EFA e-bulletin for academies: 23 January 2014
Published 11 March 2014
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/efa-e-bulletin-23-january-2014/efa-e-bulletin-for-academies-23-january-2014
1. Information: EFA wall planners and timeline published
EFA has published the EFA business cycle for 2014. It sets out important, useful information that will help you and your institution plan ahead.
The cycle is available as a wall planner, both for academies and for other institutions (including local authorities) and as a timeline. The timeline includes links to relevant information on the EFA website.
Some timings are indicative and may change. Updates on the delivery of the business cycle and further information on each of the milestones will be available in the e-bulletin. Revised versions of the wall planners and timeline will also be published at the beginning each term.
If you have any comments regarding this cycle, please contact academy.questions@education.gsi.gov.uk for academies or enquiries.EFA@education.gsi.gov.uk for all other types of institution.
2. Information: changes to EFA web pages
EFA has made some changes to its website. It has restructured some of its existing content. A lot of old material has been archived, and the structure of the pages made simpler.
Everything is still available through www.education.gov.uk/efa, and any old pages will redirect automatically to either their new version or the National Archives website.
EFA has changed the ‘funding 16 to 19 education’ page, which has absorbed all the learner support material, including the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.
There are also new sections for ‘capital funding’, including the Priority School Building Programme, and ‘schools building design and maintenance’.
The ‘academies funding and finance’ section will remain largely unchanged.
These changes have all been made in preparation for the closure of the Department for Education website by the end of March. All content will be transferred to the single website for government, GOV.UK, and EFA will tell you when its material is moving.
3. Action: academy trusts submitting financial returns on Deloitte OnLine
As explained in the last EFA e-bulletin, EFA has introduced a new way for academy trusts to submit financial returns such as accounts returns and budget forecasts. Rather than submitting by email to EFA, academy trusts must upload these returns to Deloitte OnLine, a new facility hosted by EFA’s delivery partner, Deloitte.
Your academy trust should by now have received login details for the new online submission system. These accounts are set up for the use of the trust as a whole in submitting returns.
Deloitte sent the login details to the contact EFA has for each academy trust. In most cases this was the academy principal. If your trust has not received a login, please contact Deloitte at ReturnsSubmissionTeam@deloitte.co.uk.
EFA has published a user guide for Deloitte Online on its accounts return and budget forecast web pages.
4. Action: academy trust accounts returns due 31 January 2014
If your academy trust was open and prepared accounts at 31 August 2013, you need to submit an accounts return to EFA by 31 January 2014 by uploading it to the new Deloitte OnLine site. You will find further information, including guidance on how to upload your returns, on the EFA accounts return web page.
On the accounts return itself, a number of single academy trusts and their auditors have noted that error messages appear in the ‘funds – for multi academy trusts only’ box (lines 828 to 935). Single academy trusts should ignore these messages.
5. Action: academy trust financial statements due 31 December 2013
Thank you to the 94% of academy trusts preparing accounts at 31 August 2013 that have now submitted their accounts. Management letters and value for money statements are also due. These are requirements of the funding agreement and the deadline was 31 December 2013. If any element of your return is outstanding, please email it to EFA at AcademiesFinancialMonitoring.EFA@education.gsi.gov.uk.
6. Action: academy national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claims
If you are an academy that opened before 2 December 2013, you need to send EFA your national non-domestic rates (NNDR) claim for the 2013 to 2014 financial year.
You can find advice about completing your return on the EFA website.
Claims must be submitted by 10 February 2014. If you have any problems in meeting this deadline, please email EFA at:
EFA questions
Contact form https://form.education...
For schools, local authorities, other education institutions and providers, accountants, auditors and other professional advisers with queries for the Education Funding Agency
7. Information: academy sixth-form funding for the 2014 to 2015 academic year
EFA has published the latest information about changes to sixth-form funding for the 2014 to 2015 academic year in a recorded presentation.
An accompanying slide presentation is also available to download from the academy funding website.
8. Information: year 7 catch-up payments
In December, EFA advised that allocations for year 7 catch-up funding would be based on the January 2014 census when this should have been the October 2013 census.
The schedule for payments is unchanged with calculations made in February and payments made to academies in March 2014.
9. Reminder: admission appeals arrangements for 2014 to 2015
Academies must publish their timetable for organising and hearing admission appeals for 2014 to 2015 on their website by 28 February 2014. This is in accordance with the requirement set out in section 2 of the school admission appeals code.
Please follow the statutory requirements in both the school admission appeals code and the school admissions code when organising admission appeals.
EFA will include in the next e-bulletin findings from the 2013 admission appeals review and recommendations designed to ensure compliance and reduce the risk of future admission appeal complaints.
10. Information: student support provider helpline update
In October 2013 EFA informed you the Learner Support Service provider helpline number had changed to 0300 303 8610 and if you dialled the old number (0845 600 7979), you would be asked to redial using the new number.
From 1 February 2014 the old number will no longer be in use. From this date, all calls to the provider helpline should be made using the new number only.
The provider helpline deals with calls from institutions relating to:
- application queries on Care to Learn and the Residential Support Scheme
- queries on the Dance and Drama Awards scheme (for students who are continuing on courses in the 2013 to 2014 academic year only)
- 16 to 19 Bursary Fund vulnerable student bursary funding claim forms
Using the new number will reduce the cost of calling the helpline.