16 to 19 funding: in-year growth for 2024 to 2025
Information about in-year growth funding for 16 to 19 education (including up to 24 for those with high needs) for academic year 2024 to 2025.
Applies to England
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March 2025
We’ve added a new attachment with updates to the in-year growth funding methodology for academic year 2024 to 2025. We’re changing our funding methodology for this year’s in-year growth to stay within our budget.
This change applies to the exceptional in-year growth for student numbers only.
We are not changing the methodology for:
- high needs in-year growth in special post-16 institutions (SPIs) or centrally funded exceptions (CFEs)
- bursary and free meals in-year growth
August 2024
Each year, we review the early data returns from institutions delivering 16 to 19 education (including up to 24 for those with high needs) and award in-year growth where necessary, subject to affordability. For academic year 2024 to 2025 only, we are publishing the rules for calculating in-year growth awards early. We will fund in-year growth in academic year 2024 to 2025 based on the rules in this guidance. In the unlikely event that the resulting in-year growth funding is exceptionally high, we may need to amend the rules to ensure that the payments are affordable. We will provide an update on this in February 2025 once we know the level of growth.
There are 3 strands to the in-year growth exercise:
- exceptional in-year growth for student numbers
- exceptional in-year growth for SPIs and CFEs
- free meals in further education (FE) and bursary
All references to R04 in this guidance mean the R04 student figure with a 1 November reference date applied.
Updates to this page
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We have added a March 2025 update for 16 to 19 funding: in-year growth for 2024 to 2025.
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First published.