Additional funding for one-year for schools, colleges and other 16 to 19 providers to mitigate the disruption to learning arising from coronavirus (COVID-19).

Purpose

The purpose of this guidance is to set out the expectations for and conditions under which the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will support students via the 16 to 19 tuition fund in 2020 to 2021 academic year allocations. This should be read alongside the 16-19 education: funding guidance of which this forms a part.

This guidance also outlines the removal of the requirements that funding for 2020 to 2021 is spent in this academic year and unspent funds are returned to the ESFA in the academic year.

Summary

The 16 to 19 tuition fund is £96 million of ring fenced funding in the academic year 2020 to 2021 for schools, colleges and all other 16 to 19 providers to mitigate the disruption to learning arising from coronavirus (COVID-19). Special schools and special academies are not in scope for the 16 to 19 tuition fund as all of their provision is covered by the schools catch-up premium funding.

The funding is being provided to support small group tuition for 16 to 19 students in English, maths and other courses where learning has been disrupted. For example, vocational courses where assessment has been deferred because of lockdown. Although the actual tuition does not need to be for GCSE English or maths, the students supported all need to be those who had not achieved grade 5 or above in at least one of those subjects at this level by age 16. All supported students must be on a 16 to 19 study programme.

Providers should prioritise support for students who have not achieved a grade 4 in English and/or maths. However, further to those students, if providers have funding available within their allocations they should consider whether any young people with a grade 4 also need catch up support. Providers should prioritise students that will benefit most from small group tuition, based on the criteria above. Providers should also have regard to the needs of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), particularly where they have experienced additional disruption to learning as a result of their specific needs and disabilities.

The funding should be used to support the tuition activity above and beyond the programmes of education already planned for 2020 to 2021.

Providers need to consider what will be most effective for their students, considering students’ needs and local circumstances.

Providers have flexibility to decide the most appropriate approach to resourcing the delivery of small group tuition supported through the fund. This may include a mix of both teaching and learning support staff as appropriate. Providers must ensure that anyone delivering small group tuition has the appropriate knowledge, skills, and experience, and has received appropriate training where necessary. Resourcing could be through paying for more hours from existing staff, hiring new staff, or buying in a service from a third party provider.

In line with the evidence on the impact of small group tuition in other contexts, our expectation is that tuition delivered to small groups of up to three students is likely to deliver the greatest impact. Whilst providers will need to make their own decisions on the best approach and to explain that as part of the published statement, we would not expect groups supported from the fund to exceed five students, other than in one off or exceptional circumstances (for example absence of a member of staff requiring the merger of two existing groups on a temporary basis).

Carrying over of funds into 2021 to 2022

Whilst we strongly encourage that the tuition funding for 2020 to 2021 is spent in this academic year, we recognise that due to further disruption to learning as a result of COVID-19 this may not be possible. Any unspent 16 to 19 tuition funding for 2020 to 2021 can be used to support students in the 2021 to 2022 academic year. It must be spent and recorded in the manner detailed in this guidance.

Providers must confirm if they plan to carry over any proportion of unspent tuition fund, including the amount, from the 2020 to 2021 allocation. We will collect this information by July and providers will be notified of the process shortly.Any proportion of tuition fund allocations that have not been spent by the end of the 2021 to 2022 academic year should be returned to ESFA. Further roll over into the 2022 to 2023 academic year will not be permitted.

Funding allocations

The 16 to 19 tuition fund will be available to all 16 to 19 providers, and is ring-fenced for 16 to 19 small group tuition only. We allocated the funding using our existing proxy measure for disadvantage: learners with low prior attainment, meaning those who did not have a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and/or maths at age 16.

We allocated each provider £150 per instance for full time students without GCSE grade 4 or above in English and/or maths based on the numbers in their current 2020 to 2021 academic year allocation. There is pro-rata funding for part time students. Institutions that had no students in their 2020 to 2021 allocation meeting these criteria did not receive an allocation from the 16 to 19 tuition fund.

Young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) aged 19 to 24 who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan are eligible for support via the 16 to 19 Tuition Fund.

We paid the extra funding through 16 to 19 funding allocations for 2020 to 2021 academic year. Providers started to receive payments from November 2020.

Accountability

Providers will need to ensure the funding allocation is used in accordance with the purposes detailed in this guidance.

Providers must accept or decline the extra funding once we have confirmed funding amounts in August. We will only distribute the funding to those providers that confirm they will be able to spend this effectively and in line with this guidance.

All providers, as a condition of the receipt of this funding must:

  • produce a concise statement explaining how they will use this funding in line with our guidance to prioritise support for disadvantaged students
  • publish the statement on their website in the autumn term
  • record the use of the funding, including reference to the individual students that receive the support, the needs of those students, the number of hours of tuition delivered, and retain the necessary evidence of the tuition provided
  • deliver the extra tuition and spend the associated funding in the 2020 to 2021 or 2021 to 2022 academic years
  • notify ESFA of any unspent funding from this fund at the end of the 2021 to 2022 academic year for it to be reclaimed

We will run spot-checks of a sample of providers as part of the compliance process for this funding. We will look for evidence that institutions have used their tuition fund correctly, that is, the funding has supported additional small group tuition for 16 to 19 students in English, maths, or other courses where learning has been disrupted, and that delivery has been in the 2020 to 2021 academic year or 2021 to 2022 academic year for any funding carried over. Institutions must be able to identify the students supported, and evidence the delivery of provision to the students. In line with usual practice, institutions must retain original documents including, for example, attendance records, enrolment records and learning agreements.We will look to recover funds where there is no delivery or where we identify the institution is not able to demonstrate at spot checks, or audit how the delivery meets the purposes set out in this guidance.

Providers’ use of these funds to deliver small group tuition may also be taken into account by Ofsted, including through the interim visits planned for the autumn term and through full inspection, which is intended to resume from January 2021.

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Published 24 July 2020
Last updated 1 June 2021 + show all updates

  1. Guidance added regarding the carrying over of funds into 2021 to 2022.

  2. We have updated the summary section to clarify that special schools and special academies are not in scope for the 16 to 19 tuition fund as all of their provision is covered by the schools catch-up premium funding

  3. We have amended the eligibility criteria in the summary section to state that the students supported by the 16 to 19 tuition fund all need to be those who had not achieved grade 5 or above in English and/or maths

  4. We have updated the 16 to 19 tuition fund guidance to clarify that although the actual tuition does not need to be for GCSE English or maths, the students supported all need to be those who had not achieved grade 4 or above in at least one of those subjects at this level by age 16

  5. First published.

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