Bryan Slater Director of Education	Distribution
	Headteachers of schools with post-16 provision

This document needs your action as detailed below:

ACTION	Title	EMA Information Bulletin No 2
	Summary of contents	Latest information about the national EMA scheme to be introduced in September 2004
	Associated documents	Bulletin No. 2
	Date	6^th February 2004
	Summary of action required	Disseminate to Head/Director of Sixth Form and/or other EMA contact for the school
	To be completed by	13^th February 2004
	LEA Contact	David Andrews	(	01603 223493
	E-mail address	david.andrews@norfolk.gov.uk
	Norfolk Self Review reference	5. How well does the school care for its pupils?
	Document reference	MI 32/04

EDUCATION MAINTENANCE ALLOWANCE ( EMA )

INFORMATION BULLETIN FOR SCHOOLS

Issue Number 2 - January 2004

This issue focuses on information for schools with post-16 provision.

· Getting ready for EMA

Schools will shortly be receiving information and guidance to assist with local planning

for EMA implementation. This will include data to help schools estimate the number of

students who are likely to qualify for EMA in the first year of the scheme. This will in

turn enable schools to estimate the amount of DfES funding they can expect to receive

for implementation and administrative costs in the first year and to plan accordingly.

Each school will need to produce an implementation plan which describes the main

EMA related activities and milestones. Advice and support will be provided through the

local partnership.

· DfES Funding for EMA

The DfES has announced details of the agreed level of funding that will be available to

help with implementation and administration costs in the first year of the scheme.

Information was given in a note issued jointly by the DfES and the LSC and circulated

to schools on 12^th January.

The key points are :-

Ø A fixed allocation of £70 per eligible EMA student will be awarded to schools with 10 or more EMA students.

Ø Payments will be made automatically on the basis of the number of enrolled EMA students registered with the Assessment and Payment Body in the last week of October 2004.

Ø This funding will not be available to independent schools.

· Operational guidance

The DfES is currently developing detailed guidance which will explain fully how the

EMA process will work so that there is a consistent weekly processing cycle. The

guidance will also explain the extent to which schools and colleges can tailor parts of

the process in particular circumstances. The guidance should be available from the

end of February 2004.

Continued overleaf

· Training for staff

From April 2004, the Assessment and Payment Body (Capita) (APB) will be arranging

a series of scheduled half-day training events to provide training for school and college

staff involved in the use of the system for notifying the APB, each week, whether or not

a young person should be paid.

In the first year of the scheme this will necessitate manual input to the APB system.

As part of their planning, schools will need to identify the key system users and

provide the names of those who need to attend one of the training sessions.

· Named contacts in schools

In order to ensure speedy and effective communications about EMA there is an urgent

need to identify named contacts for each school. This should be the person who will

be taking the lead role in implementing the scheme and co-ordinating all the activities

associated with this.

If this information has not already been notified to the local LSC please can you arrange

to do so within the next few days (see below for contact details)

· Keeping up to date with EMA news and developments

The DfES website address is : www.ema.dfes.gov.uk

There is also a DfES telephone information line for schools and colleges : -

0800 056 2811