Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023: How to complete the in-year spend report guidance (previously referred to in guidance as midyear report)

Updated 22 May 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 4 September 2024

The deadline has passed for this year’s fund.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund was first provided for the 2020 to 2021 academic year (AY). The fund has been extended to the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

For more information read the coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund guidance on GOV.UK.

On 29 June 2022 we published details about the introduction of the in-year spend report (formerly referred to in guidance as the mid-year report) with effect from academic year 2022 to 2023. The purpose of the in-year spend report is to sense check how much of the budget has been utilised by 31 December 2023 and whether there is likely to be an underspend at the end of the academic year.

This is for monitoring purposes only, and not an exercise in which we will seek to reduce your in-year tuition fund allocation.

These instructions provide guidance about how to submit your in-year spend report. As part of the conditions of funding, all institutions in receipt of the 16 to 19 tuition fund AY 2022 to 2023 are required to make a submission, even if you have a zero return. Failure to do so will be recorded as a non-compliance of the funding conditions.

2. When to complete your submission

The in-year spend report will be published and go live at 8.00am on 4 January 2023. The deadline to complete this form is 11:59pm on 23 January 2023. Institutions will be notified in advance of the publication of the in-year spend report.

3. Accessing the form

This section sets out how to access the in-year spend report and what you need before you start.

3.1 Conditions for accessing this form

You must be an institution which is eligible for and received 16 to 19 tuition funding for 2022 to 2023. If your institution has not received tuition funding for 2022 to 2023, you will see the following message:

‘According to our records, you cannot access the 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023 form because your institution is either not eligible or has not received tuition fund for 2022 to 2023’.

Please check that you have followed the advice at section 3.3 of this guidance. If you think you have received this message in error and believe that your institution has received tuition funding for 2022 to 2023 and you see the message above, you can contact us via the ESFA help centre with your details and we will investigate the issue.

3.2 Before you start

Make sure you have:

• read this guidance document
• a DfE Sign-in account

3.3 Accessing the form

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account:

1. You will be asked to select your organisations local authority.
2. A link will then direct you to the DfE Sign-In page.
3. Access the 16 to 19 tuition fund in-year spend report 2022 to 2023.
4. Sign in using your DfE Sign-in account information (your username and password).
5. Confirm your organisation’s UKPRN.
6. If your DfE Sign-in account is associated with more than one organisation, you must select the individual school or college from the list presented.
7. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged in. This will show the name, address, and unique reference number (URN) or UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who logged in via DfE Sign-in.
8. If these details are correct, select ‘continue’ to move to the next page.
9. If you believe your details are incorrect or you are experiencing issues accessing the form after taking all of the actions in this section, contact us via the ESFA help centre and we will investigate.
10. Complete the form as instructed.

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are registering interest for.

You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in. It is used for authentication only and the form will not appear in your list of services.

If your DfE Sign-in account is associated with more than one organisation, you must select the individual school or college from the list presented on the ‘Select your organisation’ page, which will allow you to access to the form.

If the individual organisation is not displayed, you would need to find out who within your organisation has approver permissions for DfE Sign-in, and they can add or remove a user.

If you cannot find who has approver access, your CEO/CFO or business manager can raise an incident via DfE Sign-in Service Desk.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account you will need to create one. Please ensure you give yourself sufficient time to set up your account and submit your report:

1. Access DfE Sign-in.
2. Select the ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’.
3. Enter your name and a valid business email address, which also contains your name
4. We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
5. Create a memorable password of a minimum of 8 characters, which must include 2 upper case letters, 2 lower case letters and 2 numbers.
6. Sign in using your new credentials, select ‘organisations’ and then ‘request an organisation’, enter the URN or name of your establishment. The request will be sent to the DfE Sign-in approver for the establishment, to approve your request.

You might have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It’s usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined in sign into your DfE Sign-in account to complete the form.

For security reasons, you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

3.4 If you need further assistance

If you are having problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service. You will be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, select ‘other.’

If you have problems accessing the form, contact us via the ESFA help centre.

4. Completing the form

There is no save facility on the form, so make sure you have all the information ready before starting the confirmation process. If your form is open for an extended period, you may lose any information entered up to that point and will need to log in and re-enter this information.

4.1 Your details

This page will display the allocation details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged into DfE Sign-in.

4.2 Provide your spend information

On this page, you will be presented with a table which shows the amount of 2022 to 2023 funding your institution received. The table asks you to state how much of your institution’s 2022 to 2023 tuition funding has been spent from the start of term 2022 to 31 December 2022. On the next page, based on your eligible student numbers and tuition support delivery plan, you will be asked to forecast your full academic year spend. This must include your year to 31 December 2022 spend.

You must ensure the funding allocation is used in accordance with the published Coronavirus (Covid 19) 16 to 19 tuition fund guidance 2022 to 2023.

4.3 Check your answers and declarations

You will need to agree to some important declarations. Please note: you must agree to all the declarations in order to submit the form.

Before submitting the form, you will be able to review the information entered, make changes if necessary, and download a PDF summary.

Once you have checked your answers, made any changes and downloaded your PDF summary, you should click the ‘Submit’ button.

You will then see the submission confirmation page.

You will receive email confirmation of your submission.

4.4 Confirmation

The final page confirms your submission relating to the 16 to 19 tuition fund and will provide a unique reference number.

Please make a note of your unique reference number and quote when making enquiries.

You will receive an email confirmation of your submission.

4.5 Amending your submission

If your submission is incorrect, you can resubmit up until 11:59pm on 23 January 2023, when this form window closes. To do this, you will need to log in and update the relevant information.

If you make a second submission, we will take the details of the most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions.

The form can be submitted or resubmitted until the deadline of 11.59 on 23 January 2023 by selecting the link to the form once it is live. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended claim. Please make a note of your unique reference number and quote when making enquiries.

5. Enquiries

If you have read this guidance and have any questions about the 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023, contact us via the ESFA help centre.

When completing the enquiry form, select ‘other’ as your query type.