ESFA e-bulletin for academies: 1 December 2017
Published 1 December 2017
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-e-bulletin-1-december-2017-issue-197/esfa-e-bulletin-for-academies-1-december-2017
1. Information: academy trust accounting officer letter
Peter Lauener, former chief executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, wrote a letter to all academy trust accounting officers.
The letter reviews ESFA’s assurance work with academy trusts over the past year. It also reflects on the accounting officer’s key responsibilities and highlights some important accountability, financial management and governance issues.
Please share it with your chair, trustees and senior leadership team.
2. Reminder: November school workforce census
Friday, 1 December 2017 is the deadline for submission of the school workforce census. Please submit your return now if you have not done so.
If you have made any amendments to your data and the status is ‘loaded and validated’ or ‘amended by source’ please do not forget to press submit.
2.1 How to complete the school workforce census
You’ll find all the guidance you need to submit the school workforce census on GOV.UK. This includes:
- links to the latest:
- guide for school-employed staff
- guidance video (new)
- guide for staff employed centrally
- COLLECT guides and COLLECT report guides
- notepad entries for COLLECT queries
-
what to do if you’re having access problems with COLLECT
- how to get support from the helpdesk
2.2 Multi Academy Trusts, (MAT): staff working in specific schools:
MATs must include staff in each of their individual schools’ returns in which they work and are paid. Staff who split their time between different schools, should be included in each return including the contract details relevant to the school (role, hours, pay etc).
If you have any query regarding the school workforce census collection please contact the helpdesk using the service request form. Thank you to those who have already provided their return.
3. Information: Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2018 to 2019 helpline
The CIF 2018 to 2019 helpline will open from 9am Monday 4 December 2017 on 01325 340947.
The helpline will be available Monday to Friday 9am to 4.30pm.This is to assist you with any problems you may have accessing your CIF portal account. It will also provide help if you are experiencing issues submitting your application.
The deadline for submitting an application to CIF 2018 to 2019 is 12 noon on Thursday 14 December 2017. Please use the ESFA enquiries contact form for all other CIF enquiries, such as monitoring returns, loans or scope changes.
4. Information: accounts return weekly Skype conferencing Q&A sessions
We’re hosting weekly Skype conferencing Q&A sessions from 4pm to 5pm every Thursday to answer your questions about the accounts return and any residual questions about the land and buildings collection tool return.
Please use this Join Skype Meeting link to access the conference and download the web app if necessary. If you don’t use Skype, you can join by phone. Call 02033 215238 and, when instructed, enter the conference ID (2081 9375).
5. Information: accounts return webinar – extra session!
You can register now for additional accounts return webinar we’re hosting on Monday 18 December. The webinar will discuss the most challenging aspects of the accounts return include a live question and answer session. You can submit questions in advance when you register.
6. Information: accounts return reminder to grant access to your external auditors
External auditors must review and complete your trusts accounts return form in order to submit to the ESFA and this needs to be done by the deadline of the 19 January 2018.
Any new auditors need to be set up against the external auditors preparer/approver 000001 upin when registering and not the trust upin. Any auditors already set up will already be on this new auditor upin. To grant access to auditors the academy trust internal approver must type the auditors details into the accounts return form in the external auditors details screen. In this screen the internal approver will be able to allocate roles to auditors.
We would like to thank all the trusts who have already done this and we want to encourage the remaining trusts to do this soon to ensure that there is enough time make the return on time.
7. Information: consultation on the implementation of T level programmes
In July 2016, the government published the report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education and the Post-16 Skills Plan on how to reform the technical education system.
We outlined our commitment to co-creating the next phase of T level implementation in the T level Action Plan and we are pleased to announce the launch of the DfE public consultation on the implementation of T level programmes.
The consultation focuses on the next level of detail for the implementation of T levels and how they can be designed to work for providers, employers and students. We are inviting everyone with an interest in technical education reforms to contribute.
The consultation will last for ten weeks and will close in February 2018. We are also planning to run consultation events during January, dates of these events will be published in December.
8. Information: updated dedicated schools grant (DSG) allocations for 2017 to 2018
The Education and Skills Funding Agency has updated the DSG allocations to local authorities for financial year 2017 to 2018, to take account of academy conversions from August to November 2017. These updates were reflected in DSG payments to local authorities from 22 November.
9. Information: gender pay gap reporting
The new reporting requirements for public bodies are set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties and Public Authorities) Regulations 2017. If your organisation is covered by the reporting requirements, you need to report your data by 30 March 2018 on the government’s online reporting service, as well as on your own website.
If your organisation is in-scope of the regulations, please register to report your pay gap data as soon as possible.
You can read further information about the gender pay gap campaign.