ESFA Update: 28 April 2021

Latest information and actions from the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, schools, colleges, local authorities and further education providers.

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. Reminder: a new Document exchange service is now live

ESFA Information Exchange will no longer be accessible after Friday 30 April. 

A new Document exchange service is now live. 

We’ve automatically given ESFA Information Exchange users access to the new service. 

We’ve also uploaded any 2021 to 2022 academic year documents to it. 

We’re reviewing whether it would be helpful to our users to transfer more historical documents to the new Document exchange service.

ESFA Information Exchange users should now: 

• access the new Document exchange service using their existing DfE Sign-in credentials 
• follow the steps on the DfE Sign-in help page in the unlikely event of any access issues 
• read the guidance for information about how to use it
• use the new service to view, manage and submit documents, rather than ESFA Information Exchange 
• view, download and save any older documents they wish to keep from ESFA Information Exchange before 23:59 on Friday 30 April 2021 

Any documents not downloaded and saved before 23:59 on Friday 30 April 2021 will no longer be accessible from ESFA Information Exchange. 

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, access our help page.

If you have any other questions, please contact us. 

3. Reminder: the coronavirus (COVID-19) free school meals additional costs online form for schools and colleges is live

The coronavirus (COVID-19) free school meals additional costs online form went live on 7 April 2021.

You can claim eligible costs related to free school meals and free meal additional costs during the period 4 January up to the start of the Easter holidays (as applicable).

The deadline to submit your claim is 23:59 on 4 May 2021.

We have published guidance to help you complete the form.

4. Reminder: catch-up on the Skills Accelerator bidders’ event

Many of you will have attended the virtual event for prospective bidders to the Skills Accelerator yesterday. Colleges, special designated institutions, and Institutes of Technology are invited to bid to lead Strategic Development Fund pilots as part of the Skills Accelerator.

The event was recorded, so those who could not attend live can still access all of the information that was shared.

You can now access the event recording on YouTube.

Skills Accelerator bidders’ event recording

If you have any follow-up questions about the Skills Accelerator, you can submit them via the e-tendering portal Jaggaer – instructions on how to do so can be found on GOV.UK. Formal written responses to questions posed during the event will also be shared through Jaggaer for reference.

The deadline for bids to the Skills Accelerator is noon on Tuesday 25 May 2021. The deadline to submit questions on Jaggaer is Monday 17 May 2021.

5. Information: clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) staff returning to the workplace

We know that after a period of shielding, the transition back to the workplace may leave some staff feeling anxious.

Shielding advice was paused nationally from 31 March. Further information and ongoing advice for those that are clinically extremely vulnerable is available on GOV.UK.

Clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) staff in education and childcare settings are advised that if it’s possible for them to fulfil their role from home, they should continue to work remotely. If they cannot work from home, they should return to the workplace.

Where staff are feeling anxious, we would encourage leaders to discuss any individual concerns and to reassure staff of the system of controls in place. The system of controls in place in education and childcare settings when implemented in line with the setting’s risk assessment, create an inherently safer environment where the risk of transmission is substantially reduced. Further sector specific guidance is available on GOV.UK.

If you have members of staff who are feeling anxious about this change, there are a number of resources available to support their mental health and wellbeing, including:

• Mentally Healthy Schools
• Headspace for Educators
• a free 24-hour helpline offered by Education Support

6. Information: extension to the time permitted for Universal Credit claimants to attend training

From the week commencing 26 April, Universal Credit claimants in the intensive work search group will be able to attend full-time, work-related training courses lasting up to 12 weeks or up to 16 weeks for a skills bootcamp as part of their work search activity. This was previously capped at 8 weeks.

This extension will run for a 6 month period. We will evaluate and review the impact of this change. As is currently the case, Universal Credit Claimants will need to get agreement from their work coach to ensure this is the right support for them.

The change will likely result in FE providers seeing higher numbers of referrals to or enrolments on a range of Level 3 qualifications, as well as work-focused qualifications up to and including Level 2. Where possible, we encourage FE providers to work with their local Job Centre Plus and Partnership Managers on referrals of Universal Credit claimants and offer flexibility in their provision, in line with the limitations on full-time, work-related training courses outlined above.

For further information please refer to the government announcement on this change.

7. Information: monitoring post-16 funding

We have made changes to the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard at R08 in response to user feedback and through resolving some known issues that users had identified.

To support users with more accurate historical information and to inform our in-year activity, we have applied these changes to all 2020 to 2021 data published so far this year. You can find details about these changes in: Post-16 monitoring reports: known issues 2020 to 2021.

There are 2 active issues affecting the following reports, which we will fix in the R09 release. Please check the known issues document for suggested actions:

• FRM16 level 2 prior attainment
• FRM42 work experience over 300 hours

We will contact some providers through territorial leads if they need to take any action based on R08 data about:

• the FRM20 report for ‘loans learning not being recorded in ILR’
• updating learning aim records which are 2 or more years beyond the learning planned end date

8. Information: Apprenticeship Service account access levels for training providers

In direct response to training provider feedback, we have introduced new functionality which will allow superuser(s) in your organisation to use Identity and Access Management System (IDAMS) to allocate different user permissions to team members who may be performing different roles.

There are 4 different levels of access you can give your team members:

• Account owner 
• Contributor with approval  
• Contributor  
• Viewer  

Find out more about the different functions within each access level on our  Apprenticeship Service Support  page.

Existing users will all migrate over to ‘Account owners’. Superuser(s) in your organisation should now review access levels for all team members in Identity and Access Management System (IDAMS).

Once logged in:

1. Select ‘My Team’
2. Locate the user and select ‘update user’
3. Select assign a new permission
4. 4 new permissions will be listed against ‘Apprenticeship Service provider
5. Select add against relevant permission to assign the correct role to team members.
6. To remove an existing permission, in the ‘approved tab’ select ‘delete’  

We recommend retaining at least 2 account owners to avoid situations where the last account owner is on holiday or leaves the organisation.

For further queries please contact the Apprenticeship Service on 08000 150 600. 

9. Information: publication of a new manual to support flexible apprenticeships in construction

A new manual, co-authored by industry and government, has been published to set out how flexibilities in apprenticeships can be used and delivered in construction.

The ‘Flexible Apprenticeships in Construction’ manual explains how apprenticeship training can be flexed, including what is delivered and when, based on the existing relevant knowledge or skills of the apprentice.

It includes information about the various delivery models including front loading and accelerated apprenticeships.

You may also be interested in the consultation launched to deliver new flexi-job apprenticeships in industries where employment is often short term, such as the creative sector.

10. Information: updated contact details for regional further education (FE) and higher education (HE) Prevent coordinators

The contact details for FE/HE Prevent coordinators have been updated and are now available on GOV.UK.

Regional further education (FE) and higher education (HE) Prevent coordinators play an important role in supporting FE/HE providers develop effective Prevent policies and practices.

The Regional coordinators work closely with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). For further support, the ETF has a dedicated Prevent for FE and training website which offers a range of resources to support employer providers, ITP’s colleges and adult education in engaging with the Prevent duty and ensure they are ready for Ofsted inspections.

11. Information: useful blog for applicants to the College Collaboration Fund

Matt Reynolds from Cirencester College has written a blog about their College Collaboration Fund (CCF) project. This has been published in the Sixth Form Collage Association’s ‘Blog 6’ feature page and can be accessed online.

The blog talks about Cirencester College and partners positive collaborative experience through the CCF project. Great reading for anybody else thinking of applying this time around.

Published 28 April 2021