ESFA Advice about post-16 funding regulations

ESFA have today (6 July) updated their guidance for Colleges, providers, schools and academies about the annual funding allocations they receive from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for provision of 16 to 19 education.

The available documents give advice about the use of funds for each funding year.

The main changes over the various funding years include:

• the condition of funding in relation to the delivery of English and mathematics is confirmed in paragraph 15. The ESFA have issued guidance on the condition of funding and the exemptions for this and next year which is available on GOV.UK
• the restriction on funding rates for students aged 18 or over from 2014 to 2015 is described in the rates and formula book
• the references to 19 to 24 students from 2016 to 2017 only apply to EHC plan students
• the requirement to be able to evidence to funding auditors that the planned hours in data returns recorded on the student timetable are matched to planned education or training sessions are both realistic and deliverable to all students
• from 2017 to 2018 ESFA have updated the policy for making changes to planned hours. If the planned hours for a student’s study programme change within the first 6 weeks, the institution must update the planned hours
• the additional detail on the eligibility of distance delivery for whole study programme sub-contracted provision which also cross-refer to the published in the sub-contracting control regulations document
• student eligibility guidance remains unchanged across the years
• annex E has some additional advice where schools or academies close sixth-form provision and this advice is also now included in ILR returns from 2016 to 2017 for all ILR funded provision
• please visit their main funding guidance page for all the latest funding guidance information