The government’s education funding agency will be closed down, with its financial oversight for schools rolled into the regions groups.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency will be “integrated into the core Department for Education” by March next year, government said today.
The move will happen over two stages and give schools a “single point of contact for financial management and support”, government said.
The ESFA is currently an executive agency of the Department.
Schools financial support and oversight functions will transfer from October 1 and be brought together with the regions group, nine areas overseen by regional directors.
This will support the launch of regional improvement teams by January, government added, allowing a “single regulator model with governance and accountability sitting in one place”.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson added: “This will provide a single seamless voice to schools and ensure that financial improvement is central to school improvement.”
Funding and assurance functions will be centralised on March 31 next year, when the ESFA will close.
It will enable a single, joined-up approach to funding and regulation to improve accountability
“Moving the agency functions back into the department will bring benefits to the individuals and organisations we support as well as to the taxpayer,” Phillipson added. “It will enable a single, joined-up approach to funding and regulation to improve accountability.
“We will be working closely with our staff, unions, stakeholders across the education sector to finalise and deliver our plans for closing the agency.”
‘Shifting deckchairs won’t solve funding issue’
As of July, 736 staff worked at ESFA. It’s not clear what will happen to these staff.
The agency had already undergone a huge restructure after a review by Sir David Bell. The body was stripped of wide-ranging policy functions and lost half its staff.
Set up in 2017, the agency is responsible for delivering and assuring £75 billion of funding for 25,000 education settings – making it one of the biggest funding operations in government.
But the ESFA is the second education-related quango to get the axe under the new Labour government.
The Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education is expected to close by April with some functions transferred to Skills England, which is currently being set up.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “If this reorganisation produces a more efficient and joined-up approach to the oversight of school and college funding that is obviously something we welcome.
“However, shifting the deckchairs will not solve the overriding problem that the current level of school and college funding is totally inadequate. This is the issue that we most need the government to address at the forthcoming autumn budget.”
David Withey, ESFA chief executive,added: “I am proud of the achievements of the ESFA – delivering timely and accurate funding, positive support to providers in financial stress and strong assurance to taxpayers on how their funding is used.
“That has been driven by the quality of our people, and I am really confident that our strong performance will continue as part of the department”
