Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 23 February 2022

Published 23 February 2022

This correspondence was withdrawn on

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date. Read the latest editions of ESFA Update for the latest news and information.

Applies to England

1. Information: find out about the free support school resource management advisers (SRMAs) can provide

Join our live event to hear from an SRMA and ask any questions that you have.

The session takes place on Wednesday 2 March from 11am to midday.

SRMAs are experts on school resource management who provide free hands-on advice and support to all schools.

You will also:

  • hear directly from local authorities about how they have benefitted from working with an SRMA
  • learn how the school resource management tools can support you, including the schools financial benchmarking service and the integrated curriculum and financial planning tool.

Register for your place now.

2. Information: funding allocation statements for 2022 to 2023

We have now started issuing pre-16 and 16 to 19 allocation statements for school and academy sixth forms and for FE institutions, and are on track to issue them all by the end of March 2022. 

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 the academy general annual grant allocation guidance and 16 to 19 allocation guidance to help you understand your statement.

3. Information: ESFA Funded National Skills Fund first-time requests

We will shortly be conducting an additional performance review for ESFA Funded National Skills Fund (NSF). At this review providers will have the opportunity to submit a first-time request for an ESFA Funded NSF allocation up to the value of £45,000 (grant providers only). If you have a devolved NSF contract, you can still request an ESFA Funded NSF contract for non-devolved learners.

Full details are available within the request form. The submission deadline is 5pm on 4 March 2022.

If you have any queries about this process, please contact your territorial team lead.

4. Information: join these webinars on approved frameworks and see how you could save money for your school

The Department for Education (DfE) is hosting webinars on how using our approved frameworks could help your school get value for money.

If you are responsible for buying goods and services for your schools check out the range of informative webinars that could help you save time and money.

All sessions are free, use these Eventbrite links to join the Schools Commercial Team and take the opportunity to ask providers the questions you may have about facilities management including catering, buying gas and electricity.

For the latest on our wide range of webinars, check out the events tab on our Buying for schools LinkedIn page.

5. Information: Get help buying for schools

The DfE’s new Get help buying for schools service now enables all state funded schools and trusts to access free advice and guidance on buying goods and services through the DfE’s 52 approved frameworks. Schools can click the ‘Request advice and guidance’ link at the bottom of each of the Find a Framework webpages to contact our procurement team.

From the summer, schools will also be able to get further advice about buying, ongoing support to help run a procurement process themselves, or if a school or trust needs extra support, the service can undertake the buying process on their behalf. The service aims to help schools get best value for their non staff spend.

For the latest on our wide range of webinars, check out the events tab on our Buying for schools LinkedIn page.

6. Information: join the Schools Technology Day on 17 March 2022

This is an opportunity to join the DfE Schools Commercial Team Technology Day 2022.

Schools Commercial Team have a range of DfE approved frameworks that support schools with their buying needs. This is an opportunity to join a series of webinars which will show how we can help you save money on ICT – from telecommunications to printers, scanners to interactive whiteboards, networks to laptops.

Please remember to book a separate ticket for each individual webinar you wish to attend.

For the latest on our wide range of webinars, check out the events tab on our Buying for schools LinkedIn page.