Inform August 2020
Updated 18 January 2022
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sfa-inform/inform-august-2020
We paused Inform due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, we are returning to a regular publishing schedule.
1. For information: Education and Skills Funding Agency help centre
The Education and Skills Funding Agency is developing an online help centre for education and training providers.
The aim is to make sure our key tools, services and guidance are easy to find, as well as making information available so that customers can resolve common issues without having to raise a query with our support teams.
Read more about the help centre from our feconnect post.
2. For information: Forthcoming upgrade to feconnect
We have listened to feedback from members of the community, and will be relaunching feconnect in the next few months.
The new forum will offer a more robust, accessible service and address known issues with the current service (such as problems with the search function and email alerts). These upgrades will enable you to share best practice with your peers more easily.
As more details are confirmed, they will be added to the feconnect post about the upgrade.
In the meantime, if you would like to join our private beta to try the new site before it goes live, please email customer.experience@education.gov.uk.
3. For information: Gathering customer feedback to improve our services
The ESFA’s customer experience team is putting a model in place to get your feedback on our services and suggestions on ways we can improve your user experience.
We will email surveys to samples of customers to capture feedback at three levels, covering your views on:
- the ESFA overall
- your experience when completing specific tasks
- your interactions with the ESFA - such as raising a support query, using our funding guidance and so on
This insight will help teams better understand how they and their services are performing, and help them take data-driven action to improve customer experience.
4. For information: Learning Aims Service redesign
The Learning Aims website (part of the Hub) is being replaced with a new website for the start of the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
The Find a learning aim design has simplified the user experience while still providing all of the key information our users need.
We have conducted research with various people to understand and improve our designs, this is an ongoing process and there is a survey for you to continue to help us gather more feedback.
The old website will still be available, but we encourage you to use the new website to ensure you have the most up to date information.
If you have any questions, please submit an ESFA online enquiry form.
5. For information: Data returns maintenance schedule
The Data Collections maintenance schedule for 2020 to 2021 has been created and the version for 2019 to 2020 updated to reflect the R13 and R14 dates. Both of these documents are available on gov.uk.
These schedules confirm the data collection periods, planned learning aims reference data updates and proposed essential maintenance windows.
6. For information: Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) for 2019 to 2020
We previously confirmed that we will not publish any institution-level QARs in the national achievement rate tables for the 2019 to 2020 academic year in response to COVID-19.
We also announced that data will not be used by others, such as Ofsted, local authorities or devolved authorities or within ESFA and DFE, to hold institutions to account. Therefore, we will not supply 2019 to 2020 QARs for institutions to use internally themselves.
We are currently reviewing what data we will publish for statistical purposes in 2021 for the 2019 to 2020 QARs but, it will not contain any data at the institution level.
You are still able to check your data is accurate. The Inform: May 2019 article explains which funding monitoring reports impact on QARs and some of the common data issues we encounter.
7. Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices launches
High-quality apprenticeships will have an important role to play in creating employment opportunities post-Covid-19, and in supporting employers to access the skilled workforce they need to bounce back and succeed. Training providers have a critical role to play in supporting redundant apprentices to help them to find a new employer and support them through to completion.
To further support apprentices who have been made redundant, or who are at risk of redundancy, we introduced the Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices (ReSSA) on 1st August.
ReSSA will provide clear, accessible advice and guidance to individuals on the impact of redundancy, their options and next steps. We will also help redundant apprentices to identify new apprenticeship and employment opportunities, and, where they are eligible, complete their current apprenticeship.
The service is made up of three main elements:
- Providing apprentices with advice and guidance on the impact of redundancy
- Signposting apprentices to local and national support services
- An apprenticeship vacancy sharing service to make redundant apprentices aware of new opportunities
An employer who would like to recruit a redundant apprentice or offer new apprenticeship opportunities should visit the website or call 08000 150 600 to find out more.
Apprentices should visit the website or call 0800 150 400 to speak to an adviser.
8. Reminder: all new learners should start on apprenticeship standards from 1 August 2020
This is a reminder to providers that from 1 August 2020, all new apprenticeship learners must start on new, employer-designed apprenticeship standards.
All remaining apprenticeship frameworks will be withdrawn to new learners on 31 July 2020. This follows the Government’s announcement on this matter in October 2018.
Existing apprentices on frameworks will still be able to complete the framework, providing they started on or before 31 July 2020. For operational reasons, it is our intention that these learners complete their apprenticeship framework by 31 July 2025 (accounting for any breaks in learning).
A full list of available standards can be viewed on the Institute for Apprenticeship and Technical Education’s website.