Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 21 January 2016

Published 22 January 2016

This correspondence was withdrawn on 20 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Reminder: Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R06 data collection

The ILR R06 data collection will open at 9am on Friday 22 January and will close at 6pm on Thursday 4 February.

R06 is a mandatory collection for all ILR EFA funded organisations.

The information is used to calculate:

• the lagged student numbers for 2016 to 2017 funding allocations
• commercial and charitable provider (CCP) reconciliation for 2015 to 2016

It is also used by the Office for National Statistics for Statistical First Release data.

Please use the EFA funding reports to ensure all your EFA funded students are accurately recorded.

You must submit your files to the data collections facility in the Hub.

2. Information: traineeships

The government recently announced that from 1 August 2016 it will remove the requirement that providers must be graded ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted to deliver traineeships. This puts traineeships on par with other further education (FE) provision.

To give providers greater flexibility, this change will now apply from 1 February 2016.

Providers will be able to deliver traineeships ahead of the 2016 to 2017 academic year if they have:

• an existing funding allocation

• the appropriate contractual arrangements

For the academic year 2016 to 2017 all EFA funded providers will be eligible to deliver traineeships from their 2016 to 2017 funding allocations.

3. Action: spring school census 2016

The spring school census 2016 day is 21 January 2016.

Don’t forget to make your return by Wednesday 17 February 2016.

Further information on school census returns is available on GOV UK.

4. Information: EFA online calendar

This is a reminder that you can find information about the EFA business cycle in our online calendar. This covers EFA deadlines and tasks that you need to complete. You can also filter, print and download events.

The calendar is available on EFA Information Exchange. It replaces the EFA wall-planner on GOV.UK.

When using the calendar, please remember to choose your organisation type. This will make sure you can view the most relevant items for you. To do this, select the relevant audience from the menu on the left side of the screen and press ‘apply’. If you haven’t selected an audience type, you won’t be able to see any calendar items.

More information about accessing EFA Information Exchange is available on GOV.UK.

5. Reminder: statutory monitoring and moderation arrangements for primary assessments

Please submit details of arrangements for the monitoring of national curriculum tests and moderation of teacher assessment using the online form. This should be submitted to the Standards and Testing Agency by Friday 29 January 2016.

For any queries email the Standards and Testing Agency.

6. Information: safer recruitment pre-appointment checks

From 18 January 2016, schools can use the Employer Access (EA) online service to identify restrictions imposed by all authorities in the European Economic Area (EEA).

This service is in addition to the teacher prohibition pre-appointment checks. These are detailed in part 3 of the ‘Keeping children safe in education’ statutory guidance.

Restrictions imposed by another EEA authority do not prevent an individual from taking up teaching positions in England. However, schools should consider the circumstances leading to the restriction when considering a candidate’s suitability. The EA online service explains how to get further information about EEA restrictions.

The EA Online service will be updated in late February to include a separate EEA sanction list. In the meantime schools should access the ‘teachers prohibited from the profession’ list to check EEA authority restrictions in force.

You can’t use the general search function to identify these restrictions. The EA online service will only identify EEA sanctions made after 18 January 2016.

7. Information: improving online information to local authorities

The Department for Education (DfE) is looking for people who work in local authorities to take part in a research study designed to identify the needs of DfE’s audiences and to improve our online information. Working with specialist user experience agency, we’ve launched a 10-minute survey to better understand:

• the job roles within local authorities that relate to education and children’s services
• the information that you need from us in your job
• where you look for this information
• which sources you trust most for getting this information

If you’d like to help us gain a more accurate understanding of your role and information needs, please complete our short survey. The survey closes for responses at 5pm on Friday 29 January.

If you have any questions, do get in touch with user researcher Lisa Cutcliffe.