Latest News
May 2011: School Sport Partnership 2010/11 SSC5 audit pack now available
- Click here to download the SSC5 audit form and guidance.
- Click here to download the SSC5 FAQs (NEW - added 13/07/2011)
The deadline for its submission is August 31 2011.
April 2011 - Competition Manager CM5 Audit Form
Click here to download the 2010/11 CM5 forms and guidance as a zip file. The file includes 5 separate documents:
- CM5 Year End Report
- Auditor Proforma
- Instructions for the Completion of the CM5
- Instructions to the Auditor
- Eligble Programme Costs 10/11
March 2011 - DfE announces winding down arrangements...
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22nd March 2011
Dear Competition Manager Host,
Competition Manager Funding 2010-2011
This letter contains important information about the winding down of your grant for competition managers.
As you are aware, this programme ceases at the end of this month. It is the Department’s expectation, therefore, that all competition manager grant funding is used by that time, and any employment of ‘competition manager type’ posts beyond that are a matter for local decision and funding. Only those competition manager posts which already have extensions agreed or negotiated with the Department will be able to use their grant beyond 31 March.
You are reminded, as stated in your 2008 award letter, that the grant cannot be used to fund any costs in relation to the termination of postholder contracts of employment or contracts for services.
You can download the proforma here. Please sign and return to Ecorys and state which scenario best represents your current position, as follows:
a) we will have no underspend on the competition manager programme at 31 March 2011
b) we will have some underspend at 31 March, and will return the underspend to the Department
c) we will have some underspend at 31 March and have previously agreed / negotiated a competition manager post (s) extension with the Department.
All host organisations will be required to submit an audit for spend in April 2010 to March 2011, regardless of which scenario applies to you. The CM5 audit pack will be available shortly, and the deadline for its return will be 30 June 2011.
We are grateful for your help with the competition manager programme, with all the financial and management responsibilities that this has brought.
Thank you also, in advance, for your attention to the final audit arrangements for this grant.
If you have any queries, please contact the SSP helpline: ssp@uk.ecorys.com or 0845 2500 753.
Yours sincerely
Ian Broadbridge
PE and Sport Team
Department for Education
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December 2010 - DfE confirms funding to school sport partnerships beyond February 2011
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21 December 2010
School Sport Partnerships
We promised to write to you about funding for school sport partnerships beyond February 2011; please accept our apologies that communication has been delayed. Thank you for your e-mails and calls about the issues involved; we appreciate the uncertainty you have faced, and the difficulties with planning and staffing. As you may already have seen, the Secretary of State announced, yesterday, his plans for school sport up to, and beyond, the end of this financial year. We hope that this factual note is helpful in setting out the position.
School year 2010/11
He has confirmed funding of £47 million to school sport partnerships from the existing sport budget for financial year 2010-11, which covers the remainder of the spring term and the summer term also. This grant is for the purpose of providing physical education and sport, particularly to embed good practice from the previous Administration’s PE and Sport Strategy and to introduce new sport competitions for more pupils as part of the Coalition Government’s School Games.
The grant to partnerships will be calculated on the basis of the cost of:
- Partnership Development Managers (PDMs); Assistant PDMs; School Sport Co-ordinators (SSCos); FE Sport Co-ordinators (FESCos); and Primary Link Teachers (PLTs) for the remainder of the spring term (up to 30 April 2011); and
- PDMs; Assistant PDMs; SSCos; and FESCos for the summer term (up to 31 August 2011).
This is in addition to £71 million paid to partnerships in October 2010, which included your full swimming and coaching grants for the school year.
Partnerships should note that, as announced in October, they can decide for themselves how the grant is spent (for the purpose of providing physical education and sport).
The final grant payment will be made to partnerships in February 2011, as already indicated, subject to clearance of your 2009/10 SSC5 audit. Over the coming weeks, Ecorys will work out the precise amounts of grant that will be paid to partnerships. We will write to you in January to indicate the total grant payable to your partnership in February. That letter will also set out the terms and conditions attached to the grant.
Competition managers
The cost of competition managers is not met through the grant to school sport partnerships. The Department paid the various local authorities and schools that employ competition managers at the beginning of the financial year 2010-11, as the final year of the previous spending period. The Department has no plans to fund competition managers in the next spending period from 2011, beyond March 2011.
School year 2011/12 and beyond
As you know, the Secretary of State has announced that he will not continue to provide ring-fenced funding for school sport partnerships beyond the summer term 2011. Instead, he is making available £65 million of new funding for schools to provide more competitive sport for their pupils. This funding will be for secondary schools to release a PE teacher from timetable for one day a week in the school years 2011/12 and 2012/13. You can find further details of the Secretary of State's announcement at http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/pressnotices/a0071098/a-new-approach-for-school-sports-decentralising-power-incentivising-competition-trusting-teachers. The Department will announce further details about this in due course.
Please circulate this email to all schools in your partnership and to any other people who need to know.
If you have any questions, then you should continue to contact Ecorys at ssp@uk.ecorys.com or on 0845 2500 753.
Ian Broadbridge
PE and Sport Team
Department for Education
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October 2010 - Department for Education confirms changes to funding for School Sport Partnerships
DfE will confirm the exact transitional arrangements shortly. For more information, please click the link below.
September 2010 - SSC5 audit pack available to download
Click here to download as a ZIP file. The pack includes 5 separate documents.
September 2010 - ECOTEC name change
On 04 October we will be changing our company name to ECORYS. ECORYS is a highly-renowned European-based research, technical assistance and consultancy company. ECOTEC has been a member of the ECORYS Group for over a decade and the change reflects our current position as the UK business of ECORYS.
There will be no changes to the SSP website address or the helpline number.
These remain as: SSP Helpline: 0845 2500 753
www.ssponline.co.uk
From 04 October you will need to use our new email address to email the Helpline:
Please note that we will still receive any emails sent to ssp@uk.ecorys.com.
Personal email addresses will all follow the formula of firstname.surname@uk.ecorys.com
