Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 22 February 2023

Published 22 February 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: subcontracting standard for post-16 education and training - assurance reviews and declarations

The subcontracting standard was introduced in the 2022 to 2023 academic year to mitigate the risk of inadequate (contract) management of subcontractors, non-compliance with funding rules by subcontractors and to reduce fraudulent and incorrect funding claims.

There is a published guide for reporting accountants on assurance reviews of the subcontracting standard. This document sets out expectations in terms of the review’s engagement, approach and reporting to ensure consistency across the sector.

Providers that subcontract £100,000 or more of their delivery (or are anticipated to exceed this), across all ESFA funding streams, are required to submit an external auditor’s final report and assurance declaration (Annex B) through ESFA Document Exchange. Providers must do this by 31 July 2023.

Providers can check if they are in scope to take action and ask other questions using the ESFA enquiry form.

2. Action: post-16 subcontracting - approval to continue with existing arrangements or enter into new arrangements

You must seek approval to either continue with existing, or enter into any new, subcontracting arrangements for 2023 to 2024 if you:

• subcontract 25% or more in the 2022 to 2023 academic year, in any given funding stream, and anticipate this will continue in 2023 to 2024, or will subcontract 25% or more for the first time in 2023 to 2024

(Note: for adult education budget (AEB) and 16 to 19 this is 25% of the learners (based on ILR data). For apprenticeships this is 25% of the apprenticeship funding you receive from ESFA.)

• hold an exemption in the 2022 to 2023 academic year for 16 to 19 distance subcontracting or 16 to 19 whole programme subcontracting and anticipate this needs to continue into 2023 to 2024, or will be entering into a new arrangement in 2023 to 2024 that may require an exemption

You must submit your request for approval by 31 March 2023.

Request forms are available on GOV.UK in annexes B to D:

• Annex B – Distance subcontracting requests
• Annex C - Making a case to maintain current subcontracting
• Annex D – Whole programme subcontracting requests

We reserve the right to decline requests. If we do decline a request, we will explain why we are declining it.

3. Information: 16 to 19 funding allocation statements for 2023 to 2024

We have started to upload 16 to 19 allocation statements for school and academy sixth forms. We are on track to issue them all by the end of March 2023.

Once your allocation statement is available, you will receive a notification and can find it on Document Exchange in the ‘Documents received from ESFA’ section. Your allocation statement includes a breakdown of our calculation.

We have published guidance to help you understand your statement.

4. Information: 16 to 19 tuition fund continues to be available in academic year 2023 to 2024

On 2 June 2021 we announced a further £222m to extend the 16 to 19 tuition fund for an additional 2 years from the 2022 to 2023 academic year. This means the tuition fund will continue to be available for eligible institutions in academic year 2023 to 2024.

We will publish guidance before Easter 2023 and confirm indicative allocations to eligible institutions by the start of June 2023.

5. Information: the FE Workforce Data collection for 2021 to 2022 has closed

The FE Workforce Data Collection closed on 27 January.

This was the first year in which the collection was a mandatory requirement.
Thank you for your efforts in completing returns. We appreciate the work that went in and following consultation with the sector, we are confident next year’s collection and beyond will become a much simpler undertaking, as processes embed.

Response rates were strong and the data collected will help inform future policy direction, with key findings due to be published in the summer.

We will be in contact with the minority that did not issue a return in due course, to better understand and help support completion for future rounds.

6. Information: transfer of One Awards Access to HE Diploma’s to alternative AVA’s

The Quality Assurance Agency withdrew One Awards Access to HE Diploma licence on Tuesday 30 August 2022. One Awards provision was transferred to alternative Access Validating Agencies (AVAs) with a new learning aim reference number and the title was amended to state TP.

The DfE list of qualifications approved for funding and find a learning aim (FALA) will be updated to show:

• the Access to HE Diplomas that have been transferred to alternative AVAs - this update will be implemented on FALA on 10 February
• that One Awards Access to HE Diplomas have been withdrawn – this update will be implemented on FALA on 10 March 2023

If you have students enrolled on One Awards Access to HE diplomas, in 2022 to 2023, please make sure you amend the ILR by 6 March 2023. This is to ensure that funding is not reduced and ILR records are not rejected.

For further information please contact the ESFA enquiries.

7. Information: want to know more about delivering an approved Higher Technical Qualification (HTQ)?

We invite you to join us at UCEN Manchester on Thursday 9 March 2023. We will be celebrating the first teaching of HTQs and sharing lessons learned from providers currently delivering or preparing to deliver HTQs. We will also hear from The Careers & Enterprise Company, and how you can use DfE campaigns to raise awareness of your HTQs.

Join us in person from midday for registration and a networking lunch, or online from 13:00, with further in-person networking opportunities from 14:30 onwards.

Register by 28 February to secure your place.

8. Your feedback: volunteer to take part in curriculum and financial efficiency planning user research

You’re invited to take part in a confidential online interview about the design of a new curriculum planning efficiency benchmarking tool. The ESFA is looking at how it can support colleges in their financial efficiency planning activities using data that has been submitted in the finance record. This research will take place throughout 2023.

To express your interest in taking part please fill in this short survey and a user researcher will be in touch with more details to schedule an interview.

If you have any questions about the research, please contact us.