.experience@education.gov.uk.

2. Information: 2019 to 2020 final reconciliation statements

Thank you for submitting your 2019 to 2020 final funding claim.

Reconciliation statements are now available on Manage your education skills and funding. If yours is not yet available, you should be able to view this soon.

They set out the final position for the 2019 to 2020 funding year and will inform the funding that you will be required to repay (if applicable) or over delivery funding that we will pay.

If you have submitted a business case for review, we will send you your reconciliation statement by the end of December after the case has been reviewed.

If you are required to repay funds back to us, we will schedule those repayments from December 2020.

3. Information: changes to the individualised learner record (ILR) for the 2021 to 2022 academic year

Thank you to those who responded on ESFA Communities to our proposed changes to the ILR for 2021 to 2022. We can now confirm the changes taken forward.

3.1 Prior Attainment

Removing the existing prior attainment field and replacing it with a new entity containing level and a date applies field. We will also be adding in Level 2 and Level 3 codes to the lookup table.

3.2 Employment Status Monitoring Type

An indicator to be used in the funding calculation to fund eligible redundant learners.

Further changes may be announced in 2021.

4. Information: qualification achievement rates (QARs) and achievement volumes

We have already announced that we will not publish ‘qualification achievements rates’ at institution level as part of the National Achievement Rate Tables (NARTs) for the 2019/20 academic year due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

However, we will continue to publish achievement ‘volumes’ at provider level as part of our National Statistics release at the end of November 2020. This supports a range of uses including:

• transparency on where money has been spent
• an understanding of what skills are delivered to the market to enable skills planning
• detail on which areas or providers are supporting certain aims

Additionally, due to adult FE being a demand led system, ‘local area’ stakeholders such as Mayoral Combined Authorities will also be keen to show achievements.

Achievement ‘volumes’ do not include grades achieved, only level, and are not be used for accountability purposes. It is also not possible to replicate the NARTs from this achievement data.

If you have any questions then please contact the DfE stats team: FE.OFFICIALSTATISTICS@education.gov.uk.

5. Information: Find Apprenticeship Training redesign

We have redesigned the find apprenticeship training function in the apprenticeship service to make it easier for employers to find the information they need.

Our improvements will:

• make it easier for employers to compare training providers by displaying their overall ratings in a list
• show information on a providers ‘strengths’ and ‘things to improve’, listing (up to) the top 3 for each section
• order training provider results by considering employer reviews, achievement rates and distance

For any queries please visit https://help.apprenticeships.education.gov.uk or contact the Apprenticeship Service on 08000 150 600.

6. Information: updates to the Apprenticeship Service support videos

Users can find videos on how to use different functions of the apprenticeship service in the “Using the apprenticeship service” playlist available on our ESFAGOVUK YouTube Channel.

We have recently made improvements to the following support videos:

• reserving apprenticeship funds
• adding an apprentice to an account

We have also added a new video demonstrating how to apply for an incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice.

how to apply for an incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice

Alongside these we have recordings from our webinars available on the “Apprenticeship service – webinar recordings” playlist and any future recordings will continue to be uploaded here.

Videos created to support the delivery of apprenticeships are available on the “Apprenticeship Support Videos” playlist.

You can also search for help in the apprenticeship service.

7. Information: National Apprenticeship Week theme

“Build the Future” is the theme for NAW2021, taking place between 8 and 14 February 2021, aiming to encourage everyone to consider how apprenticeships help individuals to build the skills and knowledge required for a rewarding career.

The 14th annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships, taking place across England, will showcase the impact apprenticeships can have on communities, local businesses and regional economies and how they all benefit from the impact of apprenticeships.

To support National Apprenticeship Week 2021, individuals, employers, training providers and communities are being encouraged to get involved, to celebrate apprenticeships and how they:

TRAIN apprentices, and future proof their workforce and careers through apprenticeships;

RETAIN apprentices, gaining the skills and knowledge needed by the business, and seeing apprentices thrive, whilst having impact;

ACHIEVE a real return on investment from apprentices; realising the business benefits of apprenticeships, with apprentices progressing in their chosen careers.

A toolkit is available now to support the apprenticeship community with planning their activity for National Apprenticeship Week 2021.

If you have any questions please email: The.Week@education.gov.uk

For updates on National Apprenticeship Week and the campaign follow National Apprenticeship Service on our social media channels: Twitter: @Apprenticeships

Twitter: @FireItUp_Apps

Instagram: @fireitupapps

Facebook: FireItUpApps

LinkedIn: National Apprenticeship Service

The Week Hashtags: #NAW2021 #BuildTheFuture

8. Information: updates to the Learning Records Service portal

You can expect to see some changes to the look of the Learning Records Service from early next year.

We have been working to make the service more accessible and in the same style as other gov.uk sites.

The features and data will not change - you will be able to do everything that you could before. We will send an email closer to the time with more details.

9. Information: Analyse FE Data (AFED) being release on 17th December 2020

A new tool has been developed for FE providers that allows you to visualise and analyse your post-ILR submission data.

9.1 What AFED will offer

You’ll be able to view your learner data split by education & training (E&T) and apprenticeships and view both learner and learning aim data points.

You’ll also be able to filter the data by funding models, 3 years’ worth of data and individual return periods. We have been able to show an average against providers of the same type, meaning that you can get an idea of how others are performing.

There are 3 ‘drill throughs’- sections that show your data in more detail. The sections are individual aims, demographics and subcontractors. Each section can be filtered, enabling you to tailor the data to your needs.

Every visual and section of data can be exported for you undertake further analyse as you see fit.

9.2 How to get access

The tool will be released on view your education data (VYED). You will need an Identity and Access Management System (IDAMS) account to get access to the tool. Once in VYED, you will also need to request the ‘View Your Education Data – AFED’ role.

There is no limit on who can have access from your setting, we want anyone who finds it helpful to have access to it. Your setting ‘super user’ may need to give others access once the tool is available.

You can do this now, so that you are ready to use AFED when it launches on the 17th December.

10. Funding rules monitoring year-end activity

Following the final R14 ILR return for 2019 to 2020, we have completed our assurance activities and identified ineligible or over-claimed funding which we need to recover to ensure that providers’ final contract positions are correct. We calculated this error value from the following reports, which we may have written to you about in-year:

Report	Area
FRM01	Learners repeating a learning aim they have already achieved
FRM04	Changes to the ‘Actual end date’ between years
FRM05	Changes in the ‘Learning planned end date’ between funding years
FRM13	Learners undertaking English and/or maths within an apprenticeship when they have already achieved level 1 or above
FRM16	Learners who have achieved a full level 2 qualification (or higher) and are fully funded for a further level 2 entitlement aim
FRM17	Learners who have achieved a full level 3 qualification (or higher) and are subsequently funded (full or co-) for a further level 3 entitlement aim

For provision funded through a contract for services, we will offset the amount against future delivery. We will reflect this offset amount in your January payment.

For provision funded through a grant, we will record an adjustment on your reconciliation statement, to be offset against published tolerances.

We are working with providers and other external partners to improve the way we support providers with data quality or funding eligibility issues in the 2020 to 2021 funding year.

We recently published a new post-16 monitoring reports dashboard in View your education data alongside simplified guidance to support the reports and the dashboard; this should make the actions we require you to take clearer.

We invite you to test and feedback on the dashboard and guidance before we release the 2020 to 2021 reports following the R04 ILR submission.

We will continue to publish additional support materials throughout the year, and we will inform you of these through our usual communication channels such as Update and Inform.