Guidance

Alternative provision year 11 transition fund: form guidance

Published 15 February 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on 27 September 2023

This has been withdrawn as the date to submit claims has passed.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

Alternative provision (AP) year 11 transition funding is:

• in response to the continued impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
• intended to fund additional transition support provided by AP settings for year 11 pupils from 21 May 2021 to 28 February 2022

2. About the fund

The AP cohort, a significant proportion of whom are in year 11, are already vulnerable and at greater risk of becoming not in education, employment, or training (NEET) than their peers.

For most pupils, these risks have increased since closure and reopening of the schools due to the pandemic. Without substantial transition support, many of the current year 11s in AP are at a higher risk of becoming NEET.

Becoming NEET limits life chances, and engagement in education is a protective factor from a range of harms. Individual, needs-based interventions are required to support these year 11 pupils transition to post-16 provision successfully.

AP schools and colleges who offer AP support can fund activities tailored to an individual pupil, or can combine the funding into a package that supports wider groups of their AP year 11s.

3. Conditions for accessing this funding

Funding will only be available to the following settings with a year 11 AP cohort (sole or dual-registered):

• pupil referral units (PRUs)
• AP academies and AP free schools
• further education (FE) colleges offering AP - these providers needed to pre-apply to access this funding
• registered independent schools offering AP - these providers needed to pre-apply to access this funding
• hospital schools, including those that are PRUs, AP or special academies; foundation or community special schools; and those registered as independent schools

This funding is not available for:

• special schools - unless they operate as a hospital school
• charities (including those known as unregistered AP) that provide activities for pupils who are in AP settings - contact local AP providers to see how you can engage with their transition work
• mainstream schools

Where a pupil is registered at a mainstream school and 2 AP institutions, only the AP setting where the pupil spends most of their time is eligible for funding (up to £750).

You may have shared resources with another setting. To claim for shared resources, each setting must submit an individual claim for their pupils or portion of the shared costs.

If you think this is incorrect, you can find answers to frequently asked questions via the ESFA help centre.

If you need further assistance, contact us and we’ll investigate the issue.

4. Conditions of funding

Funding can only be spent by AP schools and FE colleges offering AP to support their existing year 11 cohort transition and remain successfully engaged in quality post-16 destinations.

FE colleges and registered independent schools offering AP were required to raise an expression of interest (EOI) before 25 June 2021, so that eligibility for the funding could be assessed.

For more information, read the alternative provision:year 11 transition funding guidance.

4.1 When to complete your submission

The deadline to complete this form is Tuesday, 15 March 2022 at 11:59pm.

No applications will be accepted after the deadline.

4.2 Accessing the form

Access the AP year 11 transition fund form to confirm any funding you’ve used to support young people to transition into sustained post-16 destinations, and to avoid becoming NEET.

4.3 Before you start

Make sure you have:

• read this guidance document
• access to all the information required to complete the digital form
• a vendor ‘P’ number by providing your bank details - this will not stop completion of the form, but will significantly delay payment - with the exception of local authority maintained PRUs, who will receive funding via their local authority
• a DfE Sign-in account

Log in to your DfE Sign-in account:

• access the AP year 11 transition fund form
• sign in to DfE Sign-in using your account information (username and password) - try your DfE sign-in credentials as soon as possible to avoid any issues with submitting your form
• choose the organisation for which you are completing the form
• the next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed 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
• if these details are correct, select ‘continue’ to move to the next page
• if you believe these details are incorrect, you can find answers to frequently asked questions via the ESFA help centre
• if you need further assistance, contact us and we’ll investigate the issue

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are claiming the funding 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 you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

You will need to create one: 

• access DfE Sign-in
• select the ‘create account’ button
• enter your name and email address (use your work email address, or one that is clearly associated with your organisation)
• we will send you an email to verify your email address - copy the code from this email and enter it into the box on the verification page
• create a memorable password of 12 characters or more (we recommend joining 3 or more familiar words)
• sign in to DfE Sign-in using your new credentials, then select ‘organisations’ and ‘request an organisation’ followed by the URN, or name of the school - the request will be sent to the DfE Sign-in approver for the organisation
• once approved, you can access the form

If you need further assistance 

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

If you believe you are eligible to claim but have problems accessing the form, visit the ESFA help centre.

5.  Completing the form

There is no save facility on the form, so make sure you have all the information ready before starting.

If your form is open for an extended period, you may lose any information entered up to that point, and will need to sign in and re-enter this information.

You will also be advised what will happen once you have submitted the form.

Selecting ‘continue’ on each page will take you through the form.

5.1  Your details

This is a read-only page which will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged into DfE Sign-in.

If your eligibility for this funding hasn’t already been assessed:

You may notice a warning message if you have not already completed an expression of interest for this funding. This means your eligibility for this funding has not been assessed and is not assured. You should continue to complete this form and refer to the conditions of grant for AP: year 11 transition funding.

Funding will not be paid unless the conditions of grant for FE colleges and independent schools are met.

To submit supporting evidence from your commissioning schools or local authorities, email APTransitionFund.COVID-19@education.gov.uk by Friday, 18 March 2022.

If the required evidence has been received and the eligibility criteria has been met, your claim will be considered.

Your school type

You will be asked if you are a hospital school; select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on the type of school you are. You can continue to complete your submission, however, if you are not a hospital school, we may request more evidence to support your claim, and your funding may not be assured.

Joint claim

You will be asked to confirm if you are claiming jointly with another setting. If you are making a joint claim, you must enter the other setting’s URN. You cannot proceed with your submission without providing this information.

Joint school

This read-only page will confirm the name of the joint setting you have run provision with. If you have entered an incorrect URN for the joint setting, you may notice the name of the joint setting is not the same as the one you have run provision with. If so, you must enter the correct URN for the joint setting at the previous page by selecting ‘back’ at the bottom of this page.

Your claim

You will also be asked to enter the number of main registered (pupils only registered with your organisation) and dual-registered (pupils registered with your organisation and another setting) participating pupils on 21 May 2021.

You will also be asked to enter a total amount claimed during the period from 21 May 2021 to 28 February 2022. Funding will be allocated to cover actual cost of activities undertaken, up to £750 per AP year 11 pupil or student.

You may have shared resources with another setting but for payment purposes each setting should only claim for their costs/pupils only.

Activity delivered

Select one or more options to tell us what activities you have delivered using the AP: year 11 transition funding. If you select ‘other’, you must specify which activities in the free textbox area.

At least one option must be selected to continue with your submission.

6. Summary and declarations

Please check your answers before submitting your claim form. If you would like to change any of your answers, select the ‘change’ link that appears next to the specific data entry.

Finally, we will ask you to make several declarations to confirm you agree.

You will not be able to submit your form without agreeing to these declarations.

After completing the declarations, you should select the ‘accept and send’ button.

You’ll then see the submission confirmation page.

6.1  Confirmation

The final page confirms your submission relating to the AP year 11 transition fund and will provide a unique reference number.

You’ll also receive an email which includes your claim reference and a PDF copy of your submission.

6.2  Amending your submission

If you have incorrectly submitted your costs, you can amend and resubmit the claim until 11:59PM on 15 March 2022, when the claim window will close. To do this, you’ll need to sign in here and update the relevant information.

You cannot amend your submission past the deadline.

7. Form feedback

This is a new service, and your feedback will help us improve our service. When providing form feedback, please select ‘alternative provision year 11 transition fund’ from the list.

8. Enquiries

If you’ve read this guidance and have any questions about the AP year 11 transition fund, please visit the ESFA help centre.

If you need further assistance, contact us and we’ll investigate the issue.

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