From Jamie Sadler at the LGA:
Following a series of discussions between the LGA and DfE on this issue over the spring and summer, Government has agreed to make changes to the Apprenticeship Funding Rules that will allow councils to use some of their own levy funds to pay for apprenticeships in other organisations that are part of their Pooled PAYE schemes. These changes were announced in the latest update to the funding rules at the AELP conference today, and are published on the government website here (see p7 for the changes).
This is an important breakthrough that we have been lobbying for and will hopefully give many of you that are affected by this issue the opportunity to support your affected schools with some of your unspent levy funds.
This will ultimately work in a similar way to how you currently manage apprenticeships for your maintained schools and it will be for you as councils to decide to implement it or not and how.
Any council who wants to help their schools but is concerned that they are close to spending their full levy allocation and is wanting to avoid going into co-investment should be aware that the funding rules were changed last year to allow any employer to receive a levy transfer, even if they have previously transferred money to other employers themselves. Councils in this position should consider asking for a transfer from another employer to help fund apprenticeships in schools on their Pooled PAYE. DfE officials tell me that levy payers have on average only transferred 6% of the possible 25% they are permitted to transfer, so many will have headroom to potentially help.
Webinar sessions
Jamie will be holding two sessions for councils who are affected by this issue to come together and discuss how they might approach using the new flexibility to solve this longstanding problem.
Sessions:
- 14.00 Tuesday 7 November
- 10.00 Friday 10 November
To attend follow the link below and choose a session. Once you are registered an email will be sent directly to you with the invite.