Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 25 October 2023

Published 25 October 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: final funding claim for 2022 to 2023

The final funding claim window will open at 9am on Tuesday 24 October 2023. 

Please submit your final funding claim by 5pm on Friday 27 October 2023. The claim form will be available on submit learner data. The funding claims user guide is available to help you complete the form. 

If you have any exceptional adjustments to enter on the claim form, you will require prior agreement by the ESFA. The claim should be supported by relevant evidence, which the ESFA may request. Any unauthorised exceptional adjustments will be disallowed.

Your principal or delegated authority must sign your claim digitally on Manage your education and skills funding by 5pm on Tuesday 31 October 2023. 

You will need to submit a claim if you receive funds through these contracts:  

• grant funded - ESFA funded adult education budget (AEB) (adult skills, community learning, 19 to 24 traineeships and national skills fund Level 3 adult offer (Level 3 Free Courses for Jobs))
• grant funded - advanced learner loans bursary (ALLB)
• 16 to 19 education

Once you have submitted your year-end funding claim on submit learner data, you will also be able to view it on Manage your education and skills funding. 

You must not enter any adjustments relating to the earnings boost in your funding claim, we will do this after you have submitted the claim. Your reconciliation statement will include the earnings boost that we have calculated.

If you have any queries, please use ESFA help centre to contact us.

2. Action: reporting unspent 16 to 19 Bursary Fund and free meals in further education funding

You must contact ESFA each year to report the amount of unspent 16 to 19 Bursary Funding and/or free meals in further education funding that you are holding outside of the one year carry forward rule.

For academic year 2023 to 2024, this means you need to inform us of the total amount of any unspent funds (that you haven’t previously reported to us) from any year up to and including the 2021 to 2022 academic year. We encourage you to do this as soon as you are aware, however you must tell us no later than 31 March each year. We will recover all unspent funds.

When you know you have funds to return, you should contact us using our online enquiry form. When you make contact, it is helpful if you specify the amount of funding being returned, whether it is bursary fund or free meals in further education and which year the funding is from. This is particularly important if funds for more than one year are involved.

We will send further reminders as the academic year continues.

3. Information: mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) school level allocations: September 2023 to March 2024

We have published the allocations for the second payment of the mainstream schools additional grant (MSAG) for 2023 to 2024.

This follows the 2022 Autumn Statement announcement that the core school budget will increase by £2 billion for the 2023 to 2024 financial year (and the following financial year), over and above the totals announced in the 2021 Spending Review. The MSAG allocates mainstream schools’ portion of this funding increase.

First payments of the MSAG were made to schools (both academies, and via their respective local authority for maintained schools) in spring 2023. The second payment of the MSAG will be in October 2023 for local authorities, and November 2023 for academies, to cover September 2023 to March 2024.

In March 2024, the second payment allocations for ‘new and growing’ schools (that is, schools that have opened in the past 7 years and are still adding year groups in the 2023 to 2024 academic year) will be published. These allocations will also include the first MSAG payment for schools that have opened since September 2023.

As academies’ funding follows an academic year rather than a financial year, an additional payment will be made to academies to cover April to August 2024. This will be allocated using the same rates and pupil numbers as the 2023 to 2024 grant and will represent five-twelfths of their 2023 to 2024 allocations.

The MSAG funding will then be rolled into core funding allocations from the 2024 to 2025 funding year onwards.

4. Information: national professional qualifications (NPQs) targeted support fund 2022 to 2023 allocations

We’ve published the revised national professional qualification (NPQ) targeted support funding 2022 to 2023 grant allocations on 25 October, for participants who started in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

If you think your school or organisation meets the eligibility criteria but has not yet already received a payment or due to receive a sweep up payment as indicated on the published grant allocations, please contact your training provider to check confirmation of training engagement has been submitted to the Department for Education.
Please note, any further eligible payments for the 2022 to 2023 grant funding period will be paid in the 2024 payment.

If you do not have a training provider or have any queries, please contact continuing-professional-development@digital.education.gov.uk .

You can read further information on targeted support funding and more information on NPQs currently available can be viewed in our course prospectus.

5. Information: exceptional in-year growth for 2023 to 2024 for 16 to 19 education

Each year (subject to affordability) we award in-year growth funding to those grant-funded institutions which have recruited significantly more students than allocations were based on. For academic year 2023 to 2024 only, we are publishing the rules for calculating in-year growth awards early. This does not guarantee that we will do the same for the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

By publishing this early, it provides a guarantee that growth will be funded, giving certainty to providers to aid with their financial planning. There are some important changes this year to the methodology from the one used in 2022 to 2023, we have:

• reintroduced the adjustment for under-delivery in the previous year. We removed this last year as a response to COVID
• reduced the threshold for the free meals in FE growth awards

We have now published the details of the calculation for awarding exceptional in-year growth for 2023 to 2024. We will be informing institutions eligible for growth by mid-February 2024 and revised funding allocations will be available through Document Exchange. Eligible growth will be paid from spring 2024.

6. Information: teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG) 2023 to 2024 school level allocations October 2023

We have now published the allocations   that mainstream schools will receive for the teachers’ pay additional grant (TPAG).

This follows our announcement in July 2023 of £482.5 million for mainstream schools through the TPAG in 2023 to 2024. We are allocating this funding to support schools to meet the costs of the 2023 to 2024 teachers pay award.

In February 2024, the first payment allocations for “new and growing” schools (that is, schools that have opened in the past 7 years and are still adding year groups in the 2023 to 2024 academic year) will be published. These allocations will also include the first TPAG payment for schools that have opened since September 2023.

Local authorities will receive their mainstream school payments in late October, whilst academies will receive theirs in early November.

7. Information: school staff instructor (SSI) funding grant, conditions of grant and allocations for 2023 to 2024

We have now published the allocations for the school staff instructor (SSI) funding grant for 2023 to 2024.

We have also published the conditions of grant, setting out the terms and conditions academies, maintained schools, FE institutions and local authorities must follow.

8. Information: Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2024 to 2025 application round

Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) 2024 to 2025 application round opened for applications on 19 October and closes on 14 December 2023.

CIF is an annual bidding round for eligible academies, sixth-form colleges and voluntary aided (VA) schools to apply for capital funding.

CIF funding is primarily to address significant condition need. Only a very small proportion goes to high performing schools and colleges to address overcrowding or to create additional pupil places.

Schools with a signed academy order as of 1 September 2023 that DfE expects to convert to a CIF-eligible responsible body by 1 April 2024, are also eligible to apply.

If your school has been invited to bid for CIF 2024 to 2025, your responsible body will not receive any School Condition Allocation on your behalf. If you have condition investment requirements, you should therefore apply direct for funding.

The Information for Applicants guide gives detailed information.

9. Information: just launched – a brand new series of Schools Resource Management (SRM) webinars

We have now launched our new series of free-to-attend School Resource Management (SRM) training webinars.

Delivered by Entrust on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE), this is our fifth series of SRM webinars. With our previous webinar series having received overwhelmingly positive feedback from attendees, we are back again this year with fresh content designed just for you.

The webinars are open to school business professionals, headteachers, senior leadership teams, curriculum leads, governors and trustees, estates staff, HR and IT staff at both maintained schools, academy trusts and local authorities.

They will cover a range of areas within SRM, all designed to help you plan and use your resources more effectively. You will be shown how to achieve your core strategies by creating a holistic and proactive approach to strategic planning including financial, workforce, digital and estates, helping you direct your resources in a way that most impacts pupils in your school or academy trust.

This year’s webinar series includes modules on:

• Integrated curriculum financial planning (ICFP) practical examples
• Funding and financial management
• Strategic financial planning
• Procurement: compliance and maximising value
• Strategic estate management
• Strategic workforce planning
• Staff wellbeing and engagement
• Getting the right technology in place

The webinars are delivered live so you can interact and ask questions throughout.

You can choose which modules you would like to register for, however we recommend you join all webinars, so that you can gain a full understanding of SRM and how to successfully implement it in your school or trust.

Don’t miss out on this new content. Sign up now!

10. Information: register for a National Tutoring Programme webinar

Schools have now received their first instalment of this year’s National Tutoring Programme (NTP) funding. Payments to maintained schools were made via local authorities in September, and payments to academies and non-maintained special schools were made in October.

After half term, DfE is hosting webinars on this year’s tutoring arrangements and how to make the most of your funding.

Please register using the links below - the content will be the same on both days:

• Tuesday 14 November - 12:30pm - 1:15pm
• Thursday 16 November - 12:30pm - 1:15pm

11. Information: York and Stratford-upon-Avon school business professional (SBP) roundtables – spaces available

Are you responsible for buying for your school or trust?  There are spaces available at our York and Stratford-upon-Avon roundtable events.

If you are based nearby and would like to join colleagues from across your region to network, share your procurement issues and priorities, and find out more about the free procurement support available from the DfE, book your place now: 

• York – Tuesday 7 November, 12:30 – 16:30
• Stratford-upon-Avon – Tuesday 28 November, 12:30 – 16:30