Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 29 November 2023

Published 29 November 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: ensure compliance with 16 to 19 Bursary Fund following audit outcomes

Please take action to ensure compliance with 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guidance. Recent finding from auditors show these errors usually result in you repaying funds to us:

• flat rate payments to groups of students without assessing individual circumstances and needs
• not always undertaking household income assessments or using incomplete evidence
• not basing bursary fund support on actual needs or household income assessment
• making awards to ineligible students
• out of scope bursary funding spend such as general living costs support and learning support
• no suitable evidence to support payments made to students

Auditors found evidence of high balances of unspent bursary fund and/or free meals in further education funding. Our guidance specifies that you must fully use any unspent bursary or free meals money before using new academic year allocations. You can carry over unspent funds for one year.

You must:

• report unspent funding each year using our online enquiry form specifying the funding amount, specific scheme and the year/s the funding relates to
• check, as a minimum, on an annual basis that your organisation is complying with the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guidance, which includes a specific audit section, and the free meals in further education guidance for FE funded institutions that have allocations of that funding

Remember, you can set your own student eligibility criteria for the bursary fund, including the household income threshold that you deem most appropriate for your area / students. You should ensure that the policy you set is affordable from your funding allocation.

2. Action: consultation launched on introducing minimum service levels in education

A consultation on the introduction of minimum service levels in schools, colleges, and universities was launched on GOV.UK yesterday (28 November).

Minimum service levels would ensure that in the event of any future strike action, education would still continue for children and young people across schools, colleges and universities.

As part of this consultation, we would welcome your views.

Following the consultation, the government may use powers within the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 to make regulations to set minimum service levels in the event of strike action. The consultation will provide us with information on the best solution for students, staff, and wider society.

The consultation is open for 8 weeks, until 23 January 2024.

3. Information: funding for time off timetable for early career teachers and mentors who participated in the national roll-out of the early career framework – autumn sweep up payments for eligible schools and organisations 

In August 2023, we published the funding for time off timetable for early career teachers and mentors who participated in the national roll-out of the early career framework (ECF) reforms’ allocations for eligible participants who undertook year 2 ECF training in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The sweep up payment has been slightly delayed and will now be made in early 2024. This is to ensure all eligible schools and organisations not captured in the summer 2023 payment window will be paid in-year.

Please ensure all relevant actions are completed on the Department for Education (DfE) manage training for early career teachers service page and that your training provider has also confirmed participant engagement with the training programme with the department.

For those schools and organisations within Buckinghamshire who were incorrectly identified as ‘rest of England’ instead of the ‘London fringe’ area, we will also be making payment corrections in the autumn sweep up.

These corrections will be applicable for 2023 payment allocations.

Please note that corrective payments will be made automatically to those affected schools and organisations.

4. Information: backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training for the 2022 to 2023 academic year – sweep up payments for eligible schools and organisations 

In August 2023, we published the backfill payments for time off timetable for early career framework (ECF) mentor training allocations (national roll-out) for participants who have undertaken ECF mentor training in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The sweep up payment has been slightly delayed and will now be made in early 2024. This is to ensure all eligible schools and organisations not captured in the summer 2023 payment window will be paid in-year.

Please ensure all relevant actions are completed on the Department for Education (DfE) manage training for early career teachers service page and that your training provider has also confirmed participant engagement with the training programme with the department.

For those schools and institutions within Buckinghamshire who were incorrectly identified as ‘rest of England’ instead of the ‘London fringe’ area, we will also be making payment corrections in the early 2024 sweep up.

These corrections will be applicable for 2022 and 2023 payment allocations.

Please note that corrective payments will be made automatically to those affected schools and organisations.

5. Information: ESFA investigation publishing policy update

ESFA is committed to transparency and learning lessons in reporting how public money has been used within the education sector. 

Publishing the outcomes of our investigations is one aspect of how ESFA supports the education sector in understanding where valuable lessons may be learned when instances of fraud, financial irregularity or error are identified. Specifically, our vast education provider base can implement or review their own preventative measures to assure themselves and ESFA that public money paid to them is being used as Parliament intends.

ESFA has updated our investigation publishing policy. We will continue to publish outcomes from our investigations, and the new policy will bring a consistent approach across all of our education providers.

6. Information: R03 release of data in the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard

We have published reports for the 2023 to 2024 funding year in the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard. This supports providers to identify any data errors early and make necessary amendments in their R04 ILR return. The landing page table will be fully populated at R04.

For 16 to 19 learners, please ensure that planned learning hours, and employment, enrichment, and pastoral hours are recorded correctly for the current teaching year.

If you are unfamiliar with either these reports or accessing the dashboard to view queries, please refer to the Financial Assurance: Monitoring post-16 funding for 2023 to 2024 guidance for instructions on what to do. If you require further assistance, you can submit an enquiry or visit the help centre, via the blue buttons on the landing page of the dashboard.

7. Information: join these webinars on approved frameworks and see how you can save money for your school – spaces available 5 December

The DfE’s Schools Commercial Team is hosting free webinars on 5 December on how using approved frameworks could save you time and help your school get value for money. Click on the links to find out more and book your place:

• 09:30: Risk protection arrangement – DfE’s alternative to commercial insurance
• 11:00:  How the Get help buying for schools service can support your school buying
• 14:00: Tailor made audit services for academies and schools

The new policy will be effective for all new investigations from 12 December 2023. The scope of our policy will apply to academy trusts, colleges, independent training providers, high needs institutions and higher education institutions.

8. Information: academy finance professionals December Power Hour

Would you like to know more about the Academies Accounts Return (AR) online form?

Join the next Power Hour on 14 December 2 to 3pm.

This session will be led by the Corporate Assurance and Academy Returns team and will include the following:

• What is the AR Online form all about?
• Why is the data collected?
• How the team supports its users
• A demo of the online form highlighting key features

There will be an opportunity to ask questions and the team will answer as many as possible during the event.

Register now to guarantee your place.

9. Your feedback: user research on helping students to move through the education system

We’re looking for schools to help with user research on how we can make it easier for students to move through the education system by sharing information with students to help them with application and enrolment.  Research sessions will aim to understand your current school processes and get your feedback on our ideas.

There will be sessions up to 15 December as well as early 2024. If you’d like to help, sign up by emailing [email protected] and let us know your availability.

The sessions will last for an hour, and you’ll need access to Microsoft Teams. If you’re shortlisted for a session, we’ll send you a meeting invite and a consent form.

We may not, however, be able to shortlist everyone who responds.