EFA e-bulletin for academies: 15 December 2016
Published 15 December 2016
© Crown copyright 2016
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/efa-e-bulletin-15-december-2016-issue-154/efa-e-bulletin-for-academies-15-december-2016
1. Information: academies accounts return 2015 to 2016
You can now watch a video of last week’s accounts return webinar. Thank you for all of your questions at the webinar and those submitted to our enquiry service.
If you’re planning to submit your accounts return using the spreadsheet, we’ve updated the accounts return 2015 to 2016 Excel workbook. Please download the latest version.
If you started to complete the workbook before 10 November 2016 and are unable to select the counterparty names required, please contact our enquiry service.
Please note that any trust planning to submit their accounts return in the Excel workbook format by 31 December 2016 should also ensure that a signed pdf copy of their auditor’s assurance statement is submitted alongside the workbook. You can find a draft of this statement in the ‘external auditor approval’ tab of the workbook.
We will gratefully receive any feedback from users who have started completing the online form by completing the accounts return survey. There’s also a link to the survey on the first page of the return.
2. Information: national funding formula: second stage consultation
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched the second stage of its consultation on the national funding formulae (NFF) for schools and high needs.
The second stage consultation sets out the detailed proposals for factor weightings and includes illustrative data to show the impact of the proposals for each school and local authority (LA).
Schools and LAs can see illustrative NFF funding allocations on the schools consultation and high needs consultation homepages. These show the funding they would receive if the formula was implemented in full in 2016 to 2017, without any transitional protections. The figures are illustrative, not actual allocations for any specific year. They are provided to inform the consultation.
The consultation will close on 22 March 2017.
3. Information: schools revenue funding settlement 2017 to 2018
We will publish 2017 to 2018 local authority allocations for the dedicated schools grant (DSG) and the education services grant (ESG) transitional grant by 20 December 2016.
We will also confirm the arrangements for ESG protection for academies for 2017 to 2018 by this date.
4. Information: adjustments to local authority funding related to free schools
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the government response to the consultation on recouping funding from local authorities for mainstream free schools in their first year of opening.
Recoupment is the process of deducting the funding for pupils in free schools from the schools funding given to local authorities, so funding is not provided for the same pupils twice.
5. Information: delivery data for the Youth Contract to the end of March 2016
We have published the data for delivery of EFA managed Youth Contract for 16 and 17 year olds. The data covers the whole period of the Youth Contract programme (September 2012 to March 2016).
6. Action: school workforce census deadline
The deadline for submitting and approving your school workforce census is Friday 16 December.
Submitting and authorising this data is a statutory duty for all academies. School workforce census data is submitted into the COLLECT system.
You can find the notepad entries you need to use for errors or queries with data in the guidance on acceptable notepad entries to use for COLLECT queries.
Please ensure that returns are accompanied by an accurate notepad entry. Failure to provide this will result in an unauthorised return.
You can contact us using the service request form if you have any problems.
7. Information: establishing and developing a multi-academy trust
The Department for Education (DfE) has published multi-academy trusts (MATs): establishing and developing your trust giving advice on what regional schools commissioners look for when they assess and approve new MATs and plans for existing MATs to grow.
It also gives guidance on developing a successful trust, including advice on:
- school governance and leadership
- helping schools improve
- financial sustainability and risk management