The Government announced in March 2025 that the 16-19 funding rate for 2025-26 had been increased to £5,026 per student. This was increased to £5,105 when another £190 million of funding for 16-19 education in schools and colleges was announced in May.
Funding increases since 2019-20 have started to close the funding gap that opened up in 16-19 education funding between 2010 and 2020. Schools and colleges, however, are still affected by the cuts before 2015 that included the following:
- funding formula from 2013;
- the funding rate for students who are already aged 18 was cut by 17.5 % in 2014;
- entitlement funding for activities such as tutorials, enrichment activities and additional courses was reduced from 114 hours per year to 30 hours in 2011.
On top of these cuts, entitlements for young people aged 16-19 were removed. Education Maintenance Allowances for students from low-income households, which totalled £560 million, were replaced in 2011 with a bursary scheme of £180 million.