Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 6 June 2018

Published 6 June 2018

This correspondence was withdrawn on 20 February 2020

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Find the latest information from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the latest ESFA Update.

Applies to England

1. Information: Academies Accounts Direction 2017 to 2018

We have published the Academies Accounts Direction 2017 to 2018. This is the reference pack for you and your auditors to use when preparing and auditing your trust’s annual reports and financial statements.

Page 6 details the significant changes from last year’s document. A new requirement is reporting information on trade union facility time to comply with the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017.

You will need to submit your audited financial statements and management letter for 2017 to 2018 to ESFA 4 months after your accounting period. For most academy trusts, the accounting period will be to 31 August, with a submission date by 31 December 2018.

We will provide information about how to submit your financial statements later in the year.

2. Information: academies budget forecast return (BFR)

We have published the BFR Excel workbook and guide to help trusts prepare their return.

The online form will go live on Thursday, 21 June and the deadline is Monday, 30 July.

We are making good progress with the budget forecast return outturn (BFRO) and appreciate the efforts of trusts in submitting their returns on time. If you have not yet provided your BFRO, please do so as soon as possible as we need to get a full dataset.

3. Reminder: summer school census 2018

The summer school census 2018 deadline for approved submissions is Wednesday, 13 June. The database will close to amendments from schools and local authorities on Wednesday, 4 July.

When completing any validation or editing of your return you must press the ‘submit’ button in COLLECT to confirm you are content for your return to be processed.

We will deem schools with a return status in COLLECT of ‘loaded and validated’ or ‘amended by source’ outstanding. DfE will not be able to process them until the return has been ‘submitted’.

4. Information: condition data collection

We are conducting a high-level assessment of condition for all government-funded schools in England. This will help us target capital allocation and understand how the condition of the school estate is changing over time.

We are now over a year into the condition data collection (CDC) programme. With the support of schools and responsible bodies, surveying organisations have visited over 9,000 schools across the country. They have collected the required data and have released over 1,000 school condition reports to schools and responsible bodies on the CDC portal.

We will be releasing more condition reports in the coming months for those schools that have already had a CDC visit. We will be emailing schools and responsible bodies when their report is available.

For further information on the CDC programme, visit GOV.UK.

5. Information: industry placement guidance materials

A set of guidance materials focusing on how to effectively implement industry placements (formerly ‘work placements’) are now available on Association of Colleges website.

Based on a pilot scheme running throughout 2017 to 2018 academic year, The Challenge, on behalf of the department have created these resources for post-16 education providers and employers. They will be particularly useful for providers who will be delivering industry placements in 2018 to 2019 academic year with funding from the capacity and delivery fund.

The guidance covers a range of things including implementing the placements, engaging staff and students, and a toolkit for employer engagement.

A second batch of guidance resources will be available from July 2018. We will let you know when these are available through ESFA Update.

6. Information: feedback on 16 to 19 revenue funding allocation videos

In ESFA e-bulletin Thursday, 10 May edition, we let you know about the opportunity to give your feedback on some videos to improve your understanding of 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations.

Thank you to those who have already responded. The survey is open until Sunday, 10 June for anybody who is planning to provide feedback.

7. Information: Green for Grenfell, Friday 15 June

Thursday 14, June will mark one year since the Grenfell tragedy. On Friday, 15 June Grenfell United are inviting schools to take part in Green for Grenfell Day, by wearing green and helping with a local community project.

To join in, you can:

• wear something green to school
• help with a school project or local cause
• use the hashtag #GreenForGrenfellDay

You can find more information on Grenfell United’s website.