Transparency data

16 to 19 funding allocations: 2022 to 2023 academic year

Updated 7 June 2023

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This publication covers funding allocations made to 16 to 19 institutions funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). We publish the 16 to 19 funding allocations annually and previously published allocations are also available.

We issued 16 to 19 funding allocations supporting documents for 2022 to 2023 to help institutions interpret changes to the funding system and allocation statements.

The 2022 to 2023 academic year covers the period from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023 for academies; and from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2023 for all other institutions.

2. Changes in 2022 to 2023

We published 16 to 19 funding information for 2022 to 2023 which set out the main policy and funding rates for the year.

2.1 Main changes

• we have increased the national funding rates to take into account three factors – to incorporate funding for teachers’ pay grant, for inflationary pressures and to support the delivery of additional hours
• we have increased the T Level funding rate in line with the increases in other rates
• we have reverted to calculating the retention factor from data following an alternative approach for 2021 to 2022 allocations. The funding rates and formula guidance provides information on how we determine if a student is retained and how we calculate an institution’s retention factor
• we have increased programme cost weightings related to 5 subject areas considered to be under-weighted
• we have adjusted the rate for disadvantage block 2 (which reflects the additional cost of teaching and supporting students who have low prior attainment) to take account of the change to GCSE results in 2020. The disadvantage block 2 rate will increase from £480 to £504 for students attracting the higher and FTE rate. For students attracting the lower rate, this will increase from £292 to £307. The rate for T Level students will rise proportionally from £650 to £683
• the disadvantage block 1 rate for students who are in care or who have recently left care has also increased from £480 to £504
• we have increased the uplift for high value courses premium from £400 to £600, to further encourage courses with higher wage returns and support the Industrial Strategy
• capacity and delivery funding rate has reduced to £160 per qualifying student for both level 2 and level 3 students

3. Scope of the published data

The publication provides 16 to 19 revenue funding allocations data for institutions funded by ESFA for 2022 to 2023.

Education funded by ESFA through the published 16 to 19 funding formula and high needs post-16 place funding is included. The data does not therefore include funding allocated for non-mainstream activity or funding for provision not funded by ESFA.

The 16 to 19 funding formula includes funding for education for students up to the age of 19, or up to the age of 25 for those young people who have been issued an education, health and care (EHC) plan by their local authority. We report students aged 19 to 25 with an EHC plan alongside other students funded through the 16 to 19 budget.

Further information is available on the high needs funding arrangements for 2022 to 2023 including the definitions of a high needs student.

Students aged 19 who are completing a programme which they began aged 16 to 18 (19+ continuing learners) are also included in the data. As indicated above, some of this provision was funded by the Skills Funding Agency up to 2016 to 2017 so was not included in the equivalent publications to this in those years.

We publish the funding allocation data for students aged 16 to 18 on apprenticeships and most students who are aged 19 or over (other than as stated above) separately.

The Department for Education also publishes statistics for young people’s participation in education, employment and training and those not in education, employment or training.

This funding allocations data shows the full academic year allocation as at September 2022. The institution category reflected in the published data is correct as at September 2022. Schools that converted to academies in September are shown as an academy. Other published allocations such as pre-16 academies show the institution category as it was at the end of the last financial year. Further information on 16 to 19 funding is available in the funding guidance.

4. The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund was introduced in 2011 to 2012. It is money the government allocates to local authorities, schools, colleges and other education and training providers (institutions) to support financially disadvantaged students. Its purpose is to provide financial support to help students overcome specific barriers to participation, so they can remain in education. Institutions are given allocations for discretionary bursaries and draw down funds for the bursary for vulnerable groups from us via the Student Bursary Support Service.

The methodology used to calculate the bursary funding changed from 2020 to 2021, it has two elements:

• Element 1: financial disadvantage
• Element 2: student costs to support travel and Industry Placements

Further information on the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund is available in scheme guide.

5. Free Meals in further education

In 2014 to 2015 academic year, additional funding for free meals for 16 to 19 students attending further education funded institutions was introduced to provide parity with those young people attending school sixth forms. Prior to 2014 to 2015, institutions had been supporting the cost of meals for students who needed them on a discretionary basis from the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund. We adjust discretionary bursary allocations to take account of this double funding.

In 2016 to 2017, we removed the ring fence between the discretionary bursary allocation and the free meals in further education allocation. This flexibility in use of the funds remains in place.

Where possible, ESFA has based 2022 to 2023 academic year free meals funding for further education institutions on their 2020 to 2021 full academic year data and their funded student number for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. ESFA has used the number of students assessed as eligible for, and in receipt of, free meals in the 2020 to 2021 academic year as a percentage of the total number of reported students aged 16 to 19 in that year. This establishes the number of students we might reasonably expect to be eligible for free meals support in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

Further information about free meals is available in the scheme guide.

6. Residential Bursary Fund

The Residential Bursary Fund (RBF) provides financial help towards the costs of accommodation for students attending one of the designated institutions delivering specialist provision. Specialist provision is not available locally and/or requires the student to attend at unsociable hours on a regular basis and consequently the student needs to live away from home.

RBF enables young people to gain a substantial qualification in a specialist subject that they would not be able to get at a non-specialist institution. RBF should not be used to enable a student to participate in additional activity, for example, to take part in a specific sport, whilst they are participating in general FE provision that is widely available.

RBF allocations for the 2022 to 2023 academic year have been generated using the methodology below:

• for institutions that spent at least 90% of their 2020 to 2021 allocation, 5% growth has been added to their 2021 to 2022 allocated amount to generate the 2022 to 2023 allocation
• for institutions that spent less than 90% of their 2020 to 2021 allocation, a 5% reduction has been applied to their 2021 to 2022 allocated amount to generate the 2022 to 2023 allocation
• an exception has been made where the outcome of the calculation generates an allocation that is greater than both 2020 to 2021 actual spend and the 2021 to 2022 allocation. In these instances, the 2022 to 2023 allocation is the same as the 2021 to 2022 allocation

The allocations methodology disregards any spend by institutions that is outside policy guidelines (inappropriate use of RBF for travel for non-resident students, for example).

Further information is available in the scheme guide.

7. Residential Support Scheme

The Residential Support Scheme (RSS) is designed for the exceptional situations where the same or similar substantial level 2 or level 3 qualification the student needs to pursue to achieve their desired career or higher education goal cannot be accessed locally to their home. Most students supported by RSS tend to live in rural areas and have limited access to a wide range of 16 to 18 further education provision. RSS uses nationally set income thresholds and maximum funding amounts. Institutions must verify each student’s substantial level 2 or level 3 qualification with ESFA as part of the application process.

ESFA has generated RSS allocations in the 2022 to 2023 academic year for institutions that had students verified as eligible for support from the scheme in the 2021 to 2022 academic year where those students are expected to return for a second or subsequent year of study. ESFA used the course verification form as the source of this information.

More information is available in the scheme guide..

8. Dance and Drama Awards

The Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) scheme offers income assessed support for tuition fees and living costs at a number of high quality private dance and drama institutions in England. DaDA funding is intended to provide a contribution to the costs of participating for talented individuals who want to become professional actors and dancers.

ESFA has based 2022 to 2023 academic year DaDA allocations on data on student numbers and spend from the last full year (the 2020 to 2021 academic year). Projected spend for the 2021 to 2022 academic year has also been considered to ensure the allocation is appropriate.

More information is available in the scheme guide.

9. Further information

If you have a query about the data or this publication, please contact us.