EFA e-bulletin for academies: 20 August 2015
Published 21 August 2015
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1. Action: academy auditors’ event on 3 September
We are holding an event for academy auditors on 3 September at the NEC in Birmingham. It will take place from 9.30am until 3.45pm.
This will be a practical session covering accounting issues within the sector, and include presentations from the National Audit Office and Regional Schools Commissioners.
If you are an academy auditor and are interested in attending please register online. To allow all audit firms a chance to register for the event, attendance will initially be restricted as 2 people per firm. If you are interested in any additional places, please let us know when you register.
To cover the cost of holding the event we are charging £60 (plus booking fee) per place.
2. Information: land and buildings valuations available
Land and building valuations for all new academies that opened between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015 are now available on Document Exchange within EFA Information Exchange.
You can find your valuation in the finance and payments folder for your academy under ‘AY 2014-15’. This valuation is for information only, and academies don’t need to do anything with it.
You can find more information of how we prepare land and buildings valuations and how they may be used on GOV.UK.
New academies should complete and submit the land and buildings valuation form to EFA within 6 weeks of opening.
3. Information: audit approach for 16 to 19 study programmes
We have published the audit approach for 16 to 19 study programmes funded in the 2014 to 2015 academic year.
The audit approach applies directly to charitable and commercial providers. The principles are also relevant to specialist post-16 institutions, academies, local authority schools and college providers.
4. Information: Universal Credit and the 16 to 19 vulnerable bursary
Universal Credit will gradually replace Income Support and the Employment and Support Allowance, which are qualifying benefits for the vulnerable bursary.
Universal Credit award notifications do not include any information on which benefits they have replaced. This means you will not be able to see whether a student meets the Income Support or Employment and Support Allowance criteria when they apply to claim a vulnerable bursary.
From September you should ask any student claiming a vulnerable bursary based on a Universal Credit award to tell you which benefit it has replaced. This will allow you to complete the claims form correctly.
Students who receive a Universal Credit award in place of Employment and Support Allowance must also be receiving Disability Living Allowance or its replacement, Personal Independence Payment.
If a learner is unsure why they have been awarded Universal Credit, treat it as a replacement for Income Support. You should then send the claim to the Student Bursary Support Service in the usual way.
5. Information: access to personal learning record (PLR) data
The Personal Learning Record (PLR) allows individuals to access their past and current accredited achievement records. Schools, colleges, further education training providers and universities staff can use the PLR to directly access records for individuals making applications or studying at their organisations. Further information about this is available on GOV.UK.
Individuals can access their qualification data via the PLR by signing onto their National Careers Service Lifelong Learning Account. From 28 August, individuals wishing to access their PLR for the first time will be directed to an online form to verify their ID. You will need to check the details, print the form and send it to the Skills Funding Agency, together with the appropriate ID evidence listed alongside the form. Individuals that have already gone through the ID assurance process will continue to have access to the PLR as usual.
If you have any questions, please email the Skills Funding Agency.