Statement
Today I am announcing the closure of the Education and Skills Funding Agency on 31 March 2025. The functions of the ESFA will be integrated into the core Department for Education. The ESFA is currently an executive agency of the Department.
This will happen in two stages. Schools Financial Support and Oversight functions will transfer from 1 October 2024 and be brought together with Regions Group, part of the Department. This will provide a single seamless voice to schools and ensure that financial improvement is central to school improvement.
We will then centralise our funding and assurance functions into the Department for Education alongside the closure on 31 March 2025, putting certainty, support and assurance in the core of the department.
Moving the agency functions back into the department will bring benefits to the individuals and organisations we support as well as to the taxpayer. It will enable a single, joined-up approach to funding and regulation to improve accountability.
We will be working closely with our staff, unions, stakeholders across the education sector to finalise and deliver our plans for closing the agency.
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This statement has also been made in the House of Lords