Guidance

Funding guidance for young people 2021 to 2022: repeat of part or all of final year of programme for 16 to 19 students

Updated 21 July 2021

This guidance was withdrawn on 10 November 2022

We have withdrawn this page as the information is out of date.

Applies to England

1. What the offer includes

Institutions will be funded for students who were in the final year of their 16 to 19 study programme in academic year 2020 to 2021 to undertake a repeat year in academic year 2021 to 2022, via the usual funding processes. For the vast majority of students, we expect that it will be more appropriate to progress to another course or programme, higher education or the labour market, rather than repeating up to a year.

Although institutions will be funded for those students who need to repeat up to a year, it is expected that this repeat option will not be needed for more than 5% of students.

2. Eligible institutions

All institutions who are currently delivering a 16 to 19 study programme will be eligible to include students in the repeat year offer.

3. Eligible students

Students eligible for the offer

Students can repeat any portion of their 2020 to 2021 study, up to a full academic year in the 2021 to 2022 academic year if they:

• were, 16 to 19 funded, aged 17, 18 or 19 in 2020 to 2021 at 31 August 2020 and in the final year of their 16 to 19 study programme

• have been severely impacted by the pandemic and are unable to progress to the next level of learning or into employment

Eligible students must have a planned end date in June or July 2021. Students on a 2-year programme with a planned end date of 2021 to 2022 academic year are excluded from this initiative.

Eligible 19-year-old students must either be 19+ continuing students (those 19 year olds who started a 16 to 19 study programme aged under 19 at 31 August) or 19 to 24 year old students with an EHCP, see high needs students for further details.

Institutions that decide more than 5% of their eligible cohort need to repeat the equivalent of a year, will need prior authorisation from the ESFA. We have now issued forms directly to institutions. We have also uploaded the repeat year final claim form 2021. The guidance on the form explains how to return it to the ESFA.

Institutions must use the form to request authorisation, confirming they have taken the principles for prioritisation into account.

• if institutions decide that 5% of the eligible cohort will be exceeded from the beginning of the 2021 to 2022 academic year, they must return the form before 13 August 2021 to confirm eligibility of students before formalising the offer

• if repeat enrolments after the beginning of the academic year mean that 5% of the eligible cohort has been exceeded, they must return the form by 29 October 2021

4. Principles for prioritisation

Whilst all students have seen changes in the way they have received their education during the pandemic, repeating up to a year should only be for those students that have been impacted significantly more than their peers.

Institutions should encourage most of their student cohort to progress to a suitable destination in education, training or the workplace. They should only use this offer where there is a clear benefit over other alternatives (for example, doing another course of study). Repeating up to a year should not be used as a mechanism solely to improve grades.

We expect institutions to prioritise students for the repeat year offer by considering:

• those who have been severely impacted by COVID-19 in comparison to their peers
• those whose chances of progression have been limited, for example students whose practical skills development, work experience or assessments have been adversely impacted
• those with the least time left in their education

Institutions should also consider how much repeated learning is necessary in order for students to progress (for example, students do not need to repeat a full year if they only require an additional few months to progress).

5. Funding and payments

We will fund additional eligible students enrolled in the 2021 to 2022 academic year in accordance with the lagged student methodology. Funding for students recorded in the individualised learner record (ILR) and the school census as repeating the final year of their programme will be included in the 2022 to 2023 allocation.

We expect most institutions to need to allow no more than 0-5% of their students to repeat their year.

The 5% will be calculated as the percentage of full time students in the 2020 to 2021 academic year who are:

• recorded as year 13 and are aged 17, 18 or 19 (for institutions returning the school census)
• in the final year of their study programme in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, recorded with the latest planned end date as June or July 2021, and are aged 17,18 or 19 (for institutions returning the ILR)

6. 16 to 19 in year growth

We will consider any overall growth in student numbers more generally as part of the usual exceptional in-year growth process, following the usual affordability decision.

7. How to record students repeating part or all of final year of programme for 16 to 19 students

You must record all eligible students repeating all or part of their final year in your ILR or school census return.

You should record FAM type NLM (national learner monitoring code) and FAM code 22 (learner repeating up to one full final year of 16 to 19 funded provision) to indicate the student is in receipt of funding for a repeat year or part of year.

You should only record students in this way who would not normally be eligible for repeat year funding.

8. High needs students

Some students with EHCPs may meet the criteria to repeat a year. Students with EHCPs are already able to receive more time to complete and consolidate their learning where necessary and any decision to repeat a year would have to be agreed by the local authority, as part of the EHCP review process.

9. Monitoring the offer

The department will engage with institutions where they have indicated significant numbers of their students will repeat up to a year to understand why this is and to ensure that they are doing so in line with the prioritisation principles set out in this fact sheet. This is to ensure that the majority of students are progressing to a suitable destination wherever possible. Should institutions have more than 5% of students repeating up to a year, but do not seek approval from the department by Friday 29 October 2021 at the latest, they do so at the risk these students may be unfunded. Further detail on how to do this will be shared in due course.

10. Evaluation

The government will work closely with the sector to evaluate and review this approach to make sure it is delivering improved outcomes for young people. In addition to existing data collections, researchers may contact a sample of providers to better understand how the policy has worked.

11. Safeguarding

Whilst students that meet the criteria outlined in this document will be funded where they repeat their learning, an 18 year old is legally an adult in this country. We usually expect students who have attained the adult age to attend an education provider accustomed to delivering education and training to adults, rather than such students enrolling in school based provision where they will be mixing with younger students and whose parents do not usually expect to find adults within the pupil population. For any such recruitment by schools (or academies) we would expect them to undertake the additional necessary safeguarding assessments before enrolling an adult into their school sixth forms. You can find more information on keeping children safe in education.

12. Additional guidance

This guidance must be used alongside our other published guidance and funding rules:

• Advice: funding regulations for post-16 provision
• Funding rates and formula