Guidance

16 to 19 funding: English and maths funding

Updated 5 June 2025

Applies to England

Summary

This guidance explains how we will allocate the English and maths funding as part of 16 to 19 funding allocations.

We explain who is eligible and how we calculate and pay the funding.

June 2025 update

We have increased the English and maths rates for academic year 2025 to 2026 as part of the £190 million additional investment, to support students who have not achieved a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and maths.

We have also increased disadvantage block 2 funding, which aims to help close the level 2 English and maths attainment gap for disadvantaged students. We set out the rates and further information in section 4.13 of our 16 to 19 funding: rates and formula guidance.    

We aim to revise 16 to 19 funding allocation statements in June 2025 to incorporate the latest rates. We will upload revised allocation statements to Document exchange and confirm this in a DfE update article.

How to use English and maths funding

This funding is for institutions to use to support students who have not achieved a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and maths, known as a level 2 pass. Institutions should use the funding to support these students to make progress towards a level 2 pass, including through the minimum teaching hours required by the maths and English condition of funding.

We expect institutions to use the additional funding to support the cost of delivering English and maths resits and to invest in continuing professional development for English and maths resit teachers.

Institutions should use evidence of ‘what works’ established by the Centres for Excellence in Maths programme and other organisations such as Education Endowment Foundation.

Eligibility

Institutions

All institutions with a 16 to 19 funding allocation and with qualifying students are eligible for the extra funding.

Students

All students subject to the maths and English condition of funding will attract the payment on a programme of 150 hours or more.

This includes:

• full-time and part-time students
• T Level students
• 14 to 16 year olds in further education and sixth-form colleges

Student eligibility to attract the funding is closely aligned with the maths and English condition of funding requirements.

Students with an education, health and care plan and recorded as exempt for the maths and English condition of funding will be eligible for the additional funding. This is because we expect institutions to include literacy and numeracy in their programme at an appropriate level and mode of delivery as referenced in the conditions of funding guidance.

Funding rate

We will pay eligible institutions the following amounts for students who qualify for the extra funding:

• £418 per student per subject in band 4 and above
• £255 per student per subject in bands 3 and 2
• £418 per full-time equivalent per subject in band 1 where students are on programmes of 150 hours or more

Students will qualify each year of their study programme or T Level if their prior attainment is recorded as still below GCSE grade 4 or equivalent.

If we do not have historic data for an institution, we will use an average factor for their institution type to calculate their funding allocation. 

All directly enrolled 14 to 16 year old students in eligible further education institutions will attract the payment since they will not yet have achieved GCSE grade 4 or above in English or maths.

Funding calculation

Step 1: we identify the data

We will use the last full year of data to calculate this funding. For example, we will use data from the end of academic year 2023 to 2024 to inform allocations for 2025 to 2026.

Step 2: we identify students

To count as a qualifying student, they must be:

a) an eligible 16 to 19 student who has passed the funding qualifying period

b) recorded in the individualised learner record or school census as not having prior attainment in English and/or maths GCSE grade 9 to 4 or equivalent. We will not count students with a prior attainment of a GCSE grade 2 or below but who hold a pass in level 2 Functional Skills

Step 3: we calculate the number of English and/or maths instances

Qualifying students will attract an instance of funding for each subject in which they do not hold a GCSE grade 9 to 4 or equivalent at the start of their programme. Those without English or without maths will receive 1 instance and those without English and without maths will receive 2 instances.

We will calculate an average of instances per student and apply this to the funded student number at institution level to determine the total instances to fund for 2025 to 2026. We will split this by the funding band proportions calculated from 2023 to 2024 data; we will assign those in bands 4 and above the full-time rate (£418) and those in bands 3 and below the part-time rate (£255).

The funding available via the level 3 maths and English payment stopped at the end of academic year 2023 to 2024, but there will be some students who have already attracted funding for academic year 2024 to 2025. So, for 2024 to 2025 only, students who attract 1 or more 2-year instances under level 3 programme maths and English funding in academic year 2023 to 2024 will not attract any instances under this policy in 2024 to 2025.

Payment

We will pay the English and maths funding as part of the 16 to 19 allocation monthly payment profile.

Contact us

If you have questions after reading our guidance, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support in our customer help centre.