Learn about the roles and responsibilities for staff at the Department for Education, and what staff need to know when calculating payments for ECF providers.
Software developers
Software developers currently have the following responsibilities:
- The DfE has previously advised of the possibility that participants
may be registered as duplicates with multiple
participant_ids. Where the DfE identifies duplicates, it will fix the error by 'retiring' one of the participant IDs, then associating all records and data under the remaining ID. - Manual process for merging, closing or opening schools which greatly depends on things like whether the school has a successor, participants etc - and what training programme they've selected
- If the ECT doesn't have an induction start date recorded, they are assigned a temporary cohort to enable access training while the AB has not yet recorded their induction start date
- Replacement mentors
- Cohort allocation
- Eligibility for funding
- Syncing our school list with GIAS
- Sending out reminder emails -- manual or scheduled comms
- Checking eligibility
- Setting up cohorts & schedules
- Assigning participants to a cohort temporarily or permanently
- Setting or updating participant statuses
- Calculating grant funding
However, the Department for Education is redesigning the ECF services so that they can be sustained without so much developer involvement.
There will be an interface where other staff can carry out the above responsibilities.
Staff who calculate payments for providers
What is referred to as the 'payment engine' is a piece of code in the same ECF application that calculates payments for LPs.
Provider payments are made up of a:
- set-up fee
- service fee
- uplift fee
- output payment
To calculate the payment we need to know the:
- participant recruitment target
- volume banded price per participant
- actual number of participants declared at each milestone
- number of declared participants eligible for uplift
The per-participant price is usually paid 60% via output fee & 40% via service fee.
Financial statements are produced and paid monthly. As well as the calculated payment amount, the financial statements include:
- Additional adjustments
- Clawbacks
- VAT
Financial statements are viewable by any internal DfE member with 'finance access'. Users will see an 'Authorise for payment' button underneath the summary on the financial statements that include output fees and where the deadline date has passed. This allows them to 'freeze' the statement and conduct their assurance tasks on a statement without the numbers on the statement changing. It transitions eligible declarations from the 'payable' state to the 'paid' state. This blocks providers from being able to void those declarations. If a void does happen after this point it is clawed back, rather than voided. Once the statement has been authorised for payment It also places a tag on the relevant financial statement showing the time and day the statement was authorised 'e.g. Authorised for payment at 10:30am on 5 Aug 2023'.
A Statement can have different types of declarations:
| State | Definition | Action |
| ----- | ---------- | ------ |
| submitted | A declaration associated with a participant who has not yet been confirmed to be eligible for funding | Providers can view and void submitted declarations |
| eligible | A declaration associated with a participant who has been confirmed eligible for funding | Providers can view and void eligible declarations |
| ineligble | A declaration associated with a participant who is not eligible for funding or a duplicate submission for a given participant | Providers can view and void ineligible declarations |
| payable | A declaration that has been approved and is ready for payment by DfE | Providers can view and void payable declarations |
| voided | A declaration that has been retracted by a provider | Providers can only view voided declarations |
| paid | A declaration that has been paid by DfE | Providers can view and void paid declarations |
| awaiting_clawback | A paid declaration that has since been voided by a provider | Providers can only view awaiting_clawback declarations |
| clawed_back | An awaiting_clawback declaration that has had its value deducted from payment by DfE to a provider | Providers can only view clawed_back declarations |
Audit trail -- not visible but exists
Contract managers can download a copy of the statement and a list of the submitted declarations within it to share with providers. Providers can see the information in the statement via API v3.
ECF volume banded prices
Each provider is required to specify a target recruitment number for participants and quote volume banded prices.
- There were originally 3 bands.
- Each band must have a lower price-per-participant than the previous band.
- Volume banded pricing is applied to both service fee and output fee.
Band D was introduced when the government made more funding available for ECF and the DfE invited lead providers to increase their recruitment targets.
- Band D is paid the same per-participant price as Band C.
- For Band D 100% of the per-participant price is paid via output fee. There is no service fee component.
- Some providers don't have a Band D
Set-up fee
The set-up fee is an amount that providers can claim to cover the costs of standing up the service. It is effectively an advance. The maximum is £150k.
The set up fee is paid by being added into the service fee for Band A participants:
- We have a set figure we've agreed to pay providers for set up costs.
- We take that amount and divide it by the amount of months in the contract.
- Then we take that monthly payment and divide it by the amount of target participants in band A.
- We adjust the service fee for Band A participants so that it reflects service fee + set-up fee combined.
Note, in some cases where LPs are underperforming the target number of participants may be updated, which impacts the set up fee.
Service fees
Service fees are a fixed amount paid monthly and are based on the recruitment target, not the number of participants actually recruited. Contract management provide the total contract value and length and the service fee amount is determined by dividing 60% of the contract value by the contract length.
It is calculated as 40% of the banded per participant price, multiplied by the target participants per band, divided by the number of months of the contract.
Source: Contract management provide total contract value and length. Amount is determined by 60% of the contract value divided by contract length.
See Schedule 7 - Pricing and performance table 3b.
Uplift fees
The uplift fee is a bonus that is paid to providers for recruiting participants from schools in deprived areas.
- It is £100 per eligible participant that receives a Started declaration.
- It is paid as a single payment at the first milestone.
- Eligibility is determined by the participant's school's score for sparsity and pupil premium (updated before opening registrations each year).
- Although a participant may be eligible for both pupil premium (£100) and sparsity uplift (£100) payments, they will only receive a £100 payment in total.
Output fees
The output payment is a variable amount paid according to schedule milestone dates. There are typically 6 output payments (according to a standard schedule).
- It is based on the number of declared participants, not the recruitment target.
- It is calculated as 60% of the banded participant price, multiplied by the participants per band, multiplied by the milestone weighting.
- Started and completed milestones are weighted at 20%, the 4 retained milestones at 15% each.
When a provider submits a declaration for a participant, there is validation to check that:
- The declaration has been submitted at the right time according to the participant's schedule, i.e. within the right milestone period (note, this could be backdated)
- The participant is eligible for funding, i.e. funding status = true
- The same declaration has not already been submitted for the participant
If any of these checks fail, the declaration is stored as ineligible and is not assigned to a financial statement.
If these validation checks are passed, the provider's contract for the academic year ('cohort' / funding pot) is referenced to check:
- The value of the declaration for the participant
- Whether the participant has any additional associated uplifts
- The banding the participant should be assigned to
- Whether the count of declarations is below the LP's recruitment target, i.e. below the maximum number of declarations allowed for the contract
Based on these details, the output fee amount is calculated and added to the next available statement.
Manual adjustments
There are some one-off additional payments added to financial statements (e.g. IT service charges). These are added manually by contract managers, outside of the calculation. Contract managers enter this in a field in the finance tool.
Clawbacks
DfE can claim back money from providers via clawbacks. If money was paid in error and declarations are voided, rather than DfE expecting LPs to pay the money back in a separate process - we deduct the amount due from the amount to be paid on the financial statement. Clawbacks cover the different declaration types (e.g. started, retained 1 etc) and uplift.