Quarterly update for academies from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) - December

Each week, ESFA publishes information for academies on the GOV.UK website which lay out the latest updates, things to be actioned and reminders on previous updates. 

Below, our expert Academies team has provided a round-up of everything you need to know from a financial perspective from October to December 2024.

October 2024

• Core Schools Budget Grant (CSBG) – ESFA published the allocations and conditions of grant for this new grant which supports schools with increased costs. Published allocations cover the period to March 2025 with the subsequent period to August 2025 also expected to be covered in due course.
• Pupil premium allocations – ESFA published the allocations, with trusts also receiving their unsuppressed data directly.
• Care to Learn and 16 to 19 Bursary scheme changes – From the 2025 – 2026 academic year, responsibility for managing C2L applications will move to trusts and operate like the 16-19 bursary scheme. ESFA/DfE will pay 5% on top of the amount claimed per C2L student to cover trust administrative costs. Trusts will also be responsible for making payments to students’ childcare providers. Further information will be published in April 2025.
• Post-16 schools budget grant – Allocations and conditions of grant published.
• Targeted retention incentive – Eligible teachers can now apply for an incentive payment of up to £6,000 when in their first five years of teaching specified STEM courses. Deadline for the claim is 31 March 2025.
• National professional qualifications (NPQs) – ESFA published the final allocations, with the grant for targeted NPQ support funding now closed.
• 16 – 19 allocation data – ESFA published the latest funding allocations.
• Good practice guides – ESFA published an academy trust management accounting guide (which includes a suggested layout for monthly management accounts) on their good practice guides. Other updates to the good practice guides include Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting and Managing Academy Trust Reserves, alongside the removal of the guide to academy trust deficit recovery.
• PE and sport premium – ESFA published allocations and conditions of grant for the 2024 – 25 academic year.

November 2024

• Schools and high needs national funding formula (NFF) – The Budget announced an additional £2.3 billion, alongside an NFF policy note. The Provisional Local Authority NFF allocations were published in December.
• Financial benchmarking and insights tool (FBIT) – FBIT went live and replaced the “View my financial insights” and “Schools financial benchmarking” websites.
• Academies accounts return (AAR) – The AAR portal went live, with a submission deadline of Tuesday 28 January 2025.
• Funding allocations and publications issued for:

• • Time off timetable for early career teachers and mentors who participated in the 23/24 national roll-out of the early career framework reforms training.
  • Backfill payments for time off timetable for 23/24 early career framework mentor training.

• Maths and English funding for the 2025 – 2026 academic year – Guidance for the conditions of funding published.

December 2024

• Universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) – UIFSM rate increased from £2.53 to £2.58, backdated to the start of the academic year. The increase will be received with the final UIFSM allocation in July 2025.
• Risk protection arrangement (RPA) – The RPA deduction will increase to £27 per pupil (from £25) for the 2025 – 2026 academic year.
• National non-domestic rates (NNDR) – ESFA published an update to their guidance for billing authorities on the NNDR process. This includes a school-by-school list of the approach being taken by billing authorities, as some will change from 1 April 2025. Where billing authorities are paid direct by ESFA, Academy Trusts need to gross up the value of GAG by the value of their NNDR bill and include a matching expense to correctly reflect the bill in their accounts.

There have also been a couple of Notices to Improve issued recently that we wanted to particularly highlight around financial governance:

• Case 1 – The notice highlights concerns over budget forecasts (ATH 2.11), management accounts (ATH 2.18), board oversight of the trust’s financial position (ATH 2.19 and ATH 2.20) and failure to manage the trust’s cash position robustly (ATH 2.21).
• Case 2 – The notice highlights concerns over maintaining adequate accounting records and the preparation of the annual report and accounts. Specifically, the trust failed to include a bank account in the accounts, neglected to include significant assets on the Balance Sheet and failed to declare related party transactions (ATH 4.1). The Trust did not comply with ATH 5.36 – 5.40 in respect of managing and disclosing related party transactions. The Trust did not carry out an Internal Scrutiny programme during 2022/23 (ATH 3.20).
• Case 3 – The notice was issued because the trust failed to follow the Academy Trust Handbook in relation to the award of a special staff severance payment and did not obtain the required prior ESFA approval for the special staff severance payment (ATH 5.9 to 5.12). Management accounts were also not shared as required by ATH 2.19.

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