EFA e-bulletin for academies: 17 July 2014
Published 18 July 2014
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1. Action: EFA Information Exchange accounts activated
EFA has now activated all accounts for the EFA Information Exchange.
To access it, all EFA-funded institutions need to use the Department for Education Secure Access portal.
If you have recently signed up for a Secure Access account, please look out for the details you need to activate it.
EFA has sent a letter containing the PIN to your head of institution, and emailed the person who has registered to be your institution’s approver with their user name and activation link.
You need both to activate the account. The link will only work the first time you click it – so you need to make sure you have the PIN to hand at the same time.
If you have not received these by Wednesday 23 July, or have any problems logging on, please contact the Secure Access team. You can read more about managing your access to EFA Information Exchange on GOV.UK.
The EFA Information Exchange includes the Document Exchange, which allows you to download and upload documents about your institution and a variety of online forms. In the autumn term EFA will be adding a calendar of important activities and deadlines, and a knowledge base to help you answer any questions you may have.
2. Action: online training for academies on the financial framework
Narrated presentations and videos of the 15 July webinars on the academies financial framework are now available to view online.
3. Action: August accounts return and guidance published
EFA has published the accounts return and benchmarking return for the year ending 31 August 2014. Academy trusts will need to review the guide and submit their returns by 31 January 2015.
4. Information: March accounts returns validation tests
EFA’s delivery partners, Deloitte, are currently applying a series of validation tests to academy trusts’ accounts returns to identify any errors.
Deloitte may need to contact academy trusts on our behalf in order to resolve queries or ask for more detail on aspects of the accounts return.
Once Deloitte have completed the validation work, it may be necessary for EFA to contact some academy trusts to ask for more detail on aspects of the accounts return, for example, on expenditure on professional services.
5. Reminder: budget forecast return due 31 July
The deadline for academy trusts open as at 31 March 2014 to submit their budget forecasts for the 2014 to 2015 academic year is 31 July 2014.
On 30 June 2014 we launched a using a new online form for academy trusts’ budget forecasts. The online form includes some in-built data validation checks which will help minimise error and requests for additional information.
For trusts opening on or after 1 April 2014, the submission deadline is either 6 weeks from receiving their funding letter or 31 July 2014, depending which is later.
6. Information: academy trusts’ accounts
EFA has published academy trusts’ financial statements (accounts) for the period 1 September 2012 to 31 August 2013 and trusts’ value for money statements. These sit alongside other information about academies on the DfE schools performance website.
Academy trusts should also have published their audited accounts on the trust’s website and filed them at Companies House by 31 May 2014. As set out in the 2013 to 2014 accounts direction, the deadline for publishing accounts on trusts’ websites next year will be 31 January 2015.
New academy trusts should note the need to change the trust’s accounting reference date to 31 August as soon as possible after incorporation. Companies House sets out how to do this in ‘GP2 - life of a company’
7. Action: academy auditors’ event on 10 September
EFA is holding a event for academy auditors on 10 September in Nottingham. This will be a practical session covering the main accounting issues within the sector, and will include a presentation from the National Audit Office.
If you are an academy auditor and are interested in attending please email AcademiesFinancialMonitoring.EFA@education.gsi.gov.uk by 31 July 2014.
Attendees are restricted to two per audit firm as spaces are limited. To cover the cost of holding the event we are charging a fee of £55 per place.
8. Information: fairer schools funding – arrangements for 2015 to 2016
The Department for Education has announced how £390 million of additional schools funding will be allocated in 2015 to 2016 to the least fairly funded local areas in England. Details are published on GOV.UK.
9. Information: 16 to 19 funding guidance
EFA has published the 16 to 19 funding regulations and funding rates and formulaguidance documents for 2014 to 2015. There is very little change from the equivalent documents for 2013 to 2014.
These documents complement the sub-contracting controls guidance, published earlier this year. The final element of the funding guidance for 2014 to 2015, on funding returns and reconciliation, will be published later this month.
10. Information: 16 to 19 Bursary Fund - changes to the 2014 to 2015 guide
EFA has updated the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guide for the 2014 to 2015 academic year. Updates cover:
- children in care/care leavers, plus foster arrangements
- Prince’s Trust additional information
- recycled funding and underspends
The main change is around recycled funding and underspends. Institutions that have unspent bursary funds at the end of the 2013 to 2014 academic year, regardless of the amount and from what year, should roll them into their 2014 to 2015 academic year discretionary bursary allocations and use them to support eligible students.
11. Information: 16 to 19 funding - maths and English condition of funding
From August 2014, all full time students without an A*-C in either maths or English will need to study those subjects. It becomes a condition of funding that they are doing so from this autumn. We have published a list of approved qualifications.
EFA has also published further guidance on this policy, which sits alongside the announcement on GCSEs that was highlighted in the 3 July EFA e-bulletin.