Correspondence

ESFA Update further education: 17 May 2023

Published 17 May 2023

Applies to England

1. Action: 16 to 19 tuition fund 2023 to 2024 claim form - deadline 26 May 2023

The 16 to 19 tuition fund 2023 to 2024 opt in/out digital form is now live.

The deadline for your submission is 11:59pm on 26 May 2023.

We’ve published guidance to access and help you complete the form.

2. Information: payment profiles for academic year 2023 to 2024

In January we said we would confirm payment profiles for academic year 2023 to 2024. This is part of the reclassification of further education (FE) colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions in England to the public sector.

From academic year 2023 to 2024 onwards, we will pay allocations in 12 equal instalments to the following institutions receiving 16 to 19 and adult education budget grant funding. We already pay local authority maintained and academy sixth forms in this way.

There is no change to the advanced learner loans bursary, and we will still pay this in 3 instalments: 50% in August, 25% in January and 25% in April.

2.1 16 to 19 funding (including high needs)

  • FE colleges and all other FE institutions, including local authorities for their FE provision, independent learning providers and special post-16 institutions

2.2 Non-devolved adult grant funding

  • all grant funded institutions, including colleges and local authorities does not include independent learning providers

3. Information: updated financial assurance – monitoring post-16 funding for 2022 to 2023 guidance

We’ve made several changes to the monitoring plan based on provider feedback that will take effect from R09.

Focussing on specific issues, we’ve streamlined:

  • FRM28: planned hours for students who start in-year and complete or leave learning within their initial 6-week period
  • FRM30: students with more than 40 planned hours a week (legal limit)
  • FRM43: 16 to 19 study programme students on qualifications with no planned learning hours (includes all students)
  • FRM65: T Level industry placements below the minimum hours for the specialism (identifies this in year 2)

A new report split from FRM28 makes it easier to identify the issue:

  • FRM71: planned hours for continuing students who complete or leave learning within 6 weeks of the 6 September.

The change is because it is unlikely that students will be attending programmes during the summer holiday period, so this report helps ensure that hours are adjusted in-year and funding is not overclaimed.

We will no longer publish FRM02, 03 and 50.