Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 8 November 2023

Updated 9 November 2023

Applies to England

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1. Action: check your recovery email for the 2022 to 2023 National Tutoring Programme grant 

This week, we are emailing all schools that received the 2022 to 2023 National Tutoring Programme grant to confirm whether we will recover any funding.  

If you do not receive an email by 14 November, please contact us. 

We will email you from [email protected] and use the email addresses provided when your organisation completed the year-end statement, or contact details from Get Information about Schools if your organisation didn’t submit the form.   

As set out in the grant conditions, we may recover funding based on what you told us in your year-end statement. If you did not complete the year-end statement, we will recover your full allocation. 

We are planning to email local authorities, including virtual school heads, next week.  

2. Information: an introduction to the free School Resource Management offer for local authorities 

You are invited to join us virtually on Wednesday 29 November from 9:30 to 12:30 for an introduction to the School Resource Management (SRM) offer.  

In this session you can learn all about the SRM suite of free information, tools, training, and guidance, which has been designed in partnership with the sector, to help you and your teams best support your schools to get the most out of their resources.  

Hear from senior DfE officials and sector representatives on how the collection of free SRM tools and services can support you in supporting your schools, how you can access them and how they can benefit you and your schools. This event is live and interactive so come prepared to ask questions! 

This virtual event is free and open to all local authorities and maintained schools, so please do forward this invite onto anyone who you think might benefit from attending.  

Sign up now! 

In the meantime you can access the full suite of SRM tools via the SRM collection page, or for a quick video overview of the SRM offer check out the SRM YouTube channel. 

3. Information: a new resource hub to support Mental Health Leads in schools and colleges.  

A new online resource hub has been launched by Anna Freud. Commissioned by the Department for Education, Anna Freud have collaborated with a range of education and mental health experts to produce this new hub for mental health leads and other education staff.  

The hub will support schools and colleges to embed and sustain a whole-school or college approach to mental health and wellbeing. It offers practical resources and tools from trusted organisations, including senior mental health lead training providers, all under one roof, further supporting mental health leads to continue to develop their role and better support the children and young people in their setting.   

The hub has been designed in consultation with a wide range of sector and professional bodies, including the Association of Colleges, to ensure it is suitable for different setting types and age ranges, including colleges, distinguishing between the bespoke needs of a varied workforce.  

4. Information: Stratford-upon-Avon and Wakefield school business professional (SBP) roundtables – spaces available  

Are you responsible for buying for your school or trust?  There are spaces available at our Stratford-upon-Avon and Wakefield roundtable events.  

If you are based nearby and would like to join colleagues from across your region to network, share your procurement issues and priorities, and find out more about the free procurement support available from the DfE, book your place now: 

5. Information: are you looking to buy gas or electric for your school or trust? 

If your energy contract is coming up for renewal, there are several DfE approved frameworks offering a quick, simple and competitive route to buy.  

The Schools Commercial Team is hosting a series of free webinars with a focus on DfE approved energy frameworks, to help you make an informed choice on the best deal for your school. Click on the links to find out more and book your place: 

You can find the full programme of webinars for the remainder of the autumn term on the Autumn 2023 webinar page.  

6. Information: join these webinars on approved frameworks and see how you could save money for your school 

Are you a school business professional who buys goods and services for your school?  

The Schools Commercial team host regular webinars on how using DfE approved frameworks could help your school get value for money. Click on the links to find out more and book your place: 

7. Your feedback: user research on your experience of using ESFA funding service 

We are conducting research to understand the needs of ESFA users.  

We would like to invite you to participate in an interview session to gain an understanding of your experience as a user of ESFA services. The session would last for up to an hour. You will need access to Microsoft Teams.  

If you are involved in any process to get funding from ESFA for your organisation and would like to participate kindly, 

  • send an email to [email protected]  
  • provide your availability that is convenient for you before the Monday 13th November 2023.  

Research sessions will be conducted from Monday 13th November till Friday 17th November 2023. 

If you are shortlisted for the research session, we will send you a meeting invite and a consent form. 

Please note that we may not be able to shortlist every respondent due to logistic constraints.

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