Guidance

16 to 19 non-maintained special school (NMSS) revenue funding allocation guide: 2021 to 2022

Updated 18 March 2021

This guidance was withdrawn on 27 January 2022

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date. Find the latest information on further education funding.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This guide helps you understand how we have calculated your funding allocation for academic year 2021 to 2022.

2. If there is an error in your data

The figures in the statement are your final funding allocation, which under normal circumstances will not be changed.

We reserve the right to reduce or withdraw your allocation at any stage should issues arise through audit or other processes which

• significantly affect the data underlying your allocation calculation
• significantly affect contract compliance, or
• if we believe that by making an allocation we will be putting public funds at risk

By exception, we will consider evidenced and credible business cases from institutions where there has been a significant error in the data returned by the institution.

3. Enquiries

If you have any questions that are not covered in this or other published guidance, please contact us using our online enquiry form.

4. Changes for 2021 to 2022

4.1 Allocation statement layout

• we have split out the high needs breakdown table as seen in previous years statements into 2 tables. One table showing how we have determined your funded places and another table showing how we’ve calculated your high needs place funding. There have been no changes to the way these elements are calculated, only changes to the way the information is displayed

4.2 Discretionary bursary allocations

• we have changed the way we calculate the instance per student values for the discretionary bursary allocation for 2021 to 2022 allocations. We have used your 2019 to 2020 academic year school census data to determine the instances per student values. We previously used a local authority average

5. Non-maintained special school funding allocation

We will base non-maintained special school (NMSS) funding allocations on the pupil numbers recorded in the October 2020 school census, uplifted by the difference between the pupil numbers recorded in the October 2019 and January 2020 school censuses. Any reduction in pupil numbers between the October 2019 and January 2020 school census is set to zero. This ensures no school is funded below its October 2019 census pupil numbers.

The values on your statement are shown rounded to various numbers of decimal places. The calculation of your funding however is done using un-rounded values. This may result in some slight differences when you work through the calculation yourselves.

6. Funded places

This section explains how the funded places are determined in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

6.1 Total pupil numbers recorded in October 2019 census

• total pupil headcount recorded in the October 2019 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for

6.2 Total pupil numbers recorded in January 2020 census

• total pupil headcount recorded in the January 2020 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for

6.3 Difference between October 2019 and January 2020

• ‘total pupil numbers recorded in January 2020 census’ – ‘total pupil numbers recorded in October 2019 census’
• any reduction in pupil numbers between the October 2019 and January 2020 school census will be shown as zero. No school will be funded below its October 2020 census total pupil numbers

6.4 Total pupil numbers recorded in October 2020 census

• total pupil headcount recorded in the October 2020 census based on the age range that the school is legally allowed to make provision for

6.5 Total places funded for 2021 to 2022

• ‘increase between October 2019 and January 2020’ + ‘total pupil numbers recorded in October 2020 census’

7. High needs place funding

This section explains how the high needs place funding is calculated in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

7.1 Pupil numbers (October 2020 census)

• pupil numbers recorded in the October 2020 census split by pre-16 pupil numbers and post-16 pupil numbers

7.2 Proportions used in 2021 to 2022 allocations

• proportions of pre-16 and post-16 students to be funded based on the ‘total pupil numbers recorded in the October 2020 census’

7.3 Funded places

• the percentage proportions applied to the ‘total places funded for 2021 to 2022’ shown in the ‘funded places’ table

7.4 Rate

• £10,000 per place

7.5 Place funding

• ‘funded places’ (pre-16 and post-16) × ‘rate’

8. Student financial support funding

This section explains how we have calculated student financial support funding in the NMSS revenue funding allocation statement.

We have continued with the general approach to calculate 16 to 19 discretionary bursary allocations that we first used in the 2020 to 2021 academic year. We have published advice for institutions on the financial support young people may be able to access to help them participate in education and training.

8.1 Post-16 funded place number

• the ‘funded places’ (post-16 only) shown in the ‘high needs place funding’ table

8.2 Instances per student

• we use the student postcode from your 2019 to 2020 academic year data and the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2019 to determine the number of instances per student for ‘element 1: financial disadvantage’. The instances per student value is calculated by:

Sum of financial disadvantage instances ÷ total student numbers 2019 to 2020 = instances per student

• we use the student postcode and delivery location postcode from your 2019 to 2020 academic year data return and the IMD 2019 to determine the number of instances per student for ‘element 2a: student costs – travel’. The instances per student value is calculated by:

Sum of student costs travel instances ÷ total student numbers 2019 to 2020 = instances per student

• this is a change from the 2020 to 2021 approach, where we used local authority averages to determine the number of instances per student for each element. We will continue to use local authority averages where data is not available to complete the ‘instances per student’ calculations

• the maximum ‘instances per student’ value is 1.000
• ‘element 2b: student costs – industry placement’ funding does not apply to NMSS

8.3 Number of instances

• instances per student for ‘element 1: financial disadvantage’ and ‘element 2a: student costs – travel’ are multiplied by the post-16 funded place number

‘instances per student’ x ‘number of funded students’

8.4 Rate

• the funding rate for each element of the discretionary bursary for 2021 to 2022. Bursary funding rates are subject to change year on year

8.5 Funding

• ‘number of instances’ x ‘instance funding rate’

8.6 Discretionary bursary fund

• the sum of each bursary element before transition arrangements are applied ‘element 1: financial disadvantage total’ + ‘element 2a: student costs travel total’

8.7 2019 to 2020 Discretionary bursary funding – baseline for transition

• your total 2019 to 2020 bursary allocation will be used as a baseline to calculate the transition lower and upper limits (-/+ 50%)

8.8 Transition lower limit

• 50% of the baseline for transition amount. In 2021 to 2022 academic year institutions will receive no less than 50% of the baseline transition amount following the change to the methodology

8.9 Transition upper limit

• 150% of the baseline for transition amount. In 2021 to 2022 academic year institutions will receive no more than 150% of the baseline for transition amount following the change to the methodology

8.10 Exceptional adjustment

• an exceptional increase or decrease applied to your discretionary bursary funding

8.11 Student financial support funding total

• your total discretionary bursary funding plus exceptional adjustments where appropriate