Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 7 July 2021

Updated 8 July 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This correspondence was withdrawn on 23 December 2022

This has been withdrawn as it’s out of date.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. Action: support the Institute of Technology (IoT) celebration tomorrow

Tomorrow. 8 July is IoT celebration day, and we are asking FE providers, whether part of an IoT or not, to help promote awareness of these unique collaborations between FE, universities and local employers. Ministers are showing their support with the secretary of State visiting West London IoT, Minister Keegan at South West IoT and Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, at Lincolnshire IoT.

The AoC will share the stakeholder toolkit with you in their weekly briefing tomorrow morning. The toolkit includes links to DfE channels to share our content as well as other assets – explainer film, static posts, a gif and blog – and suggested posts and key messaging and quotes about IoTs.

3. Information: apply for the incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice

Applications for the increased incentive payment for hiring a new apprentice are now open.

Please support the employers you work with by reminding them of this and sharing the below information, to make sure they don’t miss out.

Incentive payment for apprentices who joined organisations from 1 April 2021

• Employers with apprentices who have an employment start date between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2021 and who also have a practical period (training) start date between 1 April 2021 and 30 November 2021 may be eligible for an incentive payment.
• Employers will receive £3,000 for new apprentices of any age.
• Employers must apply for these apprentices by the end of 30 November 2021.
• Employers can visit our guidance page for more details.

In addition to existing apprentices, any new hires employers make between now and 30 September 2021 may also be eligible for an incentive payment.

3.1 How to apply

Employers can apply for the incentive payment through the ‘Finances’ section in their apprenticeship service account. For a walk-through of the application process, employers can watch our support video.

3.2 Employer case studies

Find out how employers are making the most of the incentive payment:

• read employer case studies
• hear from Lookers and Walsall Council.

4. Information: updated apprenticeship funding rules for 2021 to 2022

We have published the apprenticeship funding rules 2021 to 2022 (clarification version).

The changes we have made are detailed in the summary of changes which can be found on the apprenticeship funding rules page on GOV.UK.

These rules are being published following the publication of the August 2021 policy document and will reflect these changes. They should be read alongside the apprenticeship response to coronavirus (COVID-19).

These funding rules are a clarification version to give you the opportunity to provide feedback.

Send any feedback to fundingrules.comments@education.gov.uk by Friday 16 July. We will update the rules to reflect any clarifications later in July.

4.1 Apprenticeship Funding: Eligible Costs Review:

We undertook a consultation earlier this year on the eligible and ineligible costs of training and on-programme assessment. We would like to thank the sector for responding so positively to the consultation which received 78 responses. We are considering our response to the consultation and any potential changes to eligible and ineligible costs as part of the Government’s planned spending review in 2021. We will provide a further update towards the end of the year.

5. Information: webinar for training providers on the 2021 to 2022 apprenticeship funding rules

The apprenticeship service is pleased to bring you the next in our series of support webinars.

Join us on Wednesday 21 July 2021 at midday when we will be providing an overview of the new funding rules and be discussing the main updates/amendments.

The webinar is not designed to review your queries with the application of specific funding rules, we would encourage you to raise these through our helpdesk.

For more information, please see our webinar registration page.

6. Information: changes to T Level funding guidance to include further detail on programme cost weighting

The T Level funding guidance on GOV.UK has been updated to outline the approach for programme cost weighting (PCW) which will be applied to T Levels, after T Levels are brought into the lagged student methodology.

It details how the PCW will be applied at occupational specialism level for T Levels and how PCW for the T Level transition programme will be applied at route level.

7. Information: Post-16 Monitoring: Reports Dashboard, survey and recording loans provision

Please can all providers of post-16 education and training log into the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard in View Your Education Data and action errors prior to the R12 ILR submission. To access the dashboard, you need an IDAMS account with the ‘view your education data – post-16 monitoring’ user role. The dashboard links to all supporting guidance and indicates what actions are taken for each report.

We have identified high volumes of records in our FRM20 and FRM21 (‘Loans not in the ILR/SLC’) reports. Some providers have not recorded the advanced learner loans indicator (ADL) against provision. Please ensure you correctly identify loans-funded learners and only record the ADL flag for learners with an approved loan.

Thank you to colleagues who have completed our user survey via the dashboard. It is open until 9 July and we encourage you to complete it as it helps us develop our service further.

8. Information: funding for delivering testing

We have made funding available to secondary schools, colleges, and specialist settings to support them with the costs associated with delivering testing, in line with departmental policy. We expect that this funding will primarily be used to cover workforce costs, however, institutions will have discretion to spend this to meet other reasonable testing costs.

Following the publication of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing in schools and colleges: grant funding Conditions of Grant, ESFA has published the allocations for testing that occurred between January 4 and 1 April 2021. These allocations include a technical note that explains how funding has been calculated.

In addition to the grant funding allocations, an exceptional claims process was made available for colleges to submit claims for specific costs related to ATS that could not be covered by their allocation. The deadline for submitting exceptional claims was the 12 May and the window has now closed.

Any queries regarding either the allocations or the claims process should be raised by using this online form. Where it has been identified that an institution requires an adjustment to their mass testing allocation, the published allocation will be amended accordingly, and this will be paid as part of their next allocation payment.

9. Information: postcode files and guidance

We have published the latest set of postcode files to support the devolution of the Adult education budget (AEB) with an accompanying guidance document. These files include the latest postcode validity (the dates these postcodes apply to), and the new Source of Funding (SOF) codes to support devolution to Sheffield City Region and West Yorkshire from August 2021.

You can use this data to aid your learner enrolment and complete your ILR, by assessing which learners will be funded by each funding body based on their postcode at the start of their learning.

We have also published the latest set of disadvantage factors, both at postcode level and at Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA) level. These have changed this year to accommodate factors set by devolved authorities for learning starting at devolved authorities from August 2021. For the 2021 to 2022 funding year, bespoke factors have been set by West of England Combined Authority, Greater London Authority and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority. The remaining authorities will use the same factors as the ESFA. For the 2021 to 2022 year, the ESFA and aligning devolved authorities have switched to using factors based on the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019.

You can access the data on the Uplift Factors and Postcode Files GOV.UK page.

10. Information: The National Apprenticeship Awards 2021 are now open for entries

Back for their 18th year, the National Apprenticeship Awards are a fantastic opportunity to showcase the apprentices, employers and champions who have gone above and beyond, despite the challenges faced in the last year.

Entries to the awards are open until 28 July. It is free to enter the awards, and all entries must be made through our application website.

There are nine categories to recognise exceptional employers, apprentices and apprenticeship champions:

10.1 Employer of the Year categories

• SME Employer of the Year (for organisations with 1 to 249 employees).
• Large Employer of the Year (for organisations with 250 to 4,999 employees).
• Macro Employer of the Year (for organisations with 5,000+ employees).
• Recruitment Excellence.

10.2 Apprentice of the Year and Apprenticeship Champion categories

• Intermediate Apprentice of the Year (level 2).
• Advanced Apprentice of the Year (level 3).
• Higher or Degree Apprentice of the Year (level 4 or higher).
• Rising Star of the Year.
• Apprenticeship Champion of the Year.

Webinars to explain the awards process in more detail, including hints and tips on completing applications are available.

For more information contact: Apprenticeship.AWARDS@education.gov.uk.

11. Information: resources for working with employers new to the apprenticeship service

Since 1 April 2021, all new apprenticeships are managed and funded using the apprenticeship service, and all employers hiring apprentices need to have an apprenticeship service account.

This means you may be working with employers who are using the apprenticeship service for the first time.

We have created a range of resources for you and your employer contacts, to support your use of the apprenticeship service.

12. Information: publication of 2021 Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)

We have published revised drafts of statutory guidance: Keeping children safe in education 2021 and the Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges advice which provides schools and colleges with more detailed advice to support Part five of KCSIE.

This is for information only, neither document comes into force until 1 September 2021. Until then, KCSIE 2020 and the Sexual violence and sexual harassment advice 2018 remain in force.

We know this is later that previous years but we delayed the publication of these documents this year to allow us to reflect on the Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges and its recommendations, which has helped us to further strengthen the guidance.

The guidance is clear that there should be a zero-tolerance approach to sexual violence and sexual harassment and that schools and colleges should take a “it can happen here” attitude, being clear abuse could be happening even where it is not being reported.

The government response to KSCIE 2021 consultation is available on GOV.UK.

13. Information: Education and Training Foundation (ETF) mentor training programmes

Applications are now open for two Education and Training Foundation (ETF) mentor training programmes, designed to develop high-quality mentoring provision in the Further Education (FE) sector. 325 places are currently available to FE practitioners and will be allocated on a first-come-first served basis providing eligibility criteria are met. Applications will remain open to the sector until all places have been filled. In line with ETF’s commitment to fairer access to courses, as well as in recognition of the diversity of the FE sector and the government’s ambition to increase social mobility, 25% of places will be ringfenced for applicants who satisfy one or more of three criteria:

1. those working in one of the 12 opportunity areas
2. disabled people
3. those from black and minority ethnic communities.

The New to mentoring’ programme will provide participants with opportunities to engage in facilitated action learning sets and practice a variety of new mentoring techniques. The ‘Advanced mentoring’ programme’ will offer professional development activities for more experienced or qualified mentors who will also undertake a small project to improve mentoring in their organisation. Both training programmes will run between September 2021 and February 2022, during which participants will be required to undertake 40 hours of supported mentoring. The programmes are free and will be supported with a grant to each participants’ organisations of up to £6,000.

For further details on how to register for this opportunity please visit the ETF Mentoring web page.