16 to 19 funding: allocations

16 to 19 funding allocations

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) funds schools, academies, colleges and independent learning providers. We calculate funding using the 16 to 19 national funding formula. The formula is driven by student recruitment and includes factors which reflect student retention, higher cost subjects, disadvantaged students and area costs. The Funding education for 16 to 19 year olds page includes further information about each element within the 16 to 19 national funding formula.

Funding calculated using the national funding formula is also supplemented by additional funding for high needs students, and funding which provides financial support to students to help with their education costs.

16 to 19 funding information for academic year 2023 to 2024

We’ve published details on the key changes to funding for 2023 to 2024.

Allocations timeline

We will publish updates to the timeline as we deliver funding allocations. Please check out the latest news column on the timeline for regular updates.

Month	Activity	Latest news
December 2022	6 December 2022 is the ILR R04 deadline. This is the first 16 to 19 data return for 2022 to 2023	The R04 data return is now closed
December 2022	Publication of dedicated schools grant schools block and high needs block allocations for 2023 to 2024 (prior to academy recoupment)	We have published this information here
January 2023	We will start to publish guidance to support funding allocations. We will issue allocation calculation toolkits containing funding factors to colleges, schools and academies. We will publish outcomes of the high needs place change process for 2023 to 2024	We have now shared ACT files with institutions via DocX. We have now published the allocation calculation toolkits and the high needs place change process
February 2023	6 February 2023 is the ILR R06 deadline. During the month, we expect to start issuing allocations, including high needs place numbers, to most school sixth forms, academies, special academies, colleges and higher education institutions	The R06 data return is now closed.
March 2023	We will issue allocations to all special post-16 institutions, non-maintained special schools and independent learning providers. We will also issue any remaining allocations to school sixth forms, academies and colleges	Allocations issued by 31 March.
April 2023	The business case deadline is 28 April 2023 for all institutions to return any business cases in relation to a significant data error or exceptional circumstances affecting their allocation. This excludes institutions in scope of the high needs place change process because we will open a 2-week window for enquiries in January 2023	The business cases deadline has now passed.
May/June 2023	In May, we will review and process business cases received by the deadline with full and complete information and communicate these outcomes by the end of June
July/August 2023	We will issue funding agreements/contracts to institutions either directly or through the lead contact. Agreements/contracts signed and returned by funded organisation
August/September 2023	The first payment will be made to local authorities (in respect of schools with sixth forms) and directly to academies, colleges and other institutions

Business cases for major data errors

Update to business case deadlines and communicating outcomes

When to submit a business case

For T Level allocations

Business cases received with full information before 21 July 2023:

• we aim to communicate outcomes for straightforward cases by the end of September 2023

• complex cases can take longer to investigate, and we will communicate outcomes for these as soon as possible

We will still consider cases received after 21 July 2023 or with missing information and we will communicate outcomes as soon as possible.

For all other 16 to 19 allocations

Cases received with full information before 28 April 2023:

• we aim to communicate outcomes for straightforward cases by the end of May 2023
• complex cases can take longer to investigate, and we aim to communicate outcomes for these before the end of June 2023

Cases received after 28 April 2023 or with missing information:

• we will consider cases with missing information or those received after 28 April 2023
• we aim to let you know the outcomes as soon as we are able, but for some of the more complex or late cases you might receive decisions from July onwards
• for these cases, any adjustment to your allocation will be actioned as a contract variation

You should only submit business cases where you have made a significant error in your 16 to 19 schools census or individualised learner record (ILR) data. This should be by exception and only after you have received your funding allocation statement.

When not to submit a case

This process does not cover business cases for high needs place funding for institutions that are within scope of the high needs place change notification process.

For institutions returning the ILR, we will not accept business cases where an error in the 2021 to 2022 R04 (or R46) has reduced the ratio for the 2023 to 2024 allocation. This is because any such error will have also resulted in an equivalent increase in the 2022 to 2023 allocation.

How to submit a case

You should contact us through our online enquiry form, clearly stating the nature of your business case. The head of institution must authorise all business cases. Please do not upload business cases to the Document Exchange without first submitting an online enquiry form as these will not be retrieved automatically.

When appropriate, we will send you a pre-populated template when you contact us to make sure we have all the evidence we need. Extracts from allocation calculation toolkits with associated corrections or templates that have been rolled forward from previous business cases will not be accepted. Where a template is required the template for the current year must be completed.

Thresholds for business case

We apply standard minimum thresholds to decide whether we will consider a case.

For cases affecting T Level allocations:

• we’ll consider cases where data errors had an impact on 5 or more T Level students

For cases affecting lagged student numbers, full-time/part-time split, funding factors and the condition of funding:

• an overall impact of 2.5% on total programme funding or £50,000, whichever is lower. Total programme funding refers to the elements as outlined in ‘Figure 1: 16 to 19 funding formula’ in the 16 to 19 funding: how it works guidance

For cases not covered above:

• an overall impact of 2.5% of the funding related to that element
• for example: if the case relates to level 3 programme maths and English, the 2.5% would be in relation to total funding for level 3 programme maths and English payment

The T Level threshold for business cases is new for academic year 2023 to 2024. We have maintained thesethe other reduced thresholds for the 2023 to 2024 academic year to reflect the increased pressures on budgets from cost of living and other continuing exceptional circumstances. Higher thresholds may apply for future academic years.

Data sources

Data sources for 16 to 19 and post-16 high needs funding for academic year 2023 to 2024

This section sets out the methods we will use to determine the number of students attracting funding in 2023 to 2024. We have set this out by institution type.

Please note from academic year 2023 to 2024 we will include all T Level data in the calculation of funding factors.

School, academies, free schools, studio schools, university technical colleges

• lagged numbers based on 2022 to 2023 students in autumn 2022 census. We fund some academies on estimated numbers where their funding agreement states this

FE colleges, some other FE or higher education institutions

• we take the number of eligible students with a reference date of 1 November 2022 based on R04 (2022 to 2023). We multiply this by the ratio of 1 November to all-year student numbers based on R04 (2021 to 2022) and the R14 return for that year. We compare this figure with the student numbers calculated from R06 (2022 to 2023), both the year-to-date (as at 1 February) figure and the number recruited by 1 November (R46) to determine the final student number methodology to be used, R04 multiplied by the ratio, R46 multiplied by the ratio or R06

Independent learning providers

• depending on the profile of recruitment for the individual provider, we will either use 1) a 12-month rolling figure for February 2022 to January 2023 based on R14 (2021 to 2022) and R06 (2022 to 2023) data, 2) the same approach as set out above for FE colleges, or 3) the average of approaches 1) and 2)

There may be a delay in issuing allocations for institutions where we use R06 data.

Local authorities, some other FE institutions

• where the use of in-year data is not appropriate, we will use a full year figure based on R14 (2021 to 2022)

Maintained special schools

• we allocate post-16 high needs place funding directly to local authorities. Local authorities then determine the post-16 place funding to allocate to individual maintained special schools

Special academies

• we use published 2022 to 2023 academic year high needs place numbers, revised by place changes notified to ESFA by local authorities in November 2022

Special post-16 institutions (SPI)

• we will allocate programme funding (element 1) and high needs funding (element 2) using counts of valid students from 2022 to 2023 ILR R06 data returns. We will use a reference date of 1 February 2023

Note that for those institutions normally subject to lagged funding, the lagged approach does not apply where there is a material change in the volume of provision offered by the institution. In those cases, we remove the institution from the lagged approach, and funded student numbers are calculated as set out in the funding rates and formula guidance.

Formula elements

These are the methods we will use to determine the other formula elements for institutions with 16 to 19 funding in 2023 to 2024.

Data sources for formula elements Institution type	Institutions making ILR return	Institutions making census return	Institutions with no historical data
Retention/Size of programme/ programme cost weighting/Disadvantage Block 2 instances/High value courses premium and L3 maths and English	R14 2021 to 2022	Autumn census 2022 (end-year 2021 to 2022 data)	National average for institution type
Disadvantage block 1 factor/instances and Discretionary Bursary instances	R14 2021 to 2022	Autumn census 2022 (end-year 2021 to 2022 data)	LA average for institution type
Large programmes	2020 to 2021 Young People’s matched admin dataset (YPMAD)	2020 to 2021 YPMAD	No impact
Industry placements/Condition of funding	R14 2021 to 2022	Autumn census 2022 (end-year 2021 to 2022 data)	No impact
Advanced maths premium	2022 to 2023 R04 data with a reference date of 1 November 2022	2022 to 2023 data returned in the Autumn 2022 census	If institution is open in 2022 to 2023, then ILR/census as appropriate. If not open in 2022 to 2023, then no impact

Resources

• 16 to 19 funding allocations supporting documents for 2023 to 2024
• 16 to 19 funding allocations supporting documents for 2022 to 2023
• 16 to 19 funding allocations supporting documents for 2021 to 2022
• Document exchange support

Published allocations

• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2022 to 2023 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2021 to 2022 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2020 to 2021 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2019 to 2020 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2018 to 2019 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2017 to 2018 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2016 to 2017 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2015 to 2016 academic year
• 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2014 to 2015 academic year
• archived funding allocations