ESFA college and local authority accountability agreements

The accountability agreement is a new product emerging from funding and accountability reforms. It is a two-part document setting the overall expectations of providers in return for the Department’s funding investment.

This document provides guidance for providers within scope to develop and submit an annual accountability statement (part 2) by 31 May 2023.This guidance is to support providers in the creation and submission of a accountability statement for 2023 to 2024. 

We will provide further information about a range of support activities including webinars in the New Year.

The annual accountability framework (part 1) will be simplified, compared to the current 2022 to 2023 funding agreement. However, the overall provisions that providers will need to comply with will remain consistent.  This framework will be published here in the Spring.

We are publishing this guidance now to maximise the time for providers to draft and approve their accountability statement.

Providers in scope are: all further education colleges, all sixth form colleges, designated institutions and local authorities delivering post-16 provision in excess of £1m.