Sixth Form funding 2014-5

A summary of briefings by the EFA and Oxfordanalytics from 2013-4 and 2014-5 relating to changes to Sixth Form Funding.

Contextual InformationA Context of size?

• Largest Sixth form recorded 852 and the smallest 4

• Average: 227 (optimum 250)

• EFA assumption average class size if 14 (lower = funding loss)

• Shaping Agendas: Wolf report (study programme for 16-7yr olds), RPA and English and Maths post 16

• Budget cuts hit hardest 2011-3, 2014-5 cuts impact most of FE. For schools this affects those who are 18yr old before the start of the academic year (see bandings slide 5)

Updates

• Data time lags: October census will impact on funding one year on.

• Full time learners now need to be registered on 540+ “learning hours”. Funding is for ‘qualification’ and ‘non-qualification’

• There is mitigation that for one more year (2014-15) those recorded as band 4 will count as band 5 but October Census MUST make sure 2013/4 recruits are recorded as full time (540+) (see banding slide)

Key Messages• The burden of responsibility now lies with schools.

• The EFA will not contact you if the school makes a mistake.

• The mistake will only become apparent a year later and the impact lasts for 2 years

• The data you enter is the invoice for a year in the future. Need a good year of data every year.

Every full time “bum on seat” in

October census

Number of students completed

Number of students started

Not qualification driven, student driven = start date and end date but consider

impact of dropping a subject though in terms of

hours

Retention factor point between rate and 100%

(ideally 90+%)

Most will be at base rate (1). QAN needs to

be accurate for this to be picked up

2nd part of students post

code (IMD leads to 8-33% uplift )

AND /OR prior

attainment

Postcode of the school and applies

to all aspects of

formula

Bandings for funding

linked to hours per student

BandingsBand Study programme Hours/ages Funding Rates

5 Full time 16/7 year olds on 540+ hours

£4000

4 Between 450-539 hoursFull time for those who are 18 year old before the start of the academic year.Not full time for 16-7 year olds

£330018 yr olds (approx 17.5% less than £4000)

3 Between 360 and 449 hours £2700

2 Between 280 and 359 hours £2133

1 Less than 280 hours %of £4000

Note: Band 4 is those who are 18 year old before start of the academic year, therefore do not need to register with 540 hours.

Key Messages

• Conditional English and Maths funding. Meaning any students starting VI form without either English or Maths has to have it on their timetable as a retake or ALL their funding is lost. Once registered with the retake class they attract £480 extra per course, per student.

• Resits are not funded.

• Retakes not funded apart from exceptional circumstances. Can put student in for a new year and have the reasons ready and clear. Remember funding will drop in 3rd year due to age.

• Withdrawals (dropping a course) therefore need to transfer to “non quals” courses so that they maintain their hours.

• End of year has to be 31st July across sixth form/start Sept

Key Data needed: 2014 Census

Funded on learners and the learners activities

1. Learners

• Learning aim start date

• Learning aim planned end date

• Learning aim status

• Learning aim actual end date

2. Learning activity

• QAN and Discount code

• Planned Learning Hours and record of Non-Qualification activity

Collected through census and ILR

Note: Register students for ALL their QUALIFICATIONS courses as “Big” learners on the quals may attract additional money.

Key MessageFour critical things that schools do wrong OR four critical things to check before Census! Getting any of these wrong could potentially lead to tens of thousands in funding lost (worst case scenario has been hundreds of thousands). That mistake will last for 2 years as your formula for funding.

1. The Learner Number: check the number of learners and check that none are missing. For example if the Sixth Form have admitted a student but they have not been formally registered on Sims

2. Not having the correct learning aims and associated qualified learning hours (check what is qual and non-qual)

3. Getting the QAN codes wrong for the qual learning aims (non-qual won’t have QAN codes) If the codes are wrong they won’t register as they don’t match and therefore they will not count for funding.

4. Completion dates for courses. Funding date is 31st July NOT the end of August.

October 2014

October Census

Current 2013-4 learners all need

to be showing as full time at 540+

Sept 2014 new

learners all need

to be showing as full time at 540+

Recording: Options for balance and sanity

1. Use your own “planned” or use “default” tariff for Qualification hours (GLH)

2. Non- qualification activity recording

3. Work experience recording

Balance = personalised vs administration

Find some strategic whole school approaches?

Other considerations

• If the students return after AS and start their Year 13 courses then code the start date of Year 13 as June/July which will balance the hours.

• Most school sixth forms will have tutorial as non-qual. It is realistic to put 50-60hours towards that. It will be standard across the school.

• PD hours can be added and will be standard across the school

• Independent study can be added and will be standard across the school

(see Slides 10 and 11 re what counts and what doesn’t)

Option 2:

Manually adjust “planned hours” up or down3 x A2 at 170 hours= 490 hours (e.g study period attached to each)Plus other activity to reach minimum of 540-600 (avge)

Option 1:Default GLH 150 per A23 x A2 = 450 hoursPlus other activity to reach minimum of 540-600 (average)

Awarding bodies have GLH on their websites. There is a view that most schools will manually adjust, however it is worth simply setting total hours for AS and A2, where any teaching hours are reduced due to class size they are often offset by directed study. BTECs and Level 2 courses would be the only real exception. The view is don’t over personalise for every student.

E.g: AS +A2 +Tutorial + PD + Ind Study => 540No need to add anything extra at this stage.

Using Sims?

• Use Course Manager to set the hours for every course, where you can manually put in the learning hours for all AS and A2.

• It will run a report which will then calculate the totals and you can filter for checking (e.g total hours, number of 18 yr olds, number of re-takes etc and have the “story” ready for each exception)

• OR instead you could enter the totals for each student (in Maintain Programme of Study (post 16)) and have the calculations done separately outside of Sims

Data Checks

• No starts after October 30th

• Correct QANs

• Correct learner postcodes

• Resits and retakes

• Correct start and end dates

• Section 96 qualifications only

• No missing learners

• Check 2012/3 and 2014/5 data in funding factor statement from EFA

• Log issues now and raise in February

Further Guidance

Sample Data Checklist

1 Admissions (not after 30th October) start/end dates for learners assigned in Sims

2 All learners accounted for 2013/4 and 2014/5

3 Resits and retakes / withdrawal and transfer checks re GLH count

4 Student data (postcodes etc.) accurate

5 Only section 96 qualifications used and assigned to each student

6 QAN codes accurate for those qualification

7 Non qualification courses decided upon (supervised/non supervised, POT)

8 All courses assigned to students in Sims

9 GLH for each course decided upon (qual and non qual) and assigned in Sims (export available to allow VI form team to check when considering 3?)

10 Using 9) check current students for full time eligibility (e.g students who have dropped 4 to 3 AS)

12 2012/3 data accurate in funding factor statement

13 Logging any issues with EFA

Audit Checks

The main areas that will be checked on an audit include:

1. Do the learners exist?

2. Are they eligible for funding (age, nationality etc)

3. Is there evidence they are pursuing the claimed learning aims (e.g: timetables, registers, signed VI form enrolment form)