Information that new academies will need in their first period of opening.

Welcome pack and letter to new academies

You’ll receive a welcome pack on your date of opening which aims to guide you through your first few months on matters relating to:

  • funding
  • funding agreement compliance
  • finance
  • financial assurance

We update the academies welcome pack each month. The latest edition of the welcome pack is the new academies welcome pack: February 2020 (PDF, 334KB, 27 pages).

The welcome pack includes:

  • details of key actions for you to fulfil within your first few months of opening
  • links to more information about some of the detailed guidelines that you’ll need
  • information about other finance related activities for which we’re not responsible and signposts to where you can find further information
  • an introduction to our areas of work to give you a broad overview of where you can expect to interact with us
  • an introduction to our key services and systems and what you need to know and do to use these services successfully

You’ll also receive a welcome letter from our chief executive.

We’ve published a wall planner for academies and academy trusts showing key dates about ESFA activities for the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

You can also follow us on Twitter to receive regular updates and subscribe to our YouTube channel to view our latest videos.

Academies contact information

You must notify ESFA using get information about schools about changes in key governance contacts.

ESFA sends important and confidential information to academies throughout the year, so it’s important we have the right contact details for you.

Academies funding allocation delivery schedule

The schedule below shows ESFA timescales for issuing funding allocations to schools becoming new academies.

We send a draft funding allocation statement, a reminder funding allocation statement and a final funding allocation statement for the first academic year of opening.

We send draft funding allocation statements as soon as possible after an academy order is granted with reminder funding allocation statements being sent the month prior to opening. You’ll receive these by email using the address you gave your project lead during conversion.

We’ll upload final funding allocations to Document Exchange (via DfE Sign-In). Multi-academy trusts will be able to see new academies in their trusts in the second month of opening.

Academies opening in the 2019 to 2020 academic year

Date of academy opening Draft funding allocation issued Final funding allocation issued by
September 2019 Mid August 2019 Late September 2019
October 2019 Mid September 2019 Late October 2019
November 2019 Mid October 2019 Late November 2019
December 2019 Mid November 2019 Late December 2019
January 2020 Mid December 2019 Late January 2020
February 2020 Mid January 2020 Late February 2020
March 2020 Mid February 2019 Late March 2020

Estimating your allocation

Before you receive your draft funding allocation statement, you can make an estimate of your allocation. We’ve produced a guide that explains how to estimate a new academy’s revenue funding, known as the general annual grant (GAG). The guide links to online data and has examples for each of the main elements of the GAG.

For academies opening as free schools or university technical colleges (UTC), your school budget share will be based on the local authority funding formula. We’ve produced templates for individual schools to calculate indicative allocations based on their own information.

These are available, with further information about funding, for each of these academy types:

Contact us

If you have any queries that the welcome pack does not answer, please contact us.

Published 11 March 2014
Last updated 5 February 2020 + show all updates

  1. We have added the February 2020 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  2. We’ve added the January 2020 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  3. We’ve added the November 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  4. We’ve added the October 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  5. We’ve added the September 2019 edition of the welcome pack for new academies and free schools. We’ve removed the 2018 version of the free school welcome pack.

  6. Addition of 2019 to 2020 draft and final funding allocation dates and the August edition of the welcome pack for new academies.

  7. Updated the Welcome Pack to the July 2019 edition

  8. We’ve added the May 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  9. We’ve added the April 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  10. We’ve updated the academies funding allocation delivery schedule.

  11. We’ve added the March 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies.

  12. Addition of the welcome pack for new academies – February edition

  13. We’ve added the January 2019 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  14. We’ve added the December 2018 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  15. We’ve added the November 2018 version of the welcome pack for new academies

  16. We’ve updated this page to remove information relating to academy trusts. This information can now be found on our new page ‘Academy trusts: information for new trusts’. We’ve also added the September version of the academies welcome pack.

  17. We’ve added the April 2018 version of the academies welcome pack and updated the academies funding allocation delivery schedule.

  18. We’ve added the December 2017 version of the welcome pack and updated the academies funding allocation delivery schedule.

  19. We’ve updated the academies funding allocation delivery schedule and replaced the link to a video guides, which can now be watched on this page.

  20. Updated the schedule for when new academies will receive their funding allocations statements for both 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018 academic years .

  21. Updated to include the December welcome pack

  22. Updated to include the November welcome pack

  23. Updated to include the October edition of the welcome pack

  24. Updated for September openers.

  25. Updated to include the July edition of the welcome pack.

  26. Updated for June openers

  27. Update and added welcome pack for May 2016 openers.

  28. Update and added welcome pack for April openers.

  29. Updated the welcome pack for new academies.

  30. Updated with the February welcome pack.

  31. Timetable of Funding Allocation documents for In year openers now available for openers up to March 2017

  32. Updated with the January 2016 welcome pack for new academies

  33. Updated with welcome pack for academies opening in December 2015.

  34. Updated with academies welcome pack for November 2015.

  35. Updated with the welcome pack for October openers.

  36. Updated with the September 2015 new academies welcome pack.

  37. Update to funding allocations delivery schedule.

  38. Updated welcome pack for new academies published

  39. New academies welcome pack updated and re-published for March 2015 openers

  40. Welcome pack updated for new openers from 2 February 2015

  41. The funding allocation delivery schedule has been updated and the there is now a link to a guide about estimating a new academy’s revenue funding.

  42. Welcome pack updated for new openers from 2 January 2015

  43. Welcome pack updated for new openers from 1 December 2014

  44. Welcome pack for new academies updated.

  45. Welcome pack for new academies added.

  46. Updated to include funding allocation delivery schedule for academies opening in the 2014 to 2015 academic year and details about estimating allocations.

  47. First published.

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