19+ funding allocations

Purpose

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is accountable for funding education and skills for children, young people and adults.

This page explains how we allocate funding for:

ESFA funded adult education budget (AEB), including 19 to 24 traineeships
advanced learner loans (ALL) facilities and bursaries
16 to 18 traineeships and bursaries, for providers without 16 to 19 funding
apprenticeships carry-in and apprenticeship non-levy extensions

We will publish information and updates to this page as they become available.

We will issue all allocations through manage your education and skills funding service.

How we calculate allocations

We calculate allocations on an annual basis using nationally consistent methodologies.

The general principles we follow when setting allocations are to:

reflect historic delivery and ensure allocations are in line with what providers can realistically earn
ensure all providers are treated fairly and equitably
protect public funds and meet principles of public law
enable providers to respond to government priorities

The 19+ allocations technical guidance sets out in detail, the allocation methodologies and data sources we used to calculate ESFA funded AEB, ALL and 16 to 18 traineeships allocations (for providers without 16 to 19 funding) for the 2021 to 2022 funding year.

The apprenticeships non-levy technical guidance for 2021 to 2022 sets out how we calculated allocations for the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

We will publish information and updates to the timeline as we make progress on delivering allocations for 2021 to 2022.

Please check out the latest news column on the timeline and our ESFA Update for regular updates.

Month
Activity
Latest News
February 2021
Issue apprenticeships non-levy extension and national skills fund: adult level 3 offer allocations through Manage your education and skills funding.
We have issued these allocations
March 2021
Providers must sign their apprenticeships non-levy extension contracts by 31 March 2021 otherwise they will expire.
The deadline has now passed
March 2021
The business case deadline for apprenticeships non-levy extensions is 31 March 2021. This is to address significant R04 data errors that have affected the allocation we have calculated for you. It is not an opportunity to request growth.
The deadline has now passed
April 2021
We will start to issue ESFA funded AEB, 19 to 24 traineeships, ALL and 16 to 18 traineeships allocations through Manage your education and skills funding service.
We have issued allocations
May 2021
The R09 data return deadline is 7 May 2021. It is important that providers with apprenticeships non-levy extension allocations submit accurate data as will use this data to review allocation to ensure they are set at the right level.
 
May 2021
The business case deadline for ESFA funded AEB, ALL and 16 to 18 traineeships allocations is 14 May 2021. This is to fix significant data errors not an opportunity to request growth.
 
May 2021
We will communicate the outcomes of non-levy extension allocations business cases.
 
May 2021
We will review apprenticeships non-levy extension allocations using R09 data.
 
June 2021
We will communicate the outcomes of our R09 review of apprenticeships non-levy extension allocations.
 
July 2021
We will start to issue apprenticeship carry-in allocations through Manage your education and skills funding.
 
July/August 2021
We will issue funding agreements/contracts to providers. Providers must digitally sign agreements/contracts on Manage your education and skills funding.
 
October 2021
The R14 data return deadline is 22 October 2021. We will use this data to calculate final AEB continuing learner funding in newly devolved areas values.
 
December 2021
We will issue final AEB continuing learner funding in newly devolved areas values and issue contract variations shortly after.
 

Business cases

When to submit a business case

You should only submit business cases where you have made significant data errors that have affected your funding allocation.

The deadline for apprenticeships non-levy extension allocations business cases has now passed.

We will not accept business cases for ESFA funded AEB, 19 to 24 traineeships, 16 to 18 traineeships (for providers without 16 to 19 funding) and ALL until you have received your allocation in April. The deadline for these business cases is 14 May 2021.

How to submit a case

You should complete the business case template and send it to us using our online enquiry form.

Where cases have been received with full information before the deadline we aim to communicate outcomes of non-levy apprenticeships extensions cases in May 2021 and adult allocations cases in June 2021.

Complex cases can take longer to investigate, and we aim to communicate outcomes for these before 1 August 2021.

If successful, changes will be reflected in contracts from the start of the funding year

Supporting documents

If you have a query, please use the ESFA online form