Hello, my name is Elisabeth Baines and I work on quality assuring and
developing the 16 to 19 funding formula at the
Education Funding Agency, the EFA.
This film is an introduction to how the EFA funds education and training
for 16 to 19 year-olds and those with a learning difficulty assessment or
education and health care plan up to the age of 25.
I will be explaining why we use this formula,
what it is we are funding and how the funding methodology works to allocate
funding for each student and institution.
Throughout the presentation I will use the term institution
to refer to all schools, all types of academies,
further education and sixth form colleges and charitable and commercial
providers, unless there is something specific relating to a specific
institution type, in which case I will state that clearly.
I will start with some background and then explain the principles behind study
programmes and then move on to look at each element of the formula and
briefly how it works. Towards the end I will explain
how you can access more information on each aspect of 16 to 19 funding.
Prior to summer 2013, all post 16 institutions were funded based
on the number and size of qualifications they delivered.
Professor Alison Wolf was asked by ministers to review if this was delivering
the best possible outcomes for young people and she recommended that funding
in future should be based on a per-student basis rather than per
qualification and that all institutions should be required to deliver
individualised study programmes for each student.
These changes were introduced alongside the raising of the participation age
for 16-year-olds and since August 2013 all education and training
for 16 to 19-year-olds and those with a learning difficulty
assessment or education and health care plan up to the age of 25, except for
apprenticeships, has been funded on a per-student basis.
This means that institutions can work within a broad framework of principles
to plan and deliver high-quality study programmes
to their individual students based on their needs and aspirations,
which is supported by a simple, fair and transparent funding methodology.
The funding methodology I will describe covers all types of institutions and
educational training.
It includes traineeships but not apprenticeship.
These are funded by separate funding methodology
published by the Skills Funding Agency.
Since August 2013, all institutions have been required to deliver individual study
programmes which are designed to support each student to progress into skilled
work or further learning. These should be tailored to each individual's needs and
aspirations and have clear study and/or employment goals
reflecting the students prior attainment.
Each study programme should include a substantial qualification. For example,
a vocational tech level qualification. One of these qualifications is the core aim
of the study programme. It should be aligned to the students aspirations and
should consist of the majority of the teaching time.
If the student can't benefit from a substantial quantification,
then the core aim will be extended work experience.
For students in schools on an A-Level programme, there is no requirement
to record a core aim.
It should also include further learning in English and maths as
appropriate and for any student that has not yet achieved a grade A*- C
at GCSE in the subjects, as they are compulsory,
the student must continue to work towards this standard or
they will not qualify for funding.
The study programme should include high-quality, meaningful
work experience which is external to the institution.
In addition, there should be added value preparation for employment,
enrichment activities and pastoral time such as tutorials.
Once the institution has planned and timetabled the study programmes,
the first step toward calculating the funding is to count the hours that
they are planning to deliver for each student.
These are called planned hours and you can see on this slide the
criteria the hours need to meet to be funded.
The criteria are permissive and the vast majority of time in a timetable or
learning agreement would count for funding.
The planned hours should be within the normal working pattern of the
institution. This does not mean that all activity must be in a classroom
in front of a teacher.
However, weekend or late evening activity would not count unless this is the
institutions usual working pattern.
Study leave can count toward the total planned hours provided it is focused
on a defined exam or assessment, such as leading up to the summer exam season.
To understand what is funded it is actually easier to look at what is
not funded.
If an institution is not expending resources to plan,
supervise or deliver the study programme hours,
then the EFA won't fund it. Activities such as
extracurricular activities, homework, jobs or volunteering
that the institution has not organised or planned,
do not count toward planned hours. These are all valuable activities
but they are not necessarily compulsory components of the study
programme, are not organised or supervised by the institution and so
they are not eligible for funding.
Once the planned hours are calculated they are entered onto the school census or ILR.
There is no requirement to adjust these throughout the year and
only in exceptional circumstances should you do so.
Now that you understand that planned hours are the basic building block
of the 16 to 19 funding formula, let's look at the formula itself.
Essentially the formula takes into account the number of students
funded at a national funding rate.
Adjusted for retention, the cost weighting of some high-cost programmes
with additional funding for disadvantaged students and
the higher cost associated with some high-cost areas of the country.
Together these factors calculate the programme funding for a student or
an institution.
Let's look briefly at why we have each element and how it works.
First, the funding formula allocates funds per student,
so student numbers are the basis for our calculations.
We collect data on student numbers through the school sensors and ILR
in the autumn of each academic year.
Depending on which type of institution it is,
we may have to scale this figure up so it represents a full year.
We then take this number forward to allocation for the next academic year.
Simply put, if an academy sixth form reported a hundred students
in autumn 2014 than the allocation for the 2015-16 academic year
would be for 100 students. This process is called
'lagged student numbers'.
Of course, not all students are full-time, especially in FE colleges or
commercial and charitable providers.
To keep the formula simple, we have a number of funding bands.
Each student is fitted into the appropriate band for the planned hours
they have on their timetable or learning agreement.
This slide shows these funding bands by hours.
Full-time programmes are expected to an average of 600 planned hours but
all programmes of 540 planned hours or more are funded as full-time.
Because of funding restrictions, we fund 18 year-olds in the next
band down as a maximum.
18 year-old are funded for 450-539 hours only, not 600.
Bands 4, 3 and 2 are funded at a fixed rate and
band 1 is funded as a proportion of the national funding rate.
Please note that any student aged 18-25 inclusive,
with an LDA or EHCP is funded as a 16 or 17 year-old.
The next element is the national funding rate for full-time student.
This national funding rate, is set and announced
before March each year for the following academic year.
In 2014-15 academic year the full-time rates per student is 4,000.
The rate for 2015-16 academic year will be confirmed early in 2015.
Part-time bands 2-4, shown on the last slide, are then set at a rate
based on the midpoint of each band. I mentioned that band 1 is funded
pro-rata to the national funding rate. So, a study programme of 200 hours
for 2014-15 would be 33% of 600 hours for full-time so the
funding would be 33% of the full-time rate.
That is £1,333.
When we allocate funds for the following year
we don't know what all the current student will be doing,
therefore we use a proportion of students, who are in each band
the year before, to inform this calculation.
This is an important point and all the factors below are calculated on this
basis. For example, all the remaining factors in the formula
would use data from 2013-14 academic year in the allocations for
the 2015-16 academic year.
To recap, the student numbers have been multiplied by the national funding rate.
This cash figure is then multiplied by a retention factor,
the third element in the formula.
This factor reduces funding by 50% in future years if
the student is not retained and does not complete their core aim but
acknowledges that even where the student leaves early,
there has been some cost to the institution.
Our data shows that on average those that drop out do so halfway through
their course, hence the 50%.
The table on this slide illustrates the impact of this.
The formula uses an average retention factor across all students with each
institution.
Just to reiterate, there is no in year adjustment should a student drop this
informs the factor for the next allocation.
Once a retention factor is applied, the allocation is up lifted by an
average programme cost weighting for the institution.
This factor recognises that some programmes require specialist
facilities and equipment or need to be delivered to smaller groups and
therefore cost more to deliver.
Each study programme has a programme cost weighting applied.
This is determined by the core aim.
The programme cost weighting ranges from 1.00, for example for a study
programme of A-Levels or an administration course,
to 1.6 uplift for specialist land-based institutions
delivering study programmes in agriculture and horticulture.
The weighting is applied to the total planed hours
for the whole study programme, for the whole year.
Like the other factors, this factor is an average weighting across
all students with each institution based on historic data.
Disadvantage funding is then added. This element recognises the costs associated
with students who require additional support to participate and achieve.
We take into account economic and general depravation based
on each student's home postcode as determined by the
Index of Multiple Depravation or IMD and prior attainment by allocating
funding to those students who had not reached GCSE grade C in
English and/or maths at the end of Key Stage 4.
It also recognises care leavers by allocating additional funding to
those in or having recently left care.
The formula calculates a cash sum for each institution and it is for
each institution to determine how that funding is used to support
recruitment, retention and achievement by disadvantaged students,
including those with learning difficulties or disabilities.
This slide gives a little more detail on the two blocks of disadvantaged funding.
A student that had not achieved a grade C or better in both subject and
is a care leaver, would in 2014, attract £1,440.
This calculation then adds a further cash sum to the running total.
This total is multiplied by an area costs uplift for
institutions that qualify.
This uplift is added for institutions in high-cost areas in
London and the South East.
The uplifts are listed by local authority area in the funding guidance.
The uplift ranges from 1% in outer London areas such as
Berkshire, to 20% in central London.
In most cases the uplift is based on the institutions
main delivery location.
This is the basic 16-19 funding formula.
Once these factors and uplifts are applied to the student numbers,
the total programme funding is established.
As with pre 16 funding, we do then have a number of additional factors
to take into account if they are applicable to the institution.
Outside the 16-19 formula there are four other elements.
As the formula is developed to take account of policy changes,
we implement various forms of transitional protection.
The first if these elements is transitional protection from the
efficiency savings made in 2010.
This is paid to some institutions in 2014-15 but that is the last year.
Second is the formula protection funding, or FPF as we call it,
available in 2014-15 and for one more year 2015-16.
FPF is paid where funding per student is reduced because
of the move to funding per student in 2013-14 compared
with funding per student in 2012-13.
FPF provides a three-year period of stability; 2013-14, 2014-15 and
2015-16 academic years and allows institutions to introduce changes
so that the curriculum meets the principles of study programmes and RPA.
2015-16 is the last year for this protection.
In addition to this, those students with learning difficulties and disabilities
who require additional funding from the local authority
also generate an EFA payment of £6,000.
This works slightly differently if you are a special school or
academy, in that a flat rate of £10,000 per student is paid.
Finally, funds to financially support individual students are added.
These include funds such as discretionary bursaries, free meals in FE,
care to learn for young parents and residential bursaries.
There are separate videos, webinars and other materials on all these
elements on GOV.UK.
In fact, as part of the government Digital by Default strategy,
you will now find all our guidance and information on GOV.UK.
Entering EFA funding education for 16 to 19s into the
search field would take you to our materials.
That concludes this introduction to the way EFA funds
16-19 education and training.
Should you wish to follow up on any issues and gain more information,
the links to the following documents are on this slide.
I have mentioned a number of times that the funding rates and factors in this
presentation do change from year to year.
We also make regular changes to reflect government policy or
to ensure value for money.
You will need to check for the most up-to-date information regularly.
To support institutions to keep up-to-date we publish a regular e-bulletin.
You can view copies of the bulletin and register for updates on GOV.UK.
Finally, I trust this video has provided you with a good introduction and
overview of the 16-19 funding formula.
Thank you for listening.
Should you have further questions, we would be happy to answer these for you.
Please use the enquiry addresses provided on this slide.