Guidance

Residential Bursary Fund (RBF) data return 2022 to 2023: guidance for completing the digital form

Updated 11 October 2023

This guidance was withdrawn on 1 October 2024

Find the latest guidance on residential support schemes.

Applies to England

1. Introduction

This document has been produced to help you complete the Residential Bursary Fund (RBF) form.

Use this form to report how you used your RBF allocation provided by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

The academic year was from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023.

RBF provides financial help towards the cost of accommodation for students attending one of the designated institutions delivering specialist provision. It is funded by ESFA.

This data return will be analysed and used to reconcile RBF funding. We will recover any unspent funds as they cannot be carried forward to future years.

You can find more information on RBF in the published guidance.

2. Who this guidance is for

This guide is for institutions who received RBF funding in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

3. When to complete your submission 

The deadline to complete and submit your form is 5pm on Wednesday, 25 October 2023.

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

4. Accessing the form 

Access the RBF data return digital form to complete your return. 

4.1 Before you start

Before you start the submission process, please ensure that you have:

• a DfE Sign-in account
• the number of students awarded RBF for each sector subject area (for example, engineering or philosophy)
• reasons for supporting students in subjects other than designated specialist provision
• total RBF spent on accommodation support
• number of students awarded RBF living in term-time lodgings off campus
• the RBF spent on any off-site travel costs and the number of students receiving RBF for travel costs
• total spent on administering the RBF
• reasons for any overspend

4.2 DfE Sign-in

You log in to your DfE Sign-in account: 

1. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (this is just for authentication)
2. Choose the organisation you are completing the form for
3. The next page will display the details we hold about your organisation. This will show the name, address and URN or UKPRN of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who logged into DfE Sign-in
4. If these details are correct, then all you need do is to click ‘Continue’ to step to the next page
5. If you believe they are incorrect then please complete the ESFA online enquiries form and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission
6. Complete the form as instructed

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in; it is used for authentication only.

4.3 If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account 

You will need to create one: 

1. Select the create account button from the DfE Sign-in page
2. Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name)
3. 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
4. Create a memorable password of 8 characters or more. Your password must include 2 uppercase letters, 2 lowercase letters, and 2 numbers
5. Sign in using your new credentials, and request access to the organisation for which you would like to submit your estimates. Your request will be sent to the approver(s) at your organisation for action

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under the already have a DfE account section to complete the form. 

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

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

4.4 If you need further assistance 

If you are having problems using the DfE Sign-in service, follow DfE Sign-in Help. 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 submit your estimates but have problems accessing the form, please get in touch with us via the ESFA help centre.

5. Completing the form

There is a ‘save and continue’ button at the bottom of each page, this will take you to the next page. The form will retain information you have saved if you sign out or if you leave it open for an extended period.

You will be presented with a number of pages to go through which will ask you to complete information related to your data return.

5.1  Your details 

We will show you the information we hold about your organisation when you sign into the form.

5.2 Your RBF funding

This read-only page shows your residential bursary funding for the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

If you have any questions about your allocated funding, you can contact us by completing ESFA enquiry form. You can still continue to complete your data return.

5.3 Specialist sector subject area

RBF is intended to support students who are participating in a designated specialist subject area.

To help us monitor the use of RBF and ensure it is in line with the policy intention, please complete the number of students receiving RBF in each of the individualised learner record (ILR) T2 subject areas.

Only count students that received RBF from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023 (inclusive).

Your answer must be based on the core subject aim the student is enrolled on, and the reason why they were awarded RBF.

Enter zero (0) where a subject area does not apply.

5.4 Other sector subject areas (2 pages)

Please confirm how many students were awarded RBF in other sector subject areas, such as economics and geography. This helps us to monitor the use of RBF and ensure it is in line with the policy intention. 

If you have supported students in other areas, we will ask you a follow-up question to explain why use of RBF was assessed as appropriate.

5.5 Accommodation support

Enter your total RBF expenditure on accommodation support from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. 

Enter zero (0) where there has been no spend on accommodation support.

5.6 Off campus travel costs

If you indicate that all or some of your RBF supported students were living off-campus, then you will be asked questions relating to their travel costs. This includes the number of RBF students living off-campus, and travel costs to and from off-site accommodation.

5.7 Spend on administration

Enter the amount you have spent on administering RBF from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023. We expect a value no greater than 5% of your total RBF allocation.

5.8 Total RBF spend

This read-only page will show you your total RBF expenditure in academic year 2022 to 2023. This is a combination of your input of accommodation support spend, travel costs and administration costs.

If your spend exceeds your allocation, you will be asked to explain why on the next page. 

5.9 Declarations page

You must complete the declarations. You will not be able to submit your form without completing this section fully.

5.10 Submission summary

You will see a summary page so that you can check your answers before submitting the form on behalf of your organisation. You can change your answers by using the ‘change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You can also save your submission summary by clicking ‘save summary as PDF’ before you submit. You can also download it by following steps as below.

1. At the summary page, select ‘file’ and then ‘print’ option
2. A new window will pop up. From the dropdown, select ‘save as PDF’
3. Click on the ‘save’ button

5.11  Confirmation 

The final page confirms your submission and shows a unique reference number.

We will email you to confirm we have received your submission with a link to download your submission summary as PDF.

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

5.12  Amending your submission

You can make changes and resubmit the form up until 5pm on Wednesday, 25 October 2023. To do this, you will need to log in and resubmit the form.

You cannot amend your submission after the submission window has closed. We will use your latest submission as final.

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.

6. Enquiries 

If you have questions, please contact us via the ESFA help centre.