Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund: form guidance

Updated 28 April 2022

This guidance was withdrawn on

This page has been withdrawn as the information is out of date.

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-workforce-fund-for-schools-and-colleges/coronavirus-covid-19-workforce-fund-guidance

1. Introduction

These instructions are for:

  • primary, secondary and all through maintained schools, academies and free schools
  • 16 to 19 academies and maintained schools
  • maintained special schools, and special academies and free schools
  • non-maintained special schools
  • pupil referral units
  • alternative provision academies and free schools
  • maintained and academy hospital schools
  • further education (FE) colleges
  • sixth form colleges
  • special post-16 institutions

Registered independent special schools and independent schools delivering alternative provision are also eligible to claim for staff they employ, to support pupils whose placements are funded from local authorities’ high needs budgets.

Claims can be only made at individual institution level. No single academy trust, multi-academy trust or local authority claim journeys are available.

These instructions are to help you claim eligible costs related to staff absences during the period 22 November 2021 to 8 April 2022 through the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund claim form.

2. Eligibility to claim

2.1 Conditions for accessing this funding

The criteria set out for this fund are designed to target those institutions experiencing high staff absence rates and significant funding pressures.

The fund covers the costs of staff absence over the thresholds specified, full details of which can be found in:

3. When to claim

You can claim eligible costs related to staff absences during the period 21 November 2021 to 8 April 2022.

The deadline for submitting your claim is 11:59pm on Tuesday, 24 May 2022.

Claims can be amended or deleted up until the deadline. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

4. Accessing the claim form

Access the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund claim form to begin your claim.

4.1 Before you start

Before you start the claims process, ensure that you:

  • read the accompanying published guidance (this document)
  • have a DfE Sign-in account
  • are an eligible institution
  • meet the financial reserves and workforce absence rate criteria set out in the:
  • have details of when your institution was closed for core, statutory provision with pupils/students in the institution, such as INSET days, half term and bank holidays, on advice from Public Health England or open for other purposes as building hire
  • have details of your staff on roll for teachers, including school leaders, and support staff.
  • have details of your teachers, including school leaders, daily absence figures for the period 1 November 2021 to 8 April 2022
  • if a special institution, have details of your support staff daily absence figures for the period 1 November 2021 to 8 April 2022

4.2 DfE Sign-in

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account

Please try your DfE Sign-in credentials as soon as possible, to avoid any issues with submitting your form.

After checking your credentials, you can:

  1. Access the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund for schools and colleges claim form.
  2. Sign in to DfE Sign-in, using your account username and password.
  3. If you are part of an FE college and have more than one eligible campus, choose the individual campus you want to complete the form for.
  4. 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 accessed DfE Sign-in.
  5. If these details are correct, select ‘continue’ to move to the next page.
  6. If you think your details are incorrect or you are experiencing issues accessing the form, contact us via the ESFA help centre and we will investigate.
  7. Complete the form as instructed in the following sections.

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for.

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

For FE providers with individual campus IDs, you will need to select the campus ID which you are registering interest for.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

You will need to create one:

  1. Access DfE Sign-in.
  2. Select the ‘create account’ button.
  3. Enter your name and email address (use your work email address or one that is clearly associated with your organisation).
  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 8 characters, which must include 2 upper case characters, 2 lower case characters 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 manager.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined in sign in to 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.

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 believe you are eligible to claim but have problems accessing the form, contact us via the ESFA help centre.

5. Completing the form

There is no save facility on the form, so have all the information and evidence ready before starting a claim. If your claim form is open for an extended period, you may lose any information entered to that point, and will need to sign in again.

You will be presented with several pages asking you to complete information related to staff absences and associated costs you are claiming, followed by a prompt to complete the required declarations and an explanation of 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 page will display the details we hold about your setting. It will also confirm the credentials you have used to access DfE Sign-in.

5.2 Financial eligibility

This page will determine if your setting has met the financial eligibility criteria. Eligibility is based on your remaining annual financial reserves and you will only be able to proceed with your claim if you’re an eligible setting and have selected the declaration box.

You can read more about financial eligibility at:

To complete this form, you will need to provide figures for staff on roll and staff absences. However, if you have been completing the educational setting status form, we already hold this data for the claim period until 4 March 2022, and can use the figures you’ve already provided to pre-populate these fields.

From 7 March 2022, the education setting status form moved to weekly data collection, so you will need to input any absences from 7 March to 8 April 2022 manually.

In this section, you are asked to give us permission to use data provided on the educational setting status form to pre-populate fields where possible.

If you select ‘yes’, the form will use data you have provided on the educational setting status form and if you have selected ‘no’ or are not presented with this question as pre-population of any data held is not possible, you will have to enter staff data in all fields within the form.

Please be aware that the answer given here cannot be subsequently amended or reversed.

5.4 Statutory weekend provision

This question enables you to claim for weekends if your setting was open for statutory education provision, so that you can claim for all the eligible days your setting was open.

Answer ‘yes’ to this question if your setting was open on one or more weekends for statutory education provision (for example, residential special schools). The claim form will then include weekends in your staff absence data return.

5.5 Closed days: November 2021 to April 2022

Next, you will be asked to indicate which days your setting has been closed. This is so that closed days do not break your eligibility for consecutive days of absence when compared to the relevant absence thresholds.

You must include any days your setting has been closed during the period from 1 November 2021 to 8 April 2022. This includes inset days and any other days where your institution was not offering statutory provision (for example, half term, bank holidays or following Public Health England advice).

We are requesting November 2021 information as absence rates experienced in November 2021 count towards the long-term absence threshold criteria from 22 November 2021.

5.6 Staff on roll

If you have been asked and provided your consent, this section will have been pre-populated with the number of permanent staff on roll within your setting from the educational setting data we hold.

It is important for you to check this information against your own data, to ensure it indicates the right number of staff being on roll. If the data is incorrect you can amend it where necessary. If this section is not pre-populated, you will have to enter the requested data manually.

Eligible staff

When referring to support staff absences, we expect this to include both educational and non-educational support staff.

Educational support staff: we expect this may include teaching assistants or specialist support staff where they are necessary in remaining open to all pupils or fulfilling a legal duty.

Non-educational support staff: this may include cleaning, catering, transport or caretaking staff where these are necessary in remaining open to all pupils or fulfilling a legal duty.

In special schools or alternative provision (AP) settings, this may also include therapists and other support staff in health-related roles.

Do not include any supply or agency staff.

This will help us baseline your absence figures with the applicable thresholds.

5.7 Teaching staff absences: November 2021 to April 2022

In this section, you will be presented with days your organisation was open for statutory education so that you can claim against staff absence for all eligible days.

Record all teacher absences, including school leaders if applicable, so that you can claim for all eligible days from 1 November 2021 to 8 April 2022. We will calculate the percentage of absence based on the number of teachers, including school leaders if applicable, you have on roll.

We are requesting November 2021 information as absence rates experienced in November 2021 count towards the long-term absence threshold criteria from 22 November 2021.

If you have been asked and provided your consent, this section will be pre-populated with daily teacher absence figures, including school leaders if applicable, within your setting from the educational setting data we hold.

It is important for you to check this information against your own data, to ensure it indicates the correct numbers. If the data is incorrect you can amend it where necessary. If this section is not pre-populated, you will have to enter the requested data manually.

Full details of the workforce absence rate criteria are outlined in:

Do not include any support staff in this section.

Do not count a teacher, or school leader if applicable, more than once per day.

Do not include any supply or agency staff.

5.8 Claims for teachers, including school leaders if applicable, absences

The form will show the days between 22 November 2021 to 8 April 2022 met the workforce absence thresholds, based on the data provided earlier in the form.

It will also identify the cost equivalent in teachers, including school leaders if applicable, that you can claim.

You do not have to make a claim for any or all days that qualify. In such instances, please put in a zero. The fields cannot be left blank.

You can access examples of eligibility at:

The examples provided below are for illustration purposes only.

Example 1

A special school with 21 teachers that experienced a 15% teacher and leader absence lasting 20 school days met the long-term (15 school days or more) threshold.

They can claim for costs incurred covering up to a 5% absence rate, which for a school with 21 teachers would be up to 2 teachers, for 6 days (working days 15 to 20 inclusive), as below:

Absence information:

Item Figure
Staff on roll (SOR) 21
Total Absence rate 15%
Absence period 20 days
% absence threshold met Long term (10% for 15 or more days)
% absence claimable 15% - 10% = 5%
Days qualifying Day 15 to 20 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 6 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
5% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (21/100) * 5 = 1.05

Total (rounded up): cost equivalent of up to 2 teachers claimable for 6 days.

Example 2

Absence information:

Item Figure
Staff on roll (SOR) 500 in a mainstream school
Total absence rate 23%
Absence period 12 days
% absence threshold met Short term 20% for up to 14 days
% absence claimable 23% - 20% = 3%
Days qualifying Day 1 to 12 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 12 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
3% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (500/100) * 3 = 15

Total: cost equivalent of up to 15 teachers claimable for 12 days

Example 3

Absence information:

Item Figure
Staff on roll (SOR) 200 in a mainstream school
Total Absence rate 25% for 12 days followed by 18% for 6 days
Absence period 18 days

Short term absence information:

Item Figure
% absence threshold met Short term 20% for up to 12 days
% absence claimable 25% - 20% = 5%
Days qualifying Day 1 to 12 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 12 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
5% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (200/100) * 5 = 10

Total: cost equivalent of up to 10 teachers claimable for first 12 days

Long term absence information:

Item Figure
% absence threshold met Long term 10% for 15 days or more
% absence claimable 18% - 10% = 8%
Days qualifying Day 15 to 18 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 4 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
8% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (200/100) * 8 = 16

Total: cost equivalent of up to 16 teachers claimable for 4 days

Note: school days 13 and 14 did not qualify for either the 20% short-term threshold as absence was 18%, or 10% long term threshold as it only applies from consecutive school day 15.

5.9 Total support staff costs: mainstream schools and colleges

Institutions can claim for education and non-education support staff absences on an exceptional only basis.

Details of what costs are covered by the fund can be found in:

Do not include any supply or agency staff.

5.10 Support staff absences: special institutions

You will be presented with this page if you are a special institution.

Record all support staff absences so that you can claim for all eligible days from 1 November to 8 April 2022.

We will calculate the percentage absence based on the number of support staff you have on roll.

We’re requesting November 2021 information as absence rates experienced in November 2021 count towards the long-term absence threshold criteria from 22 November 2021.

If you have been asked and provided your consent, this section will be pre-populated with daily support staff absence figures within your setting from the educational setting data we hold. It’s important for you to check this information against your own data to ensure it indicates the correct numbers. If the data is incorrect you can amend it where necessary. If this section is not pre-populated, you will have to enter the requested data manually.

Full details of the workforce absence rate criteria are explained in:

5.11 Claims for support staff absences

As before with teacher absences, the form will present you with details of what days in the period 22 November to 8 April 2022 met one of the workforce absence thresholds for support staff based on the data you provided on the earlier pages.

It will also identify the cost equivalent in support staff, that you can claim.

You can access examples of eligibility at:

The examples provided below are for illustration purposes only.

Example 1

A special school with 10 support staff that experienced a 15% support staff absence lasting 20 school days met the long-term (15 school days or more) threshold.

They can claim for costs incurred covering up to a 5% absence rate, which for a school with 10 support staff would be the equivalent of up to 1 support staff for 6 days (working days 15-20 inclusive), as below:

Absence information:

Item Figure
Staff on roll (SOR) support staff 10
Total Absence rate 15%
Absence period 20 days
% absence threshold met Long term 10% for 15 or more days
% absence claimable 15% - 10% = 5%
Days qualifying Day 15 to 20 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 6 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
5% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number support staff cost equivalent
Calculation (10/100) * 5 = 0.05

Total (rounded up): cost equivalent of up to 1 support staff claimable for 6 days

Example 2

Absence information:

Item Figure
Staff on Roll (SOR) 30 in a special post-16 institution
Total Absence rate 17% for 12 days followed by 12% for 5 days
Absence period 17 days

Short term absence information:

Item Figure
% absence threshold met Short term 15% for up to 12 days
% absence claimable 17% - 15% = 2%
Days qualifying Day 1 to 12 open days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 12 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
2% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (30/100) * 2 = 0.6

Total (rounded up): cost equivalent of up to 1 support staff claimable for 6 days

Long term absence information:

Item Figure
% absence threshold met Long term 10% for 15 days or more
% absence claimable 12% - 10% = 2%
Days qualifying Day 15 to 17 school days (inclusive)
Total days over threshold 3 days

Costs claimable:

Item Calculation
2% of SOR (SOR/100) * absence claimable = up to number teacher cost equivalent
Calculation (30/100) * 2 = 0.6

Total (rounded up): cost equivalent of up to 1 support staff for 3 days.

Note: school days 13 and 14 did not qualify for either the 15% short-term threshold as absence was 12%, or 10% long term threshold as it only applies from consecutive school day 15.

Claims can be made on an exceptional basis where cover for support staff is necessary for avoiding closure or fulfilling legal duties. You do not have to make a claim for any or all days that qualify. In such instances, please put in a zero. The field cannot be left blank.

Details of what costs are covered by the fund can be found in:

5.12 Submission summary

You will then be asked to check all your answers before submitting your claim and will see your claim values confirmed.

Check your answers before submitting your claim form. If you would like to change any answers, use the ‘change’ links provided.

Your total claim amount is the total of your teaching staff costs and support staff costs.

Before you can submit your claim, you will be presented with several declarations as set out in the grant terms and conditions.

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 will see a message confirming that your claim has been submitted.

5.13 Confirmation

The final page confirms your claim has been submitted successfully and will give you a unique reference number against your submission. You will also receive an email which includes your claim reference number and a copy of your claim form.

We will then review your claim and may contact you if additional information is required.

5.14 Resubmitting your claim form

If you have incorrectly submitted your costs, you will be able to amend and resubmit the claim until 11:59pm on 24 May 2022 when this claim window will close.

To do this, you will need to access the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund claim form and update the relevant information.

6. Enquiries

If you’ve read this guidance and have any questions about the coronavirus (COVID-19) workforce fund or how to complete the online form, please contact us via the ESFA help centre.

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

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