Correspondence

EFA e-bulletin for academies: 3 September 2015

Published 3 September 2015

This correspondence was withdrawn on 13 December 2019

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. The EFA e-bulletin has been replaced by ESFA Update.

1. Reminder: Notify LGPS administrators of your new academy status

We would like to remind newly opened academies that they are responsible for notifying Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) administrators of their new academy status and provide the information that administrators need to calculate the academy’s opening position within the LGPS.

You can find more detail on your responsibilities as a new academy in this guidance.

2. Information: Brief guide to transitioning to SORP 2015

We have published a brief guide on the transition to Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) 102 and the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 2015 for academy trusts incorporated before 1 January 2015.

These academy trusts will first use SORP 2015 to prepare their financial statements for the period ending 31 August 2016, but should start to consider transition issues now. The guide sets out the main changes arising from SORP 2015 that are relevant to these trusts and the transition actions that will be required.

New trusts incorporated on or after 1 January 2015 do not need to consider the transition issues set out in the guide as they will use SORP 2015 from the outset.

If you have any questions about the new SORP, you are encouraged to discuss them with your auditors.

3. Information: Academy trusts’ 2013 to 2014 financial statements

EFA has published academy trusts’ financial statements for the period 1 September 2013 to 31 August 2014. These sit alongside other information about academies on DfE’s schools performance site.

Academy trusts should also have published their audited accounts on the trust’s website and filed them at Companies House by 31 January 2015 and 31 May 2015 respectively.

4. Action: summer school funding claims

You must complete your claim for summer school funding by Friday 9 October 2015 using the form on the Key to Success website.

Please note, the Department for Education will not accept claim forms submitted after 9 October 2015.

5. Information: academies funding and payments

As a new financial year starts for most academies, we have updated information on GOV.UK about funding payments for academies.

This includes a new guide to academies remittance advice notes to explain each element of funding that may appear on a remittance.

Detailed payment schedules are available to academies via Information Exchange, in the folder ‘Revenue Funding - AY2015-16’

6. Reminder: students with GCSE maths and/or English at grade D

Any student who has a grade D GCSE in either maths or English must be enrolled on GCSE or an approved IGCSE qualification from 1 August 2015 onwards. Students with a grade D will not qualify for funding if they are enrolled on stepping stone qualifications.

This applies to all full time students (those on a study programme of at least 540 planned hours if age 16 to 17 or at least 450 hours if age 18). Part time students can continue to enrol on stepping stone qualifications.

Individualised Learner Record (ILR) users can run Funding Information System (FIS) reports to check their students are compliant with this requirement. Further information is available on GOV.UK.

School census users can use the new interactive tool to help understand how their school census data is used.

7. Information: Helping you make accurate post-16 census returns

Following feedback from institutions, we have created a new easy-to-use post-16 census tool. The tool is designed to help you return accurate post-16 school census data. Your institution could be underfunded if you do not return accurate census data.

The tool helps you understand how your data is used to calculate your post-16 funding, as well as helping you understand common errors and how they impact on the funding we calculate. It will be particularly useful to business managers and those staff responsible for preparing and submitting the school census.

Please ensure macros are enabled when using the tool. If you have any feedback or questions; please get in touch via our enquiry form.

8. Information: new academies welcome pack

We have updated the welcome pack for new academies.

The pack introduces our areas of work, our key services and systems, and what academies need to know and do to use these services successfully.

New headteachers, finance officers and school business managers in established academies may find the pack a useful resource as they take up their new roles.

If you are new in post, you will also find EFA’s video resources a convenient introduction to EFA funding, the academies financial assurance framework and the schools efficiency toolkit.

9. Information: Apprenticeships levy consultation

A consultation about the government’s proposal to introduce an apprenticeship levy to enable employers to choose and pay for the apprenticeship training has been launched.

10. Reminder: providing information about planned study programmes to the national post-16 courses database

The Department for Education expects all post-16 education and training providers funded by EFA to supply information by the end of September 2015 about the courses they plan to offer to 16 to 19 year olds in 2016 to 2017. They will be contacting those providers who have not submitted course information later in September to see if they need any additional support.

Post-16 providers can now submit course information in one of 3 ways:

1. EFA-funded providers who have DfE Secure Access accounts can access the database by selecting the ‘post-16 portal’ option.

2. Skills Funding Agency (SFA) or EFA-funded providers who don’t have a Secure Access account can submit course information direct to the National Careers Service Course Directory provider portal.

3. Providers can nominate a third party organisation to input course data on their behalf. More information can be found in the help guide.