ESFA Update academies: 3 October 2018
Published 3 October 2018
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2018
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1. Action: academies financial returns now live
The online form for the land and buildings collection tool (LBCT) is now open. Trusts need to complete their return by the 5 November 2018 deadline.
Our LBCT guidance is available to help you with your submission. It lists important actions to perform, including changes to the sign off of church owned land.
You can register now for our LBCT webinar on 10 October where we will explain how the form works and answer your questions.
We are also hosting weekly Skype calls and webchats. You can read the joining instructions and the full timetable of events on our LBCT guidance page.
The online form for academies accounts return (AR) is also live for trusts to complete and auditors to submit by 21 January 2019.
Please note that it is now ESFA’s policy to publish the names of academy trusts that are late, or do not submit 2 or more financial returns in each academic year. We strongly advise all trusts to allow sufficient time for checks and sign off by the deadline for each financial return.
2. Action: school census for autumn 2018
The autumn school census 2018 begins on Thursday 4 October. The deadline for approved submissions is Wednesday 31 October.
The interactive post-16 census tool supports institutions to return accurate 16 to 19 data. There are 16 to 19 funding reports available in COLLECT along with a guide on how to use the reports. We have also published COLLECT user guides to assist colleagues.
You can find further details regarding the collection in the readiness email recently sent out. If you did not receive this email, please contact us via a service request form.
The school census guide for the 2018 to 2019 academic year is available on the school census website.
3. Information: high needs place change notification process and technical note 2019 to 2020
Local authorities are invited to confirm the 2019 to 2020 high needs place numbers in ESFA funded institutions by 16 November, via secure access.
We have published the high needs place change notification 2019 to 2020: technical note. The technical note sets out the process for local authorities notifying ESFA of institution level changes to 2019 to 2020 high needs place numbers, following discussions with their institutions. We have also published separate guidance relating to hospital education and special free schools.
We will send local authorities their secure access login details by Thursday 4 October. Please contact us if you do not receive your login details.
4. Information: publication of the 2017 to 2018 high needs student numbers recorded in the ILR and school census dataset
We have published the 2017 to 2018 high needs student numbers recorded in the ILR and school census.
We have provided this information to inform local discussion about commissioning arrangements for 2019 to 2020. It presents the actual number of high needs students at institutions recorded in the academic year 2017 to 2018 ILR R10 data return and the actual number of pupils in special academies and special free schools recorded in the spring 2018 school census. The file also provides the allocated number of high needs place numbers for academic years 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to 2019.
5. Information: hospital education funding - guidance on local authority applications for changes in 2019 to 2020 and changes to hospital education template
We have published guidance for local authorities who wish to apply for changes to their hospital education funding for 2019 to 2020. This may be a change in funding due to a change in the health care or medical provision in the local authority area.
Local authorities must submit applications using the published template by the 16 November 2018.
6. Information: the bidding round for the 2019 education support fund (ESF) closes on 19 October 2018
The Secretary of State for Defence has announced the extension of the ESF until 2019 to 2020. £3 million is available in 2018 to 2019, and £2 million is available in 2019 to 2020.
To be eligible for a grant a school must be in the UK and must have at least 1 service child, subject to exceptional mobility or deployment.
We can accept applications from:
- maintained schools
- academies
- free schools
- sixth form colleges
- groups of any schools described above (referred to as ‘cluster bids’ and are strongly encouraged)
- local authorities on behalf of the publicly funded schools in their area
Full details of the education support fund grant, and how to apply, are available on GOV.UK.
7. Information: traineeship in-year growth business case window 2018 to 2019 – 16 to 18 mainstream budget
As in previous years, ESFA will be operating a business case process for traineeship in-year growth for providers with an ESFA 16 to 18 contract.
The window for submitting business cases for 2018 to 2019 will be open from 12 November to 7 December 2018. Providers wishing to submit a business case for growth should do so through our online enquiry form.
For colleges and independent learning providers we will look at the R04 data return to assess how much of your 2018 to 2019 allocation has been used to date. For other provider types, we will use other latest data available.
Business cases must include supporting evidence of employer support for additional starts in-year, together with evidence of student demand; we cannot support business cases without this evidence. All awards are subject to overall affordability and we expect to inform providers of the outcome in February 2019.
8. Information: publication of pupil premium quarter 2 allocations for 2018 to 2019
We have published the quarter 2 pupil premium allocations for 2018 to 2019 for academies and local authorities.
This grant provides additional funding that publicly funded schools in England use to support disadvantaged pupils.
9. Information: free school meals pupils should remain eligible until at least 2023
To protect pupils from uncertainty during the changes to free school meals (FSM) eligibility, we introduced transitional protections that mean that pupils in receipt of FSM immediately prior to 1 April 2018, and those who become eligible during Universal Credit rollout, will retain eligibility until the end of this rollout period. Following this, if they are still in education, they will continue to be eligible until the end of their phase of education.
This means that schools should not remove FSM eligibility from pupils until at least 2023, continuing to offer them meals and record them as eligible on the census.
For more information, please see the free school meals guidance for schools and local authorities, or contact the free school meals team at Freeschoolmeals.MAILBOX@education.gov.uk.