Guidance

Coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023: opt in or opt out form guidance

Updated 22 May 2023

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund was first provided for the 2020 to 2021 academic year and is being extended up to the 2023 to 2024 academic year.

These instructions provide guidance so you can opt in to, or out of, the 16 to 19 tuition fund for the academic year 2022 to 2023. If you received tuition funding in 2021 to 2022, then you are eligible for the auto renewal process and will only be able to opt out using the form.

You are not required to complete the form if you wish to opt in to continue to receiving tuition funding in 2022 to 2023. However, you can complete the form if you would like an email confirming you have opted in to the auto-renewal process.

1.1 Considerations for students

The following students are eligible for funding via the 16 to 19 tuition fund:

• students with low prior attainment, meaning those who did not have a GCSE grade 4 or above in English and/or maths at age 16 and would need catch-up support
• students that have not achieved a grade 6 in English and/or maths at age 16 and would need catch-up support
• students from the 27% most economically deprived areas of the country (based on the index of multiple deprivation) and would need catch-up support
• students that are economically disadvantaged who meet the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund eligibility criteria and would need catch-up support to reach their full potential will be eligible, even where their prior attainment is high
• students aged 19 to 24 who have an education, health, and care (EHC) plan are also eligible for support, subject to meeting the eligibility for the fund

For more information read the coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 to 19 tuition fund guidance on GOV.UK.

2. When to complete your submission

The deadline to complete this form is 11:59pm on Friday, 21 October 2022.

3. Accessing the form

Access the form to opt in or opt out of the 2022 to 2023 tuition fund.

3.1 Before you start

Make sure you have:

• read this guidance document
• a DfE Sign-in account

3.2  Accessing the form

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account:

1. Access the 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023 form.
2. Sign in using your DfE Sign-in account information (your username and password).
3. Choose the organisation for which you are completing the form.
4. If you are part of an FE college or a multi-academy trust and have more than one eligible campus or institute, please choose the individual campus/institute you want to complete the form for.
5. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged in. This will show the name, address, and unique reference number (URN) or UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who logged in via DfE Sign-in.
6. If these details are correct, select ‘continue’ to move to the next page.
7. If you believe your details incorrect or you are experiencing issues accessing the form, contact us via the ESFA help centre and we will investigate.
8. Complete the form as instructed in the following sections.

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are registering interest for.

You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in. It is used for authentication only and the form will not appear in your list of services.

If your DfE Sign-in account is associated with more than one organisation, you must select the individual school or college from the list presented on the ‘Select your organisation’ page, which will allow you to access to the form.

If the individual organisation is not displayed, you would need to find out who within your organisation has approver permissions for DfE Sign-in, and they can add or remove a user.

If you cannot find who has approver access, your CEO/CFO or business manager can raise an incident via DfE Sign-in Service Desk.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account

You will need to create one: 

1. Access DfE Sign-in.
2. Select the ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’.
3. Enter your name and a valid business email address, which also contains your name
4. We will send you an email to verify your email address. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
5. Create a memorable password of a minimum of 8 characters, which must include 2 upper case letters, 2 lower case letters and 2 numbers.
6. Sign in using your new credentials, select ‘organisations’ and then ‘request an organisation’, enter the URN or name of your establishment. The request will be sent to the DfE Sign-in approver for the establishment, to approve your request.

You might have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It’s usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager.

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined in sign into your DfE Sign-in account to complete the form.

For security reasons, you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form.

3.3  If you need further assistance 

If you are having problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service. You will be able to request further assistance if required. When raising a support request, select ‘other.’

If you believe you are eligible to claim but have problems accessing the form, contact us via the ESFA help centre.

4.  Completing the form

You will find a ‘save and continue’ button on each page of the form. If you have to sign out of the form before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in.

You will also be advised what will happen next once you have submitted the form.

Selecting ‘continue’ on each page will take you through the form.

4.1 Conditions for accessing this funding

You must be an institution who is eligible for 16 to 19 tuition funding. If you are an ineligible institution, you will see the following message:

‘According to our records, you cannot access the 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023 form because your institution has not received an offer of tuition funding’.

If you think this is incorrect, you can contact us via the ESFA help centre with your details and we will investigate the issue.

4.2  Your details

This page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you logged into DfE Sign-in.

4.3 2022 to 2023 funding

You will only see this page if your institution is eligible for 2022 to 2023 tuition funding. On this page, you will be presented with a table which shows the amount of 2022 to 2023 funding your institution is eligible to receive. The table breaks down how your funding allocation has been calculated.

Extra funding will be allocated through 16 to 19 funding allocations for the 2022 to 2023 academic year. You will start to receive payments from the start of 2022 to 2023 academic year.

By opting in to receive this funding, your institution agrees to meet the conditions of funding.

If you opt in to or opting out of the 2022 to 2023 tuition fund

All institutions, including those eligible for auto renewal, that do not wish to receive their allocation are expected to opt out using the form.

If you have not previously received tuition funding in 2021 to 2022, you will be asked to confirm if you are opting in to receive 2022 to 2023 tuition funding.

You must ensure the funding allocation is used in accordance with the published 16 to 19 funding: 16 to 19 tuition fund.

Please note if you are opting out of 2022 to 2023 tuition funding, you must select at least one option to give your reason.

4.4 Check your answers and declarations

Once you have completed your submission, you will be presented with your submission summary along with declarations specific to your answers.

You will not be able to submit your form without agreeing to these declarations.  

After completing the declarations, you should select the ‘accept and send’ button.

You will then see the submission confirmation page.

4.5  Confirmation

The final page confirms your submission relating to the 16 to 19 tuition fund and will provide a unique reference number.

You will also receive an email which includes your submission reference and a PDF of your submission.

4.6  Amending your submission

If your submission is incorrect, you can resubmit up until 11:59pm on Friday, 21 October 2022 when this form window closes. To do this, you will need to log in and update the relevant information.

If you make a second submission, we will take the details of the most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions.

The form can be submitted or resubmitted until the deadline by selecting the link to the form. It will not be possible to grant any extensions to the deadline.

You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended claim.

5. Enquiries

If you have read this guidance and have any questions about the 16 to 19 tuition fund 2022 to 2023, contact us via the ESFA help centre.

When completing the enquiry form, select ‘other’ as your query type.

5.1 What happens next 

 You will receive an email confirming the details of your registration.