How to return ILR final funding claims 2014 to 2015 to the EFA
Information for institutions who are required to make a EFA final funding claim return.
How to return ILR final funding claims 2014 to 2015 to the EFA
All Education Funding Agency (EFA) final funding claim returns should be run from your final Individualised Learner Record (ILR) R14 submission for 2014 to 2015.
The ILR R14 data return period will close on Friday 23 October. This is the final data return for this funding year.
The EFA final funding claim return for 2014 to 2015 includes the required declaration on the final page of the Funding Implementation Service (FIS) EFA funding claim report. Institutions that make ILR returns should use the document exchange to return a PDF copy of the completed signed report.
The requirement to return a signed final claim report to the EFA is set out in EFA Funding guidance for young people 2014 to 2015: ILR Funding returns. Annex A explain the purpose of the signed declaration by the head of the institution.
Producing the funding claim report
The EFA final claim report can be run from either the institutions ILR data using FIS or is available as a report from the Hub. The report must be run from your final ILR submission and must submit the same data to the data collections facility in the Hub.
Please submit your ILR R14 data return by 23 October 2015 so as to allow enough time to fully cleanse your data using the validation reports generated by the system.
The format of the report
The report must be produced from FIS or Hub as a PDF type report and not as an Excel report.
Signing the funding claim report
Once the FIS or Hub EFA final claim report for 2014 to 2015 has been produced the document should be presented to the head of the institution to sign the required declaration on the final page of the report.
Scanning the report
The report should be scanned electronically and returned to EFA. We only require the scanned electronic copy. The original hard copy of the report with the original signature must be kept by the institution as a financial record for the year and retained in accordance with the advice in ILR Funding returns paragraph 14 and in Funding regulations paragraph 138. The original document must not be posted to EFA.
The PDF file name must be saved as the following:
- institution UKPRN number (as shown on page 1 of the EFA funding claim report)
- then an underscore
- then EFA_Funding_Claim.pdf
For a college with UKPRN number 1234567 the document name would be: 1234567_EFA_Funding_Claim.pdf.
Returning the report to the EFA
The scanned PDF version of the signed report should be sent to the EFA through the Information Exchange. It is important that the same naming reference as above is used for the Information Exchange header when returning the document. The PDF funding claim report must be returned to the EFA through information exchange in October.
The report should be saved in the Information Exchange folder headed “Revenue Funding”, sub folder “2014/15”.
No other FIS reports or any other documentation should be returned with the final claim report. It is particularly important to fully comply with the Data Protection Act requirements over personal data and not include any reports that include individual student details. The required summary EFA funding claim report does not include any such details.
Using EFA Information Exchange
If you have any problems using the EFA Information Exchange, please see the guidance on GOV.UK.
All requests for clarification over the final claim return itself should be made to either the institutions usual territory contact or to the EFA funding returns in-box.
Gaining the necessary assurance over EFA income for auditors signing off college accounts before the end of December
The EFA will issue allocation information for 2014 to 2015 and ILR R13 funding out-turn information to all known college financial audit firms in a workbook form for all their known clients. This will be followed up with final figures based on ILR R14 returns in early November to assist the firms in signing off college accounts. The individual institution statements cannot be produced until all final returns are received and processed.
Next steps
As set out in ILR funding returns document in paragraph 10 the EFA will issue final reconciliation statements to all ILR funded institutions through their Information Exchange account.
Contract institutions subject to reconciliation final statements will be issued in November and Grant-in-aid institutions will be issued in December 2015. The statements will be found in due course in the following folder location: Revenue Funding > AY 2014-15. Support and further information about the EFA information Exchange is available on GOV.UK