ESFA 16 to 18 funding letter

ESFA has published its annual start of the year 16 to 18 funding letter. Key points: ESFA will issue funding factors to colleges in January 2018 based on their 2016-17 data, a 5% tolerance will be applied to the condition of funding. The plan is to issue allocations by the end of February. Requests for changes to allocations - business cases - will need to be made by April with decisions due in May. ESFA will confirm allocations for the work placement capacity development funding in spring 2018. These will be 16 month allocations running from April 2018 to July 2019 with ESFA monitoring college and school performance against the plans returned in November 2017. ESFA will start measuring Level 3 maths numbers in schools and colleges in 2018-19 so that it can pay out the £600 bonuses announced in the Autumn Budget in 2019 and later years. Enrolments in 2018-19 will be compared against an autumn 2017 baseline. Enrolments eligible for funding if they lead to Level 3 maths qualifications recognised in the DfE performance tables (A level, AS, Further, Core but also IB qualificaitons). The count of enrolments will be at qualification level so it will be possible to earn a larger amount (£1,200) if there are extra students taking two eligible qualifications. Work is also underway on the GCSE resit centre of excellence announced in the Autumn Budget. This is likely to involve more targeting of funds by DfE. DfE's consultation on T Level design invites views on funding. DfE expects the first T Level qualifications to be available in 2020-21 and will be publishing information shortly on which colleges and schools can participate in the pilots. The bigger issue about 16 to 18 funding is the fact that the overall budget is insufficient. As the Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, said in December 2017, the funding rate is too low. AoC will be working in 2018 with the Sixth Form Colleges Association and Association of School and College Leaders to ensure that students, parents, the public, politicians and officials understand this