ESFA weekly round-up – Issue 380

Education & Skills Funding Agency’s weekly round-up of business-critical information to ESFA-funded colleges, other training organisations and direct grant employers. (15 Nov 2017)

College merger apprenticeship ILR submissions

Colleges merging in-year in 2017 to 2018 can continue to submit separate ILRs for the rest of the academic year. However, all new apprenticeship provision starting after the merger date must be recorded against the new merged UKPRN.

Further guidance for 2018 to 2019 and beyond will be issued in due course next year, once the ESFA has carried out a full review of options for merging colleges.

Updated provider data self-assessment toolkit

ESFA have released an update to provider data self-assessment toolkit (PDSAT) on the PDSAT section of their website on GOV.UK.

This update enables funding information system (FIS) data import for the 2017 to 2018 funding year.

For further information, please email [email protected].

Traineeships – free workshops for training providers

The Learning and Work Institute is running a series of free workshops to help providers boost the number of young people who successfully progress from their traineeship programmes. These events will be appropriate for both existing traineeship providers and those who are interested in delivering the programme.

The workshops will focus on planning and implementing delivery models that secure strong progressions to apprenticeships and employment, and that engage young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or are slightly further from the labour market than many young people.

They will provide insights into best practice from traineeship providers across England and will also be interactive, enabling participants to share practice, ask questions and gain tailored advice on boosting traineeship progressions.

All workshops will take place from 10am – 4pm. Please register to book your place for one of the following sessions:

• Leicester: 23 November 2017, Learning and Work Institute, 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE
• Leeds: 5 December 2017, Leeds Beckett University, Cloth Hall Court, Quebec Street, Leeds, LS1 2HA
• London: 31 January 2018, RNIB, 105 Judd Street, Kings Cross, London, WC1H 9NE

For further information please email [email protected].

Latest information and actions from Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for academies, schools, colleges, local authorities and other post-16 providers.

Update to the 16 to 19 education: funding allocations page

ESFA have updated their 16 to 19 allocations page on GOV.UK in preparation for the delivery of 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations for 2018 to 2019 academic year.

The page provides important information about how they allocate 16 to 19 funding to institutions. It also contains an allocation timeline and the latest 16 to 19 allocation developments, which they will continue to update as they move through the allocation process.

November school workforce census

The deadline for submitting data is 1 December 2017.

Please submit your return now if you have not done so. The school workforce census is a statutory return, therefore you have a legal obligation to submit data.

If you do not have a management information system, or you cannot provide data in the correct format required by COLLECT, please request the XML generator tools from the helpdesk.

Please remember:

• returns are not complete until they are submitted (or submitted and approved for maintained schools)
• before submission all errors and queries must be corrected or, in the case of queries, a valid notepad entry made
• where the school had no teacher vacancies on the census date, (query 7240q), please enter the note ‘We confirm there are no vacancies in this school’
• where there is no Teacher Reference Number (TRN) available, (query 4100q), please enter the note ‘Awaiting teacher number’

ESFA have provided a wide range of reports in COLLECT to ensure that you can check that your school’s data is correct. Details are available with the COLLECT guide. As a minimum please check the COLLECT credibility report once your data is complete.

If you have a query regarding the school workforce census collection please contact the helpdesk using the service request form.

Schools funding videos for local authorities

3 new videos for local authorities relating to schools funding. Others with an interest in schools funding may also find them useful:

What’s changed in pre-16 schools funding for 2018 to 2019? video

Minimum per-pupil funding factor in the national funding formula video

Completing the disapplication request form video

Consultation on the ‘implementation of changes to the criteria for loan schemes’

The Department for Education has launched has launched a consultation on the implementation of changes to the criteria for agreeing local authority loan schemes for maintained schools.

ESFA are seeking views on how breaches to criteria for loan agreements will be challenged and when changes to the criteria will come into force.

The consultation will close on 13 December 2017.

Workload reduction toolkit

As part of continuing DfE action to remove unnecessary workload, ESFA are launching a workload reduction toolkit in Spring 2018 containing advice, tools and best practice.

To make this toolkit as effective as possible it needs to include practical examples of how workload is being managed effectively, for example staff workload surveys, protocols for staff meetings or policies which remove unnecessary workload that schools are using. To help inform the toolkit, ESFA would be very grateful if you and/or your networks could share examples of effective practice, by sending them to [email protected] by Monday. 4 December 2017. All schools, organisations or individuals contributing to the toolkit will receive recognition in the final publication.

DfE ‘removing unnecessary teacher workload’ events coming up!

A series of regional events on reducing teacher workload aimed at school leaders is starting this term. The events will consist of workshops led by serving teachers and leaders who have successfully reduced workload in their schools.

The first events will be in London on 28 November with Sir David Carter, National Schools Commissioner, as keynote speaker, and with a session run by Daisy Christadoulou on comparative judgements.

In Birmingham Dawn Copping, Chair of the Independent Review Group on Reducing Teacher Workload associated with Marking and who has effectively reduced workload in her school will present the keynote.

Leaders from all types of school are encouraged to attend with a member of their governing board to consider together the strategic importance of reducing workload due to the link to recruitment and retention and to choose the event closest to their school.