Guidance

Dance and Drama Awards guide: academic year 2026 to 2027

Updated 28 May 2026

Applies to England

1. Introduction

The guide sets out the funding rules for the Dance and Drama Awards (DaDA) scheme and forms part of institutions’ Department for Education (DfE) funding agreements. Institutions must comply with the rules and be able to show they comply at any audit.

DfE provides the funding for the DaDA scheme. Only institutions who are DfE approved to administer the scheme can offer DaDA funding to students.

The term ‘we’ below refers to DfE, and the term ‘you’ refers to DaDA institutions.

DaDA offers income assessed support for tuition fees and living costs. It is available at specified high-quality private dance and drama institutions in England. DaDA is designed to contribute to the costs of studying for talented young people who want to become professional actors and dancers.

Only students enrolled on the Trinity College London (TCL) level 5 and 6 Professional Diplomas in Dance, Acting and Musical Theatre are eligible for DaDA funding.

Students must be studying one of these TCL diploma courses:

• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Acting (3 years)
• Level 5 Diploma in Professional Acting (1 year)
• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Dance (3 years)
• Level 5 Diploma in Professional Dance (Classical Ballet or Contemporary Dance) (2 years)
• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre (3 years)

Individual institutions manage the scheme, using the funding rules set out in this guide and the nationally set household income bands. Institutions determine which students they support, based on their judgement, at audition, of students with the most potential to succeed in the profession. Institutions assess the amount of funding a student is eligible to receive using the income bands.

2. Summary of changes to this guidance

There are no changes to the DaDA funding rules for academic year 2026 to 2027.

The DaDA living cost rates have increased for academic year 2026 to 2027.

We have revised the format of this guide to ensure it provides a clear and coherent set of funding rules and reflects specific queries you submitted to us in the previous academic year. The revision means the guide looks different to previous years.

3. Eligibility

Institutions are responsible for assessing if students starting their TCL course are eligible for DaDA funding.

Institutions use their audition process to assess students’ talent and potential to succeed in the industry.

3.1 Student eligibility

Age

To be eligible to receive DaDA funding in academic year 2026 to 2027 students must be aged between:

• 16 and 23 at the start of the academic year to apply for a dance course
• 18 and 23 at the start of the academic year to apply for an acting course

Residency

DaDA funding may only be awarded to students who satisfy one of the following residency conditions: 

• a UK or Irish national and have lived in the UK or the Islands (that is including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), European Economic Area (EEA), Gibraltar, or Switzerland for at least 3 years prior to the start of the course
• a family member of a UK or Irish National, where both UK or Irish National and family member have lived in the UK or the Islands (that is including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), EEA, Gibraltar, or Switzerland for the past 3 years
• an EU, EEA or Swiss worker, or the family member of an EU, EEA, or Swiss Worker with settled or pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme and have been living in the UK or the Islands (that is including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), EEA, Gibraltar, or Switzerland for the past 3 years
• the child of a Turkish worker and have been living in the UK or the islands (that is including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man), EEA, Gibraltar, or Switzerland for the past 3 years
• is recognised as a refugee by the UK government, or the spouse or civil partner or child of a refugee, granted Humanitarian Protection or indefinite leave to remain

EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens must have successfully applied for the EU settlement scheme and hold either settled or pre-settled status. Irish Nationals, however, do not need to apply to the EU settlement scheme..

You must check to ensure that the student is likely to fulfil the residency criteria for the duration of the course as part of your eligibility assessment for DaDA funding.

3.2 Courses that qualify for funding

The DaDA scheme is intended to help enable students to achieve the vocational TCL Level 5 and 6 diplomas. Only students enrolled on the TCL Level 5 and 6 Professional Diplomas in Dance, Acting and Musical Theatre are eligible for DaDA funding.

Students must be studying one of these TCL diploma courses:

• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Acting (3 years)
• Level 5 Diploma in Professional Acting (1 year)
• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Dance (3 years)
• Level 5 Diploma in Professional Dance (Classical Ballet or Contemporary Dance) (2 years)
• Level 6 Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre (3 years)

3.3 Higher Education provision and support

DaDA funding cannot be used to support students undertaking higher education (HE) degree courses at institutions or any other qualifications the institution may deliver.

If an institution offers both vocational and HE provision and a student in receipt of DaDA funding wishes to register and complete a HE degree in addition to the TCL Diploma (Levels 5 and 6), you must make clear to the student:

• that DaDA funding is awarded to the student to enable them to complete the TCL qualification (your DaDA offer letter must state clearly which TCL qualification the student is studying and that any other study is voluntary and in addition to the TCL qualification
• which part(s) of the course the student must complete to receive the TCL qualification and which part(s) for the HE degree
• if there are any extra costs the student needs to pay that are associated with registering on the degree course
• that any work the student undertakes towards completing the degree must be secondary to the work towards the TCL Diploma, which is funded by the DaDA award

DaDA supported students are not eligible to apply for a HE student loan.

It is your responsibility to:

• make this clear to the student and ensure they understand they are not permitted to receive financial support from the DaDA scheme and from a HE student loan at the same time
• ensure that any student who has incorrectly applied for and received funding from both sources, repays any overpayment to avoid double funding
• ensure all DaDA supported students sign a written declaration to confirm they have read and understood the funding rules relating to the TCL diplomas and DaDA support and HE provision and student loans and that they understand the rules cannot, under any circumstances, be varied - this declaration should be retained for audit purposes for 6 years

3.4 Income assessment 

Students are eligible for support based on their household income. You assess the amount of financial support based on nationally set income bands which determine the level of support for both fees and living costs (maintenance).

You must use the student’s household income from the previous tax year for the DaDA income assessment. For academic year 2026 to 2027, this is tax year 2025 to 2026. Income evidence can include award of benefits notices or evidence from employment (P60, P11D) or self-employment

The income assessment undertaken at the beginning of the students’ first academic year on the TCL diploma course normally sets the amount of tuition fee support for the whole of their course. However, you must undertake an income assessment each year to establish the amount of living cost support the student is entitled to receive. Where information provided by continuing students shows a change in their circumstances that has significantly increased or decreased their household income, you have discretion to also reassess the student for tuition fees.

We provide guidance in this document and with the application form, to support you to carry out household income assessments. However, we cannot provide detailed advice on tax or benefits for individual cases. You should take decisions based on the evidence you have, aiming for consistency in approach and ensuring your auditable records clearly explain the evidence you have seen and the decisions you have taken as a result.

4. Allocations and payments

4.1 Allocations

DaDA funding is intended to contribute towards the costs of training for eligible students. It is not intended to cover all costs of the training in full.

You should use your funding allocation to support continuing students first, so those already in receipt of DaDA funding. Your funding should then be used for new starters. You must also use your DaDA allocation to support all Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) approved applications.

You should manage DaDA funding at your own discretion, in accordance with the funding rules set out in this guide. This includes deciding whether you wish to allocate all the funding or hold a small contingency fund to respond to changes in circumstances or additional DSA applications later in the year.

You may use up to 5% of the total allocation of funding for administration costs.

We have based academic year 2026 to 2027 DaDA allocations on student numbers and spend from the last full year (academic year 2024 to 2025), as follows:

• 100% spend: allocation will increase by 5% on your 2025 to 2026 allocation
• 95% or above spend: allocation will remain the same as 2025 to 2026
• Below 95% spend: allocation will be reduced by 5% from your 2025 to 2026 allocation

We issue letters to you to confirm your 2026 to 2027 DaDA allocation in spring 2026.

We provide you with a budget management Excel spreadsheet to assist you in managing your DaDA funding. You should use the spreadsheet to record all students who are fully eligible for DaDA funding based on all the eligibility criteria (new students starting courses in 2026 and students who are returning for a second or third year of study). You may also need, and operate, your own systems for monitoring your budget, including to record any additional support you may provide to students from other resources.

4.2 Payment schedule

We will make allocation payments in 2 instalments: approximately two-thirds in August 2026 and the remaining one-third in April 2027.

As in previous years, the first payment may be adjusted to reconcile funding that you have not spent in the previous academic year, based on the annual end of year data return. 

You are responsible for ensuring your bank account details for payments are up to date. If you need to update or change your bank details, you must complete the form for bank and payment details. We cannot accept amendments by email.

4.3 Underspends and spending flexibility

You may use discretion and flexibility in your allocated DaDA funding. You can do this to provide partial funding for talented students if you have insufficient funds to provide the full support that the student would have been eligible to receive. You must be transparent with the student, and their parents, about the full amount of funding they are entitled to, make clear that you are providing partial funding only and the amount of partial funding you are offering. It is important your communication to students and parents about how you are using this flexibility is clear and transparent.

You must ensure that you only give out partial funding awards after all successful students applying for DaDA have been fully assessed, and the full DaDA funding process has been completed.

You are not required to offer partial funding to students, this flexibility is for use at your discretion. You may choose to continue to keep a small contingency fund instead of offering partial funding.

You must report your end of year outturn data at the end of year data return in June. We will reconcile any underspent funds. You cannot carry underspends forward into future years.

5. Managing applications and DaDA funding

At audition, you identify those students with the most potential to succeed in the profession, based on their talent.

When auditioning students, you must implement The Code of Practice for Auditions and Interviews produced by the Council for Dance, Drama and Musical Theatre (CDMT). You must set out the procedures students must follow to audition for a place and DaDA funding.

You are responsible for ensuring that information about DaDA is available to students as part of the audition process, via your literature and websites and that this information is up to date. We regularly maintain the information for students that you may wish to reference.

5.1 Provisional and final awards

You may offer provisional awards and final awards subject to the following rules. You:

• may offer provisional DaDA awards before a student formally accepts a place
• are not permitted to offer provisional awards to students prior to 1 March 2026
• can only offer final DaDA awards when:
  • the student has formally accepted a place
  • you have received a completed DaDA application form, with the required evidence
  • you have carried out a full income assessment

CDMT will continue to manage the clearing process for academic year 2026 to 2027.

5.2 Student applications for DaDA funding

You should use the application forms supplied by DfE when assessing the amount of DaDA funding a student is eligible to receive.

The self-declaration of income form that we send to you enables you to carry out an initial assessment of the student’s household income and determine an indicative level of support they may be eligible to receive. The student should complete this form when they are offered a provisional place at the institution.

You may make provisional DaDA funding offers at this stage. Any provisional amount of DaDA funding you communicate to the student must be clearly explained to them as based on the information they supplied on the self-declaration form. You must make clear that the funding amount you quote to them is not guaranteed but is subject to verification and confirmation via the main DaDA application form.

Once a student has formally accepted their place, they must complete the main DaDA application form and submit it to you, with the required evidence, so you can carry out the full household income assessment and determine the final amount of funding they are eligible to receive. You must only confirm the amount of funding to the student after you have completed the full assessment process. You must ensure that students fully understand this.

Where you accept DaDa application forms electronically from students, you must ensure your auditable records include some form of electronic or digital signature.

You must ensure that you do not make offers of awards to students that exceed the amount of funding allocated to you. If students have been placed on a reserve list to receive DaDA support at a potentially later date, you must explain that to them, including where they have been placed on that list.

You should make clear to students the closing date they must adhere to for submitting applications and required evidence to you. Applications can only be backdated to the beginning of the term in which the application is received, and students must understand that if they submit an application form late, for example, in term 2, funding will only be backdated to the beginning of that term and not from the start of the academic year.

Once the academic year has ended (in July or August) you cannot accept or assess an application for that year. All applications must be submitted and assessed in the relevant academic year.

5.3 Notifying students of funding

You must provide written notification (hard copy or email) to students when you make them a provisional and a then final DaDA award.

Your notification to successful students must confirm:

• the qualification the funding relates to, for example, the TCL Level 5 or Level 6 diploma
• the length of the course and the total amount of funding to which the student is entitled
• any additional funding that you will provide from your own resources
• details of when and how you will make payments.

Depending on their household income, DaDA students may be required to contribute towards their tuition fees. You must inform the student of the amount, and your required payment date(s) in writing as part of your overall confirmation.

Where a student is not offered DaDA funding, you must write to them to explain the reasons. The letter you give or send to the student should also set out details of your appeals procedure. If the student believes that the process used to reach the decision contains irregularities, they must be given the right to appeal under your procedures.

5.4 Payment of DaDA funding to students

You should make living cost payments directly to students once they have been fully assessed as eligible for DaDA. You are free to determine the frequency of payments to students, however, we advise that payments are made in instalments, for example, on a termly basis, rather than releasing the full amount of funding to students at the beginning of the academic year. This ensures students do not receive funding to which they are not entitled, if, for example, they withdraw from their course part way through the year.

Where you decide to issue a lump sum or large amount of funding to a student, you must be aware that this is at your own risk. You cannot claim additional funding from DfE in the event of any overpayment that you make to students.

You must ensure students sign a declaration to confirm that they have received the living costs payment from you. You must retain a copy of this for audit purposes. You must make clear to students that their continued receipt of DaDA is conditional on them meeting agreed standards you set, for example, relating to attendance, behaviour, and progression. 

It is your responsibility to ensure students are attending, and continuing to attend, courses before making payments to them. You must inform students that they could lose their entitlement to any fees and living costs funding if their attendance or other agreed standards, are unsatisfactory.

5.5 Recovery of overpayments

Where any fees and living cost support funding is paid in error resulting in an overpayment, you must take recovery action. You may wish to recoup the funding paid to the student or deduct the overpayment from any future payments they are due to receive.

You must take recovery action if you become aware that fees and living cost payments have been made incorrectly, for example because the student’s family have failed to disclose information or because a student has failed to notify you about relevant changes.

5.6 DaDA and receipt of benefits

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has advised that only students who claim benefits in their own right may be affected by receipt of DaDA funding.

If the full DaDA application form indicates that a student is in receipt of benefits in their own right, you must make them aware of this and encourage the student to seek advice from their DWP benefit office to establish if receipt of DaDA living cost support payments may affect any of their benefits.

Students enrolled on the TCL Level 5 and 6 diplomas are not eligible to receive housing benefit. DWPs Housing Benefit Regulations state that higher education (above Level 3) is not eligible.

5.7 Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)

You may, in accordance with any guidance issued by the accrediting body, offer DaDA funding to a student whose programme is of shorter duration than the full length of their TCL course, if a student has prior learning through experience or training, which will allow them to gain the qualification in a shorter period of time. You must satisfy TCL that students have appropriate prior learning before taking this decision.

5.8 Re-allocating DaDA funding if a student leaves

If a student chooses to leave their course before the end of the agreed period of their DaDA funding, or you withdraw DaDA funding from the student for any reason, you may offer the funding to another eligible student on your reserve list, as you determine appropriate.

You should re-allocate funding to another eligible student as soon as the outgoing student has left the course, whether that is part way during term or from the start of the following term.

Students that are offered DaDA funding as substitutes for the original student must:

• be within the specified DaDA age range for their TCL diploma course at the date they are selected as a substitute student
• have been judged to have the most potential to succeed in the profession at audition

You must include, in your auditable records, the start and end dates of study for the original student and the date the student was replaced by the substitute student. You must also reflect the change in the budget monitoring spreadsheet. The incoming student is only permitted to apply for living cost support from the beginning of the next term.

5.9 Second DaDA ‘Awards’

Students can only receive support from DaDA funding once. However, they may be eligible to apply for a second funding award if:

• they were prevented from completing the course or need to defer a year due to circumstances outside their control, such as illness or injury, or

• it becomes apparent that, after having been selected for one course (for example a ballet course), a different course would be more beneficial to their continued development (for example, musical theatre) - any such transfer should normally take place in the first year of training - students are not permitted to transfer from their existing institution to a new institution and remain or start on the same course and qualification

You may only offer a student a second award if the conditions above apply, and in compliance with the following rules:

• the second award of DaDA funding must not be for a period which would provide more than 4 academic years in total of training with DaDA support

• any second award of DaDA funding must be funded from your DaDA funding allocation for the year - no additional funding is available from DfE and DaDA support does not transfer with students if they move to another institution

• a student should not normally be considered for a second award of DaDA funding if they have already completed a course with DaDA support or have had DaDA support withdrawn from them

You must retain appropriate evidence to support any second funding award for audit purposes, such as medical evidence or an assessment of the need for an alternative course.

5.10 Withdrawing DaDA funding from a student

Students in receipt of DaDA funding are expected to make appropriate progress in their training, and to comply with rules set by you, such as attendance, behaviour, and progression.

Where students fail to meet these conditions, you may, after having discussed the situation with the student (verbal warning) and after issuing a formal written warning, withdraw DaDA support from them. However, students should be given the right to appeal the decision.

If you withdraw DaDA funding from a student, you may re-allocate it to another eligible student.

5.11 Unpaid student contributions for tuition fees

If a student does not pay the required contribution to fees in accordance with your specified terms and conditions, you may expel them. In such cases, DaDA funding can be re-allocated to another eligible student on your reserve list. Whether you decide to seek to recover any payments from the student is for you to determine, in line with your organisation’s policies and processes.

If a student leaves without giving the appropriate period of notice you specify in your terms and conditions, the following rules determine whether you may claim fees in place of notice. If you:

• can fill the place on the course, no claim for fees can be made
• cannot fill the place, you should claim the student contribution directly from the student in the first instance. If, after all reasonable efforts, no payment is received from the student, you may take the amount from your DaDA allocation for the remainder of the term in which the student left. This claim must be recorded on the budget management spreadsheet for audit purposes.

5.12 Tuition fees

The income assessment undertaken at the start of the student’s course for tuition fees normally lasts for the length of the student’s course.

However, students and parents have a responsibility to report significant changes in their circumstances that may impact on the amount of DaDA funding they are eligible to receive, and you have discretion to reassess tuition fees at the start of the year if the student can provide evidence of a significant change of circumstances.

A significant change is a change that will impact on the student’s circumstances going forward or changes that occurred for the whole of the previous academic year. Changes include both those that significantly decrease household income and changes that significantly increase household income. Examples include divorce or relationship breakdown, changes in employment, marriage, or cohabitation.

In-year reassessment of tuition fee costs should only take place in exceptional cases such as disability or death of a parent or carer. You must include evidence to support any exceptional re-assessment as part of your auditable records.

You have further discretion to consider genuinely exceptional circumstances that significantly impact on a student’s ability to participate, for example, where changes in financial circumstances mean the student would otherwise be forced to drop out of their diploma course.

5.13 Living costs (maintenance)

Students must submit a new application for living costs support each academic year to enable you to undertake an annual income assessment.

Where their application shows a change in income (either a reduction or an increase), you should adjust the level of funding a student is entitled to each year, in line with the national income bands.

In-year reassessment of living costs support should only take place in exceptional cases, such as disability or death of a parent or carer.

You have further discretion to consider genuinely exceptional circumstances that significantly impact on a student’s ability to participate, for example, where changes in financial circumstances mean the student would otherwise be forced to drop out of their diploma course.

All assessment decisions must be set out in auditable records, supported by evidence and affordable within your budget.

5.14 Re-assessments

If a dependent student becomes independent part way through their course, you may undertake a re-assessment based on their new status. The student must be able to provide evidence that they meet one of the criteria for independent status.

The criteria are:

• they have got married
• they have financially supported themselves for 3 years or more
• being a natural or adoptive parent of a child who lives with them
• having no living parents
• being estranged from their parents

An independent student reassessment is undertaken on the student’s household income and that of their spouse or partner (if they have one).

You should also conduct any re-assessments that may be applicable due to medical conditions covered by the Equality Act 2010.

We recommend that you do not re-assess in instances of a parent being made redundant, as this is usually a temporary or short-term situation. If the redundancy is of a long duration, this may have already affected income in the previous tax year.

All re-assessment decisions must be set out in auditable records, supported by evidence and affordable within your budget.

5.15 Charges you are, and are not, permitted to make to students

Audition fees

A high audition fee may prevent students from applying for courses and for DaDA support. We recognise, however, that you do need to charge an audition fee to prevent large numbers of speculative applications and you are permitted to charge students an audition fee up to a maximum of £45.

Registration fees

Registration fees can act as a barrier to students from low-income families and, as a condition of DaDA funding, students who apply for DaDA support must not be charged a registration fee. Neither should you charge potential DaDA students to hold a place.

Extra tuition fees or other expenses

You are not permitted to make extra charges (over and above any income assessed contributions) to DaDA students for tuition costs or any other expenses related to their course.

6. Disabled Students Allowance 

DSA can provide support for the extra costs a student may incur as a direct result of a disability, mental health condition, or specific learning difficulty. DSA does not cover disability-related costs a student may have if they were not attending a course, or costs that any student might have.

To apply for DSA support, students must have been assessed as eligible for DaDA support (either for fees only or both fees and living costs).

We will continue to assess DSA applications from students.

You are responsible for communicating the type and amount of DSA support that has been agreed to students and for maintaining records of expenditure for each student to ensure that the agreed maximum amounts are not exceeded.

You are responsible for making payments from your allocation of funding:

• to all suppliers
• to assessment centres
• for the purchase of specialist equipment
• for study skills support for students
• for general allowances

You must ensure students understand they must not arrange any DSA related support until DfE has assessed and approved their application. All students must have a completed Assessment of Needs report before confirmation that any support can be made.

Any DSA invoices that are received by you prior to approval and written confirmation being given that a student is eligible should not be paid and must be returned to the student.

We will make DSA application forms and guidance available to you in August 2026.

As in previous years, you must use your DaDA allocation to support all DSA approved applications.

7. Governance and monitoring

You must comply with all aspects of the information on GOV.UK for Health and Safety, Equal Opportunities and any other legal requirements applying to you. We may withdraw DaDA funding at any time if this is not done or if you cannot provide sufficient evidence that your organisation is financially viable.

7.1 Ofsted and safeguarding

You are subject to governance and audit regimes that include Ofsted inspections and the publication of inspection reports. You must permit any person authorised by Ofsted to inspect your organisation and provide any such person with all the facilities reasonably required for making an inspection as and when required, in line with Ofsted powers of entry and access to documents and its education inspection framework in accordance with section 131 and 132 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006.

Ofsted inspections are undertaken in line with the Education Inspection Framework and other guidance current at that time. The education inspection framework and the guidance for inspections are available on GOV.UK. All inspection reports are published. 

You must ensure you are fulfilling your responsibilities for safeguarding all students. You should ensure you are aware of the government’s Prevent duty guidance about safeguarding young people from extremism and radicalisation.

We may also withdraw DaDA funding where the institution ceases to meet the requirements of the DaDA scheme. For example, it is no longer:

• validated by Trinity College London as eligible to offer level 5 and 6 Diploma qualifications
• able to maintain levels of quality, relevance to employers’ needs and the standards of performance that are currently set for the DaDA scheme

7.2 Financial health

DfE is required to carry out financial health assessments (FHAs) for all its institutions, and this is a routine aspect of the contracting process. FHAs are carried out by auditors who will assess DaDA institutions’ latest full (not abbreviated) annual financial statements.

You must submit financial statements each year. You must do this as soon as the statements are finalised and signed and before they are overdue for filing at Companies House or the Charity Commission.

Financial statements should be submitted through our customer help portal, using the ‘Contact a Case Manager’ option. This will require a DfE Sign-in account to login.

7.3 Management Information returns (MI)

You are required to submit one data return, usually in June, to provide end of year outturn data that we use to generate the next year’s funding allocation and to monitor the scheme. You must ensure you submit data returns by the closing date specified on the return.

The data return requires information including student numbers, courses and qualifications, total expenditure, student characteristics (age, gender, residency, disability, and ethnicity), completion rates and graduation destinations.

We will contact all institutions with DaDA allocations to confirm when the data collection is open and the closing date for submissions. You must ensure returns are submitted by the closing date. All unspent funds will be recovered.

As in previous years, the first allocation payment for the next academic year will be adjusted to reconcile funding that you have reported as unspent, based on the data return.

7.4 Equal opportunities

You must demonstrate that you have followed the equality responsibilities that DfE is legally required to meet under the Equality Act 2010 (Schedule 19) and the delivery of your provision must comply with the principles of the Act. 

Legislation, regulation, and policy provide a framework within which the DfE will strive to promote equality of opportunity for all students, irrespective of their age, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability including physical or learning abilities. We expect that you have policies for equality of opportunity in place and published in appropriate formats, available to both staff and students and summarised in your promotional and marketing materials.

DfE funded institutions are required to maintain records of student diversity including age, gender, disability, and ethnicity. This information should be made available to DfE or its agents upon request, as well as being required in the annual end of year data collection. We expect that you will analyse this data in respect of participation, retention, and achievement and, where there are areas of concern, take steps to address them.

7.5 Data protection

The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) which incorporates the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all institutions which deal with students’ applications for funding as the information is classed as sensitive personal data. DaDA institutions are Data Controllers and must be registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

• The ICO provides guidance on the General Data Protection Regulation.
• Data protection information can be found on the UK Legislation website.
• Data protection information is set out in the Data Protection Act 2018.
• Data protection principles are explained in Part 3, Chapter 2 of the Act.

You are responsible for compliance with the DPA 2018 and GDPR when transmitting personal data. Any sensitive and personal data that is transmitted via email must be encrypted and the password sent in a separate email.

8. Audit, assurance and fraud

Administration and allocation of DaDA is subject to DfE’s audit process. For audit purposes, and to provide accurate data to meet DfE requirements, you must maintain accurate and up to date records of students and funding. This includes recording students in receipt of DaDA on the budget management spreadsheet.

8.1 Audit and assurance

DfE’s Funding and Financial Oversight Directorate (FFO) is responsible for providing assurance on DaDA institutions’ internal controls and use of funds. All DaDA institutions are subject to audit on a risk assessment basis, carried out by FFO Post -16 Assurance Team auditors. A sample of DaDA institutions will be selected for audit each academic year.

For DaDA institutions, the audit work undertaken will normally involve a risk assessment of institutions’ control systems for administering the programme and an element of detailed transaction testing.

Audit testing is normally carried out on a sample basis, and we may recover funds found to be in error, calculated on an actual or extrapolated basis.

Audit testing is conducted by auditors who will visit you for one or two days on a cyclical basis. Where audit work identifies significant findings, more frequent visits may be made to support you in improving your control systems and ensure that funding is used for the purposes for which it is given.

You must have administrative procedures in place that record DaDA applications and the award of funding. These records should comprise:

• a fully and accurately completed application form, including residency self-declaration
• copies of any evidence requested for the purposes of determining eligibility (this includes any email exchanges with students and their families)
• the budget management spreadsheet, or equivalent
• details of the household income assessment and funding awarded
• any relevant lodgings evidence
• evidence of independent status if the student has been assessed as such
• written declarations that confirm the student has read and understood the funding rules relating to the TCL diplomas and DaDA support and to HE provision and student loans

For audit purposes, hard or scanned copies of all documentation should be kept for a period of 6 years in a safe and secure manner that meets Data Protection requirements.

Auditors also carry out checks to ensure that DaDA funding has been given to a student based on your assessment of their talent at audition.

Where you accept DaDa application forms electronically from students, you must ensure your auditable records include some form of electronic or digital signature. An electronic signature is defined as any electronic symbol or process that is associated with a record or document where there is an intention to sign the document by any party involved. It can be anything from a check box to a signature. A digital signature is where a document with an electronic signature is secured by a process making it non-refutable.

You must make parents and students aware that where they are submitting the completed application form electronically, they are agreeing to all the information and conditions as set out in the form’s Student and Parent(s) or Student’s Spouse or Partner Declaration, in other words, that they agree to all the conditions and statements set out in the DaDA application form and eligibility criteria of DaDA funding set out in the application form and DaDA application form notes.

8.2 Fraud and whistleblowing

If you identify that fraudulent, or potentially fraudulent, details have been supplied by a student or their family on either the self declaration of income form or the main DaDA income assessment application form, it is your responsibility to investigate and, if necessary, take recovery action for any overpayments made.

We take all concerns relating to financial irregularity or impropriety seriously and will instigate an investigation where we consider that concerns have been raised in good faith and there is sufficient evidence to warrant it.

For more information, you may wish to refer to concerns of financial irregularity or impropriety and whistleblowing.

9. Complaints and appeals

Complaints from students or parents about your operational processes should be dealt with according to your own operational complaints and appeals procedure. As individual institutions are responsible for administering DaDA and managing any complaints, DfE does not normally have a role in these types of complaints and only when your complaints procedure has been fully exhausted (including an appeal) should any complaint be forwarded to us.

If a complaint concerns DaDA policy, it should be referred to DfE via our customer help portal.

10. Contacting us

This guide contains full information about DaDA eligibility and processes and your responsibilities in administering the funding. You should only contact us for further guidance after reading this DaDA guide and determining your question is not covered by the published information.

We provide guidance in this document and with the application form, to support the household income assessments you conduct. However, we cannot provide detailed advice on tax or benefits for individual cases, and you should take decisions based on the evidence you have, aiming for consistency in approach and ensuring your auditable records clearly explain the evidence you have seen and the decisions you have taken as a result.

We recommend you use DfE Sign-in when submitting an enquiry. DaDA queries must be submitted through our customer help portal.

When submitting an enquiry, use one of the following headings, so the query can be directed to the appropriate team:

• DaDA scheme: policy and scheme rules
• DaDA scheme: management information return
• DaDA scheme: allocations
• DaDA scheme: reconciliation
• DaDA scheme: contracts and payments (add month and academic year)

You must not pass DfE personal email addresses onto parents or students or encourage students and parents to contact DfE. It is your responsibility to explain the DaDA scheme rules and your funding decisions to families.