Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for academies: 15 September 2016

Published 15 September 2016

This correspondence was withdrawn on

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Action: the autumn school census COLLECT blade closes on 30 September 2016

A ‘beta’ release of the 2016 autumn school census ‘live’ COLLECT blade is available for you to become familiar with and will remain available until 4pm on 30 September 2016, at which point the blade will be removed. We strongly recommend that academies and local authorities load a file output from their management information system (MIS) onto the COLLECT familiarisation blade.

Institutions may not receive the correct funding amount if the data returns are not accurate. Department for Education (DfE) has published a series of school census guidance videos which discuss funding implications of the autumn census. The videos have useful tips on how academies can prepare for the autumn census.

The autumn school census 2016 opens on 6 October 2016.

The deadline for approved census submissions is 2 November 2016.

2. Information: review of data source for post-16 disadvantage block 2 funding

Disadvantage block 2 funding is currently calculated based on the prior attainment of students at age 16 in English and maths GCSE, using matched administrative data from awarding bodies. We’re considering changing this approach to use data returned by institutions in the school census/individualised learner record (ILR).

This week we uploaded data files to EFA Information Exchange to show how current 2015 to 2016 data could be used for future funding calculations along with supporting documents. We’re sharing this information ahead of the final data returns for the 2015 to 2016 academic year to raise awareness of the importance of the data on prior attainment and to help improve data quality.

We’ll be reviewing final 2015 to 2016 data later in the autumn and making a decision whether to change the data source for this calculation for the 2017 to 2018 allocations.

3. Action: EFA communications - tell us what you think

It’s important to us that the communications you get from EFA are useful, clear, and easy for you to access. That’s why we’ve launched a survey to ask you about your preferences and what you think about EFA communications.

The survey is an important step for us to understand how we can improve the way we communicate with you, so please do take 10 minutes to tell us what you think.

We’ll be using all responses and suggestions to make improvements. Your responses will be completely confidential.

The survey closes on Friday 30 September.