Glossary
Planned hours
The total hours of planned, timetabled, education-related activity for a 16 to 19 student in the year, which determines their funding band.
In full
Planned hours are the total of planned learning hours and planned employability, enrichment and pastoral hours. The total determines which funding band a student falls into and therefore the national funding rate applied to them.
Hours must be planned, timetabled and education-related, and the college must be able to evidence them. Rules on what counts are set out in the funding rules for the year and are a regular audit focus.
The rules behind this
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.
Where this comes up
diagnostic
Planned hours do not match the timetable that is actually delivered
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.
module
Planned hours: what counts and how to evidence it
Planned hours set the funding band and therefore the rate for the whole year. What may be counted, what must be evidenced, and how to reconcile hours to a timetable.
scenario
Hours are planned to reach a band rather than to deliver a programme
A programme is designed with just enough hours to reach a higher funding band. Is that legitimate?
scenario
An enrichment session is cancelled in November
A weekly enrichment session counted in planned hours is withdrawn after half term. Nobody thinks of it as a funding decision.
module
16 to 19 funding: how the formula actually works
Student numbers, band, national rate, retention, programme cost weighting and uplifts. Where each element comes from, and which of them your own data controls.
module
Building a funding map for your college
A funding map sets out every stream a college receives, how each is earned, when it reconciles and what data drives it. It is the fastest way for a finance or leadership newcomer to become useful.
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.
Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.