Correspondence

ESFA Update academies: 27 March 2024

Published 27 March 2024

Applies to England

Action: Maximise the use of your National Tutoring Programme funding with holiday tuition

Schools can use the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) to contribute to 50% of tutoring costs until 31 August 2024. This includes using your school’s grant to deliver tuition in the holidays, to help pupils get a head start in preparing for the new academic year.  

For more information:

• read the blog by Harvey Grammar School on the impact of tutoring in the summer 
• watch our webinar for schools with practical advice on delivering tutoring in the summer term and school holidays 

webinar for schools 

• access the NTP guidance for schools for information on which pupils you should consider for tutoring

Information: Academies Accounts Direction 2023 to 2024

Education Skills and Funding Agency (ESFA) has published the Academies Accounts Direction 2023 to 2024.  

The primary users of this direction will be those involved in the preparation of the annual report and financial statements. It is also relevant to:  

• accounting officers 
• external auditors 
• reporting accountants of academy trusts.  

Trustees will also find the direction helpful in ensuring they fulfil their financial reporting responsibilities. 

Compliance with the direction, including the separate model accounts document, is a condition of an academy trust’s funding agreement. We have also published an updated auditor framework and guide for external auditors and reporting accountants of academy trusts.

Information: Changes to the national non-domestic rates payment process for academies

ESFA has published the national non-domestic rates (NNDR) guidance for billing authorities, confirming your billing authority’s NNDR payment process from April 2024. 

If your billing authority is implementing the central NNDR payment process you: 

• should not pay your business rates bill to the billing authority. ESFA will do this on your behalf  
• will continue to receive a rates bill from the billing authority - this is for information only  

If your billing authority is remaining on the old NNDR arrangements, you:

• should pay your business rates bill directly to the billing authority as previous year’s arrangement or as instructed on your rates bill for April 2024 to March 2025  
• must claim your payment from ESFA (as in previous years) using the existing academies NNDR portal  
• must contact the billing authority directly for any adjustment queries related to your rates bill  

For NNDR enquiries please contact the customer help centre.

Information: Delay in publishing initial pupil premium allocations for 2024 to 2025 financial year

The Department for Education (DfE) has been made aware of a problem with it’s identification of reception aged pupils who qualify for pupil premium. This means it needs more time to ensure that the 2024 to 2025 pupil premium allocations are accurate and we will now publish the initial allocations, the week commencing Monday 6 May.  

Please be reassured that this will not impact the timeline for payments in July 2024. 

We hope that this does not cause any disruption to your planning for the academic year. 

The final allocations for 2023 to 2024 financial year will be published by the end of March 2024 as planned. 

Please contact the customer help centre if you have any questions.

Information: Funding guidance for young people 2024 to 2025

ESFA has published 2 documents from the Funding guidance for young people 2024 to 2025: 

• funding rates and formula
• funding regulations

The individualised learner record (ILR) funding returns guidance, will be published later in spring.

Information: 2024 to 2025 student financial support scheme guides published

ESFA student financial support scheme guides, set out the funding rules for the different schemes. We review and update them annually and we have recently published the guides for the 2024 to 2025 academic year for: 

• free meals in further education
• residential bursary fund
• residential support scheme 

Please review the updated guides and remind yourself of the funding rules which apply to each scheme to ensure you understand them, and that your processes and documentation comply with them, including audit requirements. 

We aim to publish the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund and Care to Learn guides later in spring.

Information: COVID-19 recovery premium grant allocations 2023 to 2024 – March 2024 allocations

The recovery premium grant is part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by COVID-19.  

ESFA have now published the allocations for March 2024.

Information: Capital funding to improve the condition of schools 2024 to 2025

On Tuesday 26 March, DfE announced £1.8 billion for the financial year 2024 to 2025 to improve the condition of the school estate. This means the department will have invested over £17 billion since 2015 to support responsible bodies to keep their estates safe and operational. 

The £1.8 billion includes almost £1.2 billion in School Condition Allocations (SCA) including for local authorities, large multi-academy trusts and large voluntary-aided school bodies to invest in improving the condition of their schools. 

The department has published the provisional SCA amounts for financial year 2024 to 2025 for eligible bodies responsible for schools. We have also published provisional Devolved Formula Capital (DFC) amounts for individual schools to spend on local capital priorities. Allocation amounts, the condition funding methodology and spend guidance are all available in School capital funding. 

Final SCA and DFC allocations will be published later in the spring, based on information about schools and their responsible bodies at the start of April 2024, and may differ from provisional allocations in some cases.

Information: Condition improvement fund 2024 to 2025

As part of the £1.8 billion in condition funding for financial year 2024 to 2025 announced on Tuesday 26 March, almost £450 million has been made available through the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) programme for responsible bodies to invest in improving the condition of their schools.  

Following a rigorous assessment of CIF bids, we confirmed 866 projects at 733 academies, sixth-form colleges and voluntary aided schools. This will support schools to keep buildings safe and in good working order by improving building condition, compliance, energy efficiency and health and safety.   

We have published details of all successful applications, including a breakdown by region and type of project, which can be found in Condition Improvement Fund. 

We have additionally contacted all applicants to inform them of the outcome of their application and set out the next steps, including the launch of an appeals process.

Information: Employment law workshop for Risk Protection Arrangement members

Willis Towers Watson is providing risk management support for all Risk Protection Arrangement (RPA) members through audit, guidance and advice. As part of the risk management support, RPA members are invited to a workshop covering employment law. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Book your place now: 

• 10am to midday, Thursday 18 April 2024 
• 10am to midday, Wednesday 24 April 2024 

Cyber security for schools is one of the benefits of the RPA. Check out our blog post for a quick reminder of the 4 conditions to ensure you are fully covered. You’ll hear from 3 RPA members who were glad of this cover when a cyber incident happened in their school.