Early years initial teacher training: 2022 to 2023 funding guidance
Funding guidance for early years initial teacher training (EYITT) providers for 2022 to 2023.
Applies to England
Overview
The Department for Education (DfE) allocates and funds early years initial teacher training (EYITT) places each academic year. EYITT leads to the award of Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS).
We provide training bursaries and training grants and employer incentives to attract high-quality graduates to become early years teachers.
You can only use this funding to offer training programmes that help trainees to meet the teachers’ standards (early years). The training grant includes the costs of assessment to meet these standards.
Trainees and potential applicants should visit the Get Into Teaching website and our list of EYITT training providers for more information. Employers should visit EYITT: a guide for employers.
Training routes
We offer funding for 2 out of the 4 EYITT training routes.
Graduate entry route
This is for graduates studying full-time. Training is typically over a 1 year period.
EYITT providers will receive training grant funding of £7,000 to cover course fees.
Trainees with high academic achievement may be eligible to receive a training bursary. This will be paid to you to forward to your trainees.
Graduate employment-based route
This is for graduates:
- in paid employment
- in an early years setting
- who need training and further experience to demonstrate the teachers’ standards (early years)
- who have the right to work in the UK for the duration of the training
£14,000 is available for this route, made up of a:
- £7,000 training grant for providers
- £7,000 employer incentive for the trainee’s employer
Undergraduate entry
Funding is not available for this route. Trainees should contact Student Finance England to see if they can receive a tuition fee or maintenance loan.
This route is for undergraduates who want to take a level 6 degree in an early childhood-related subject along with EYTS.
This route is full-time and takes 3 or 4 years.
Assessment only
This is a self-funded route for graduates who:
- are very experienced at working with children from birth to 5 years old
- can demonstrate the teachers’ standards (early years) without any further training
This could be an early years teacher who:
- practised overseas
- understands the early years foundation stage
Training bursaries
Training bursaries are only available to trainees registered on the graduate entry route. You should use the trainee’s highest qualification to determine how much they will get, for example:
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Tier 1, £5,000: first-class honours degree, doctoral degree
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Tier 2, £4,000: 2.1 honours degree, master’s degree
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Tier 3, £2,000: 2.2 honours degree
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no bursary: third-class honours degree, ordinary degree, aegrotat, no first degree
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trainees who do not hold a degree are not eligible for a bursary
If a trainee is ineligible for a bursary award but feels that there are extenuating circumstances which impacted their final result, this must be raised with the awarding body of the qualification. ITT providers must not apply any discretion in these cases.
If the outcome of a qualification, such as a master’s or doctoral degree, is not yet known, bursary eligibility must be determined by the highest relevant academic award on the date the training course started. If the trainee is subsequently awarded a higher qualification, their bursary eligibility may be reassessed provided the award of this qualification was made on or before the date the course started. Contact ITT.funding@education.gov.uk for further guidance in these circumstances.
Qualifications record keeping
You must keep accurate records of trainees’ qualifications and how they obtained them, especially for overseas qualifications.
You should record:
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names of all trainees granted a bursary
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details of how you assessed the trainees’ qualifications
We may ask to see these records at any time. You should keep copies of:
- original trainee documentation or qualification certificates
- correspondence between you and trainees
- other documentation relating to the decision process
Eligibility
To receive a training bursary, trainees must:
- meet the entry requirements
- take a qualifying postgraduate graduate entry course
- hold a UK first degree with at least second-class honours (or equivalent)
- not already hold EYTS or Early Years Professional Status (EYPS)
- not do any type of paid-teaching work which contributes to their training while undertaking a graduate entry course, for which the provider received early years funding
- not be registered on another EYITT course
You must also:
- notify trainees in writing that they are eligible
- ensure that trainees continue to meet the criteria throughout the course
Training bursary payments
You should pay bursaries in 10 monthly instalments. This table shows you how to calculate trainees’ monthly bursary instalments.
| Bursary award | Monthly instalment |
|---|---|
| £5,000 | £500 |
| £4,000 | £400 |
| £2000 | £200 |
Payment eligibility
Trainees will be entitled to receive the first bursary payment if they are actively engaged on the ITT programme on the first day of the month following their start date.
Example A trainee commencing their course in September 2022 will be entitled to their first payment if they are on the programme on 1 October. They will be entitled to the second payment if they are on the programme on 1 November respectively. This is regardless of the provider’s individual payment date.
Payments for part-time or modular courses
Trainees on part-time or modular courses may agree a flexible monthly payment plan, which covers the duration of the part-time programme in order to avoid financial hardship for the trainee. However, you must make sure that the bursary payments reflect the proportion of the course that the trainee has completed at any point.
As part-time courses will span more than one academic year, you may award the bursary beyond the academic year 2022 to 2023. You are reminded that any bursary payments made after 31 July of the academic year will be included as expenditure for the following academic year, for example 2023 to 2024.
Training grant
You must use the training grant funding to meet all training costs for each trainee.
You must not:
- charge any additional fees
- switch allocated funding to other trainees
Full-time equivalence (FTE)
We calculate funding using the FTE principle.
| FTE equivalence | Trainee status |
|---|---|
| 0.5 or less | part-time |
| 0.6 or more | full-time |
Employer incentive
The employer incentive is paid directly to the trainee’s employer. It’s a contribution towards costs that employers incur, such as:
- supply cover while the trainee is attending EYITT training
- salary enhancements
- employment costs
- National Insurance
- additional training costs and other overheads
You cannot use the employer incentive for:
- sick pay
- maternity or paternity pay
- assets, for example, books, toys and equipment
- internal training costs that do not relate directly to EYITT training, such continuing professional development
- staff costs that are not related to supply cover
- costs that have occurred outside of a trainee’s training period
- costs the trainee may incur outside of training, such as travelling to work or placements
- employment costs and cover for other members of staff, unless to attend mentoring training relating to EYITT
If there are any claims for employer incentives that are not covered by this list, contact ITT.Funding@education.gov.uk for further advice.
Under no circumstances should EYITT training costs be deducted from the trainee’s salary.
Providers should make sure they pass all employer incentive funding on to the trainee’s employer to support their trainees’ costs.
Make sure you keep clear records of how you’re using the employer incentive in case of a financial audit.
Types of company
The trainee must be an employee of the early years business. Sole traders and business partners are not eligible for an employer incentive as they are classed as self-employed by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
If the sole trader employs their staff on PAYE then the employed member of staff would be eligible for the employer incentive. The employee of a sole trader may be required to provide their contract of employment to confirm their eligibility for the employer incentive.
Withdrawals and deferrals
If a trainee withdraws or defers, you must stop any further payments and update your records immediately in Register.
You can keep some funding if a trainee withdraws or defers. The amount retained should be proportional to how long the trainee attended the course before leaving.
Graduate employment based EYITT providers can keep 1/12th of the total training grant and employer incentive funding for each month or part month the trainee remained in training.
Example (Graduate employment based)
If a trainee is employed from September 2022 and leaves in March 2023, you can retain 7/12th of the training grant and employer incentive funding.
Graduate entry trainees who withdraw or defer from a course will be entitled to be paid the training bursary for each month up to, and including, the month in which they formally withdraw. EYITT providers can also retain 1/10th of the total training grant for each month or part month the trainee remained in training.
Example (Graduate entry)
If a trainee starts their programme in September 2022 and withdraws or defers in January 2023, they will be entitled to 4 payments in total as they were active on the course on:
- 1 October 2022
- 1 November 2022
- 1 December 2023
- 1 January 2024
You can also retain 4/10th of the training grant funding.
In the event that a graduate entry trainee is absent through sickness, you may only make one further bursary payment following the first day of absence. You may also retain an additional 1/10th of the training grant.
For graduate employment-based trainees, you may retain an additional 1/12th of the training grant and employer incentive in this instance.
After this, the absence should be treated as a period of deferral and payments must stop with immediate effect.
Overpayments
We will recover any overpayments if a trainee withdraws or defers and will not reimburse you for any payments you make in error. Any overpayments made to trainees or employers will then be an internal matter between you and the trainee or employer.
Returning trainees
Returning trainees who defer and then rejoin their original course, or take any advanced standing or credit to a new EYITT course, will only be eligible to receive the remaining EYITT funding (training grant or bursary) up to the value which was available in the year they started their original course. A bespoke payment schedule may be agreed for the remaining amount between you and the trainee.
Where the length of the course is increased, the bursary and training grant instalments can be amended to reflect the longer timeframe. The total amounts, however, are fixed and cannot be increased.
If a trainee leaves one EYITT course and joins a new one with no transfer of standing or credit from their previous course, this is viewed as a separate route to EYTS. They will be entitled to receive a new bursary and training grant, subject to the eligibility criteria and rates set in this guidance.
If the trainee received their full bursary or training grant entitlement during a previous EYITT programme, this may impact their eligibility to receive further EYITT funding while completing a new programme. Contact the funding team at ITT.Funding@education.gov.uk for further advice.
International students
International students can be offered funded EYITT places as long as the applicant meets:
- all the academic entry criteria for the EYITT course
- the relevant immigration permissions
Academic entry criteria
These criteria are that they have achieved:
- a standard equivalent to a grade C or 4 in the GCSE examinations in English, mathematics and a science subject
- a first degree of a UK higher education institution or equivalent qualification
A first degree comprises 300 higher education (HE) credit points of which 60 must be at level 6 of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). Applicants with a foundation degree will need to supplement this qualification with at least 60 credits at level 6 (HE level 3) in order to attain an equivalent single qualification.
International students can be awarded EYTS in the usual way on completion.
Immigration permissions
Every international EYITT student must have the right to study or work in the UK and must hold the relevant visa before they start their EYITT course. This is in line with the standard process for all international students undertaking any course in an English university.
EYITT providers can find support on recruiting international students and the requirements needed. Note that the ‘Support for candidates’ section in this guidance is not applicable to EYITT.
Potential international students can visit GOV.UK to check eligibility for a visa.
How you will receive your funding
You will be sent remittance advice from DfE when you’ve been paid, and you can use Register to review your payment profile.
You will be paid in:
- 11 monthly BACS instalments from September to July
- on the third working day of the month
You will be paid different amounts until we have collected all your data, as set out in this table.
| Month | Rate |
|---|---|
| September to November 2022 | Provisional rate based upon a proportion of your allocation |
| December 2022 to July 2023 | Actual rate based upon the trainee data you submit to DfE |
We will recover any overpayments by sending you an invoice or deducting any future payments.
Data management
Grant funding agreement terms and conditions are included in the grant offer letter we send to you.
You must share data about trainee applications, recruitment and employment outcomes with us if we request it.
We may contact you or visit your premises if we need to clarify any potential discrepancies, especially in relation to unclassified degrees.
Trainee data
Submit your EYITT trainee data via Register.
This is a condition of your funding. We will use this data to calculate how much funding you will get.
You must register all trainees with us by October 2022 and complete a validation declaration.
You must also submit the:
- names of all your EYITT trainees
- training courses you provide
- outcomes of the training
You must update records in Register if a trainee:
- withdraws
- changes their status
- defers
Financial monitoring
You must only use your funding as set out in this guidance.
If you do not comply with the terms and conditions, we may withdraw your accreditation and funding.
You must hold full records of all payments made to employers of trainees who get the employer incentive. This information can be audited by us at anytime.
Assurance
You will be asked to complete an Annex G in accordance with published guidance, containing income, expenditure and trainee data. This must be independently audited and countersigned by the accounting officer.
We will contact you with further details of the Annex G process after the academic year 2022 to 2023.
We will use Annex G to reconcile your funding with your declared expenditure.
This also takes in to account the effect of trainees who have withdrawn or deferred so we can recover any funding you did not spend.
Non-compliance
We may withdraw accreditation if you do not fully comply with funding guidance. This includes:
- data collection
- monitoring and assurance requirements
Early years ITT funding cycle
Key dates in the bursary funding cycle
June to July 2022
EYITT providers in their first year of delivery will be contacted in order to submit grant funding agreements (GFAs) to us. If other documents, such as letters of variation are required, we will contact individual ITT providers separately.
August 2022
A proportion of your allocation is incorporated into the funding model, based upon overall recruitment. This allows us to make interim payments to you from September to November 2022.
September to November 2022
The first 3 payments will be made if you have a GFA in place. Payment profiles are available in Register during this period.
November 2022
Your Register data is incorporated into the funding model to confirm payments from December 2022.
This is based on your trainee registration returns, submitted through the Register service, along the graduate entry and graduate employment based routes on or before the census closure date.
December 2022 to January 2023
These payments will be made if you have a GFA in place, based on your Register data.
The Register service is available for you to see funding summaries and payment profiles.
February to April 2023
Your Register data will be updated in the funding model in February 2023 to include any changes that you have submitted through the Register service since the census was published.
These payments will be made (if you have a GFA in place) based on your Register data. Any subsequent changes to your Register data will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The Register service is available for you to see your funding summaries and payment profiles.
May to July 2023
Your Register data will be updated in the funding model in May 2023 to include any changes that you have submitted through Register in April 2023.
These payments will be made (if you have a GFA in place) based on your Register data. Any subsequent changes to your Register data will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The Register service is available for you to see your funding summaries and payment profiles.
Assurance and audit cycle
Key events in the bursary funding cycle
June to July 2023
We will send indicative Annex G documents to you in July 2023.
These should be returned by 31 July 2023.
September to December 2023
We will send final Annex G documents to you at the end of the academic year. We will pre-populate this with the amount of funding you have received, and the trainees that funding relates to.
The completed document, and Auditor’s report, will help you to provide us with the necessary assurance for both the amount received and the purpose for which it was used. Further guidance on this process will be sent to you at the same time.
These should be returned by 31 December 2023.
January to March 2024
In addition to the audited document and Auditor report, we also apply a risk-based sampling strategy to gain assurance of the early years ITT funding expenditure. This involves assurance checks through the collection of evidence on sampled trainees, including withdrawals, course information, degree class and payment information.
Recoveries and reimbursements will be completed through the payment profile, invoice or credit memo.
Updates to this page
Last updated 9 August 2023 + show all updates
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Updated 'Employer incentive' to clarify employer incentive can be used for employment costs and cover for members of staff attending mentoring training relating to EYITT.
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'Employer incentive' section updated to clarify that it covers EYITT training (not general training) but not continued professional development. It also says providers must pass all employer incentive funding to the trainee’s employer and keep clear records on how it's being used.
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Updated the 'Employer incentive' section to clarify how the employer incentive should be used and the types of company that can receive it.
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Added section 'International students' to provide guidance on funding for international students.
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First published.