EFA e-bulletin for schools, colleges, local authorities and other 16 to 19 providers: 7 July 2016
Published 7 July 2016
© Crown copyright 2016
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/efa-e-bulletin-7-july-2016-issue-134/efa-e-bulletin-for-schools-colleges-local-authorities-and-other-16-to-19-providers-7-july-2016
1. Information: Joint Audit Code of Practice
Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Education Funding Agency (EFA) have published an updated version of the Joint Audit Code of Practice (JACOP).
JACOP sets out a common standard for providing assurance of the funding of post-16 providers.
This document is mostly unchanged from the previous version and contains only minor editorial changes and clarifications.
2. Information: June 2016 release of 16 to 18 further education (FE) data and management information for local authorities
Local authorities (LAs) can now access the June 2016 release of 16 to 18 FE data and management information (MI) pivot tables on EFA Information Exchange. This can be found in Document Exchange in the ‘revenue funding’ folder under ‘AY 2015-16’. The purpose of the release is to update LAs’ overview of provision. If you need support accessing EFA Information Exchange, please submit a support request.
3. Information: young people’s 2016 to 2017 funding agreements and contract for services
Funding agreements and contracts for the 2016 to 2017 academic year are being uploaded to EFA Information Exchange.
These documents describe the terms and conditions that will apply to young people’s learning, education and training for the forthcoming academic year. They apply to all eligible general and specialist further education colleges, sixth-form colleges, higher education institutions, local authorities, commercial and charitable providers, specialist provision institutions and non-maintained special schools.
You will be able to find the relevant documents in Document Exchange. These can be found in the ‘contracts and compliance’ folder, under ‘AY 2016-17 (2016/17)’.
To accept your funding agreement or contract for services, please complete the included “ElecSig2016” form and return via Document Exchange. You should upload this to the ‘contracts and compliance’ folder for 2016 to 2017 by 22 July 2016. The naming convention you should use for your document is: orgname-elecsig2016.
To upload your file you will need to choose the document purpose. For:
- FE colleges select ‘GFE funding agreement’
- commercial and charitable providers (CCP) select ‘CCP contract for services’
- higher education institutions (HEI) select ‘HEI funding agreement’
- local authorities (LA) select ‘LA agreement part 1’
- sixth-form colleges (SFC) select ‘SFC funding agreement’
- special post-16 institutions (SPI) select ‘SPI grant agreement’
- non-maintained special schools (NMSS) colleges select ‘NMSS grant agreement’
If you have any questions about your documentation please email Contracts.EFA@education.gov.uk. If you need support accessing EFA Information Exchange, please submit a support request.
4. Information: sixth-form college key financial indicator dashboard
We have uploaded an updated key financial indicator dashboard for sixth-form colleges on EFA Information Exchange. The dashboard is available in both Microsoft Excel and PDF formats. They can be downloaded from Document Exchange in the 2015/16 ‘finance and payments’ folder.
If you have any queries about the dashboard please contact us via our online form. If you need support accessing EFA Information Exchange, please submit a support request.
5. Information: update on business cases for 2016 to 2017 academic year post-16 funding allocations
We have reviewed and confirmed the outcomes of business cases received relating to post-16 funding allocations for the 2016 to 2017 academic year, unless we are waiting for additional information from institutions.
Where allocations have been updated following a business case, revised allocation statements will be uploaded to EFA Information Exchange. These can be found in Document Exchange in the ‘revenue funding’ folder.
If you have any queries about the outcome of your case, please contact us via our online enquiry form.
6. Information: early years capital funding application round
Capital funding is being made available through a local authority bidding process. Funding is to support the delivery of the government commitment to provide 30 hours free childcare for working parents of 3- and 4-year-olds from September 2017. The priority of this fund is to target areas within local authorities most in need of capital funding to deliver 30 hours of free childcare.
On 3 April 2016, the Department for Education (DfE) called for an expression of interest (EOI) from local authorities who want to work with local childcare providers to bid for this capital funding to expand childcare provision in their area. This includes schools that currently offer, or plan to offer, provision for 3- and 4-year-olds.
On 21 June 2016, we invited local authorities that submitted an EOI to take part in the full bidding process.
Local authorities can submit applications for early years capital funding for individual projects in their area until 31 August 2016.
7. Information: national database of governors
The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed arrangements for implementing a national database of governors by extending the information collected via EduBase.
These new arrangements aim to increase transparency on who governs our schools.
Single and multi-academy trusts should now use EduBase to check their entries, make any updates, and populate any fields that are empty.
To reduce duplication we have transferred information already provided by academy trusts to EduBase.
We will no longer collect information using the My Contact Information feature of EFA Information Exchange for academies and academy trusts (including free schools, UTCs and studio schools). However, you can still log into EFA Information Exchange to exchange documents with EFA, use the online calendar, and find answers to frequently asked questions in Knowledge Centre.