Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 24 March 2017

Published 24 March 2017

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Information: post-16 funding allocation statements for special post-16 institutions, non-maintained special schools and commercial and charitable providers for 2017 to 2018

We’re uploading post-16 funding allocation statements to EFA Information Exchange for:

• commercial and charitable providers (CCPs)
• special post-16 institutions (SPIs)
• non-maintained special schools (NMSS)

We expect the allocations for most of these institutions to be available over the next few days. We’ll also send an email to CCPs informing them of the method we’ve used to calculate their lagged student number.

All files will be located in EFA Information Exchange in the Document Exchange ‘Revenue Funding’ folder, under ‘AY 2017-18 (2017/18)’.

To access Document Exchange log into EFA Information Exchange and choose the Document Exchange tab at the top of the page.

We’ve published information to help you understand your allocation.

If you have any queries please contact us using the online enquiry form.

For support and guidance about EFA Information Exchange please visit the support page.

2. Information: consultation for changes to the criteria for loan schemes

DfE is launching a consultation on changes to the criteria for loan schemes for maintained schools.

We’re seeking views on a revision to the statutory guidance Schemes for financing schools and an associated change to the Treatment of surplus and deficit balances when maintained schools become academies. This will clarify the criteria around the use of loan schemes.

The consultation starts on 24 March 2017 and closes on 21 April 2017.

3. Action: establishing local authority dedicated schools grant baselines

Revenue funding allocations for the 2018 to 2019 financial year will use the schools, central school services and high needs blocks of the dedicated schools grant (DSG).

We therefore need to establish 2017 to 2018 baselines for these blocks for each local authority.

This exercise will build on the work completed in April 2016 to establish the different dedicated schools grant funding blocks used to fund local authorities in the 2017 to 2018 financial year.

We’ve provided a spreadsheet for local authorities to complete. It is on the data collections portal.

Please return this by 13 April 2017.

Please email our NFF baselines team if you have any questions about this process or have not received an email with your local authority details.

4. Information: Condition Data Collection - list of schools to be visited

EFA has published a list of schools involved in the first two tranches of the Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme.

Surveyors will visit these schools between March and September 2017 (tranche 1) and August and December 2017 (tranche 2).

Responsible bodies can use this list to see which of their schools are included in the first two tranches of the CDC Programme.

The CDC list and other guidance about the programme is available on GOV.UK Condition Data Collection page.

5. Information: Teachers’ Pensions update

Teachers’ Pensions has introduced Monthly Data Collection (MDC) for employers to provide their salary and service information. MDC replaces the Annual Service Return (ASR).

All employers must be set up to use MDC by December 2017. From April 2018, MDC will be the only way to submit information to Teachers’ Pensions.

Employers need to set up MDC with enough time to complete a 3-month trial and testing period.

Please provide your preferred start date by emailing your completed activation form to the Teachers’ Pensions MDC team.

You can also contact the team by phone on 0845 3003756 (select option 5, then option 1).

You can read more about MDC on the Teachers’ Pensions website.