LSECT - updates

UPDATE 17-12-10 (click here for MS Word version)

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ACTOR deadline extended by two weeks
It seems someone senior enough (probably in BIS) got wind of the 31st December 2010 ACTOR submission deadline and agreed with many that there was a real danger that this would either a) be missed by some providers or b) ruin holiday plans. The SFA say it should take two hours to complete ~ if you completed it yourself it would be interesting to know your experience. So, the revised deadline is now 14th January 2011. See the SFA email sent to providers in full here: http://tinyurl.com/397toqp

Post-quarter 1 review 10/11 SFA allocation spreadsheet
Today the SFA published 2010/11 provider allocations as at 14th December. These will have been updated since the start of the year following the Quarter 1 Review. It may be useful for some to compare original September allocations with this revision. For example, the 16-18 apprenticeship allocation for Tesco Stores Ltd has fallen by almost half after Quarter 1, from £418k to £218k. The September spreadsheet is here: http://tinyurl.com/2u4n4gm and this new December spreadsheet is here: http://tinyurl.com/3ajecbm

Claiming for bicycle mileage!
As the new Government continues to encourage their departments and agencies to publish the details of every invoice, it is always a fun game to take a forensic approach to finding something of interest. My favourite from the YPLA November Payment published today was 60p expenses paid to a South West member of staff for ‘bicycle mileage’. Cost of a new inner-tube? See November in full: http://tinyurl.com/2vqeoj7

YPLA’s latest e-bulletin and E2E reconciliation
More from the YPLA with their latest weekly bulletin. Perhaps the most interesting part is a generous u-turn with reference to E2E reconciliation (see page 5). The original funding guidance had been that any under-delivery for E2E provision in 2009/10 would be clawed back (and there was a lot). However, relevant colleges have now been informed that any over-delivery on their non-E2E 16-18 learner-responsive allocation would reduce any potential E2E claw-back. Read the e-bulletin in full here: http://tinyurl.com/32w3us5

‘Crack-down on college data’
The TES newspaper today ran a second article within a month on college data credibility (http://tinyurl.com/2v3utl7).

This follows the publication of Six Data Management Principles and Four Good Practice Principles by the information authority. The Four Good Practice Principles are actually aimed at the funding bodies and their agencies, and basically says don’t ask for anything unreasonable. The most helpful is number 2: “Funding bodies and agencies will send providers only instructions about data collection and transformation that have been approved by the information authority secretariat.” Providers should wave this document around if ever pressured to supply unscheduled data. Read more about this here: http://tinyurl.com/33gw6gf

Speaking of data credibility, the £200 SCORE discount (software for colleges and training providers) has been extended until the end of December 2010. Read more about this promotion and SCORE here: http://tinyurl.com/2wraf8t

Data returns calendar ~ importable into Outlook
The information authority today published a range of helpful calendars, which includes the helpful facility to import them into Outlook. Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/33namm8

Kind regards,

Nick
www.twitter.com/nicklinford