The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) new chief has voiced plans to introduce a financial handbook for independent training providers, as part of a pledge to improve partnership working between the agency and the sector.
David Withey, who became ESFA chief executive in August, said the handbook will be an equivalent of the academies trust handbook, and hoped it would aid ITPs in their understanding of funding rules and procedures – essentially acting as their “bible”.
Speaking in Manchester on Tuesday at the Association of Employment and Learning Provider’s autumn conference, Withey said: “One of the things we have been thinking about recently is an ITP handbook, based on the model we have for academies – a financial handbook intended to be the bible that sets out how everything should work in one place.
“That isn’t perfect, but it does bring things together in a single place to be a bit clearer.”
