Funding rules monitored: 31 official sources · awaiting first verified checkFunding Intelligence →
FE FundingIntelligence
Sign inOpen the app
Skip to the Academy content
AcademyFEFunding
Search/Reading and accessibility settings
ProblemConfirmed error16–19

Planned hours do not match the timetable that is actually delivered

This is wrong and needs correcting. It is not a judgement call.

Funding year2026–27Awaiting verificationReviewed18 September 2026See the sourcesReport an issue

In plain English

The planned hours recorded for 16 to 19 students do not reconcile to the timetable being delivered, so students may be in the wrong funding band.

Why it matters

Planned hours determine the funding band and therefore the rate applied to the student for the whole year. Hours that cannot be evidenced against a delivered timetable are a direct funding risk, and this is a well-established audit test.

Funding

A band change alters the rate applied to the student for the whole year, so an error affects the full year's funding for that student rather than a single period.

Performance

None directly.

Audit

Planned hours against delivered timetable is one of the best-established 16 to 19 audit tests. The evidence expected is the timetable and the reconciliation.

Most likely causes

Ranked, because in practice a few causes explain most cases.

  • common
    Hours were entered as a programme default rather than from the actual timetableEvery student on a programme gets the same figure regardless of what is actually timetabled for them.
  • common
    The timetable changed after enrolment and the hours were not updatedParticularly where a class or an enrichment activity was withdrawn after the year started.
  • occasional
    Activity counted towards hours does not meet the conditions in the funding rulesThe rules set conditions on what counts. Activity that is not planned, not timetabled or not education-related does not.
  • occasional
    There is no evidence that the timetabled activity was deliveredPlanned hours have to be evidenced, and a timetable alone may not be enough.

Check these first

  1. Compare the recorded hours against the actual timetable for a sample of students in each programme.
  2. Check whether every student on a programme has an identical figure, which suggests a default.
  3. Check what activity has been included and whether it meets the conditions in the funding rules for the year.
  4. Check whether students sit close to a band threshold, where a small error changes the band.
Fields involved

Planned learning hoursPlanned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours

How to investigate

  1. Reconcile by programme first, then by student. Most problems are programme-level defaults.
  2. Pay particular attention to students just above a band threshold, where the funding consequence of an error is largest.
  3. Check what was actually delivered rather than what was planned in the summer: withdrawn enrichment is a common cause.
  4. Establish whether the evidence for the hours would satisfy somebody who had not been in the room.

In your system

These steps are system-neutral: they describe what has to be true in the data, which is the same whatever software your college runs. We do not publish supplier screen paths we have not verified, because menu locations differ by version and by local configuration, and a confidently wrong instruction is worse than none.

System-neutral

  1. Export the recorded planned hours by programme and by student.
  2. Reconcile them against the timetable that is actually being delivered.
  3. Investigate every programme where the figures do not reconcile, and every student sitting just above a band threshold.
  4. Correct the recorded hours in the student record system from the timetable evidence.
  5. Keep the reconciliation as the evidence for the hours recorded.

Building your own map of where each of these lives in your system is the most useful induction document an MIS team can have. How to build one.

How to fix it

  1. Correct the recorded hours from the timetable evidence, in the student record system.
  2. Where hours have been overstated, expect the band and the funding to change for the whole year.
  3. Document the reconciliation, because it is the evidence for the hours you are claiming.

Stop this happening again

Fixing the record clears this case. A control is what stops the next one, so each of these names what to do, who owns it and how often.

Derive planned hours from the timetabling system rather than entering them as a programme default.

Owner: Head or director of MISFrequency: Continuous

An annual reconciliation of planned hours to the delivered timetable, completed before the December return.

Owner: Curriculum manager or head of departmentFrequency: Annually

A check on any mid-year timetable change to confirm planned hours have been updated to match.

Owner: Curriculum manager or head of departmentFrequency: Each change

The rules behind this

Official requirement

A 16 to 19 student's funding band is determined by their planned hours for the year, which is the total of planned qualification hours and other planned, timetabled, education-related activity.

Official requirement

16 to 19 provision is funded through a national formula applied to a student's study programme, not through a price per qualification.

Related

Sources

These are the official documents this page rests on. Where a figure, a deadline or an exact rule matters, the document is the authority and this page is the explanation.

Advice: funding rules for 16 to 19 provision 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

16 to 19 funding 2026 to 2027: rates and formula (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.