Correspondence

ESFA Update local authorities: 27 January 2021

Published 27 January 2021

This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Latest information on coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Department for Education has published guidance about COVID-19 in educational settings for staff, parents and carers, pupils and students on GOV.UK.

Please check GOV.UK regularly for updates.

2. Reminder: mid-year funding claims for 2020 to 2021

The mid-year funding claim window will open at 9am on Monday 8 February 2021. We understand that this is a difficult time for everyone, and time and resources are under strain. However, we will still require you to submit an accurate mid-year claim so we have visibility of the challenges you are facing, which will inform the design of the year end reconciliation process.

Please submit your mid-year funding claim by 5pm on Friday 19 February 2021. This is slightly later than we originally published. The claim form will be available on Submit Learner Data.

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

• grant funded – ESFA adult education budget (AEB) (adult skills, community learning, 19 to 24 traineeships and COVID-19 skills offer)
• learner support for ESFA AEB procured (adult skills and 19 to 24 traineeships) – paid-on-profile
• grant funded - Advanced Learner Loans Bursary (ALLB)

Once you have submitted your claim you will also be able to view it on the Manage your education and skills funding.

If you have any queries about this, please contact your Territorial Manager.

3. Reminder: 16 to 19 tuition fund statement

As a condition of receiving payment from the 16 to 19 tuition fund, providers were required to:

• produce a concise statement explaining how they will use this funding in line with our guidance to prioritise support for disadvantaged students
• publish the statement on their website in the autumn term

We will be conducting spot checks from Monday, 8 February 2021 to confirm statements have been published.

4. Information: Further Education Capital Transformation fund now open

The Further Education (FE) Capital Transformation Fund was launched on Thursday, 21 January meaning that FE colleges and designated institutions can now bid for capital funding to improve the condition of their estate and buildings. This fund is part of the commitment, announced in the 2020 Budget, to upgrade FE colleges and designated institutions across England by investing £1.5 billion of new capital by 2026. £200m has already been allocated to FE colleges and designated institutions through the Further Education Capital Allocations.

This is a significant opportunity for FE colleges and designated institutions to secure vital condition improvement investment in buildings and facilities that will help them to: 

• support the delivery of high quality vocational and technical education training;
• support the aims set out in the government’s White Paper Skills for Jobs: Lifelong Learning for Opportunity and Growth

We encourage eligible institutions to bid.

We published guidance, which sets out how colleges and designated institutions should bid for funding and the key criteria against which bids will be assessed. The bidding process consists of two stages:

• Stage 1 - you should complete an initial application form outlining your estate condition needs and your proposed solution for initial consideration. 

• Stage 2 – if your stage 1 application is approved, then you will be asked to submit more detailed proposals at Stage 2.  

All applications for stage 1 must be submitted by 11.59pm on 15 March 2021.

5. Information: 16 to 18 in-year growth process

We can confirm that we will be running an in-year growth process for 16 to 18 delivery during February. We will contact the providers who are eligible for growth funding by the end of February 2021.

The growth process will be purely data driven, so providers must not send business cases as we cannot accept them.

6. Information: tools and information from the Family Justice Young People’s Board

The Family Justice Young People’s Board developed a range of top tips aimed at professionals working with children and young people, and have most recently updated our ‘Top Tips for Separating Parents’.

We would really appreciate it if you could share this document across your teams, and with the families that use your service.

To view all of our top tips and to see updates on what we have been working on, please go to our website.