EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 26 November 2015
Published 26 November 2015
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/efa-e-bulletin-26-november-2015-issue-109/efa-e-bulletin-for-schools-colleges-local-authorities-and-other-16-to-19-providers-26-november-2015
1. Information: Department for Education’s settlement at Spending Review 2015
The Department for Education has issued a press release following the Spending Review 2015 announcement. It sets out the high level messages about the education budget over the course of this Parliament. The department will announce further detail about specific programmes in due course.
2. Action: set up your Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) portal account
If you are applying for the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) for 2016 to 2017 for the first time, you must set up your CIF portal account by 5pm on 2 December.
If you already have a CIF portal account you do not need to re-register.
Education Funding Agency (EFA) recommends that schools and colleges complete their application around 3 to 5 days before the deadline date of 16 December.
You can read the CIF guidance for applicants on GOV.UK. This sets out the application process and assessment criteria.
3. Reminder: submit your Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) project monitoring/completion return
If you have a Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2015 to 2016 project, you are expected to submit a monitoring or completion return either monthly or quarterly to update us with your progress. The CIF portal makes clear which applies to your project.
Please be aware that final payments will be withheld until a completion return is received. You can read the guidance on the CIF portal home page.
4. Reminder: maths and English condition of funding survey
EFA would like to remind institutions with students not compliant with the maths and English condition of funding in 2014 to 2015 to complete the maths and English survey by 30 November 2015.
Further details on how the funding adjustments will be applied and instructions on completing the survey are included in the revised maths and English guidance on GOV.UK.
5. Information: updated Youth Contract performance data
EFA has updated and published data for the delivery of the Youth Contract programme for 16- and 17-year-olds to the end of September 2015.
We will next publish delivery data for the Youth Contract programme for 16- and 17-year-olds in late 2016. This publication will provide the final delivery volumes for the programme.
6. Information: high needs student numbers
EFA has updated the high needs student numbers recorded in the 2014 to 2015 academic year with the 2014 to 2015 Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R14 return for post-16.
The data includes the spring 2015 school census (pre-16 and post-16) as published in September 2015.
We have published this data to promote collaboration between local authorities and institutions and to inform the commissioning dialogue for the 2016 to 2017 academic year.
We will be using the updated data and defined principles to determine the 2016 to 2017 high needs place numbers where place change requests submitted by local authorities have not been agreed with institutions. This process is explained in in the ‘high needs: place change request process’ technical note for 2016 to 2017 at paragraphs 26 to 31.