Tag: Education and Skills Funding Agency

What is the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)?
The Education and Skills Funding Agency is essentially an amalgamation of the EFA (Education Funding Agency) and the SFA (Skills Funding Agency). They hold responsibility for £63 billion of funding for the education and training sector. Additionally, the ESFA:

Provide assurance that public funds are properly spent
Ensure that schools academies and colleges achieve tax-payer value for money
Establishes that schools academies and colleges deliver the policies and priorities set out by the Secretary of State.

The agency also intervenes where schools are at risk of failure, and where there’s evidence of mismanagement of public funds.

Academy schools can apply to the agency for additional funding under the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF). Successful bids not only have to demonstrate a genuine need for improvement, but also provide some investment themselves. The academy can either choose to make this investment via capital expenditure, or apply for a Salix loan.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency make an assessment of the most deserving bids once the application deadline has passed, and award the funds accordingly. There is then a process for appeals should an academy wish to press their case further.

Many academies choose to select a consultant to help them with their application. Essex-based architectural and Surveying practice, Munday and Cramer have a high success rate and actually secured 5% of the total national fund last year for their partner academies.