Finance
Finance & Transport
Queen Elizabeth’s School 16-19 Bursary Fund Guidance
The Department for Education provides schools with 16 to 19 Bursary Funds each academic year. This is to enable the school to provide financial support to help students overcome specific financial barriers to participation so they can remain in education.
Types of Support Available
The 16-19 Bursary Fund has two elements:
Guaranteed award for vulnerable Learners:
Defined by the DfE as; Young People in Care, Care Leavers, and Young People in receipt of a Universal Credit payment and Disabled Young People in receipt of Employment Support allowance who are also in receipt of a Personal Independence Payment. Students in one of these groups will be eligible to receive a bursary of up to £1,200 a year to help them overcome their financial barriers to accessing education at the school.
Discretionary Awards:
Targeted towards Young People facing financial barriers to participation. We make discretionary bursary awards to students to help them overcome the individual barriers to participation they face. This means to help with the cost of travel, to buy essential books, equipment or specialist clothing (such as protective overalls, for example). These are items the student would otherwise need to pay for in order to participate.
Guaranteed Awards
The most vulnerable Young People will be eligible for a bursary of up to £1,200 (pro rata for courses lasting less than 30 weeks a year). The payment method used for this bursary will be in monies paid into the young person’s bank account.
Written confirmation of the young person’s looked after status or evidence of receipt of the above benefits will be needed to support the payment of a Guaranteed Award.
Discretionary Awards
Due to the limited Bursary Funding the school receives and in order to have the greatest impact on learners, Discretionary Awards should be targeted at those who are facing the greatest financial hardship.
Priority Group 1 and 2 students. We will aim to meet all transport costs for students in these categories (FSM and household incomes of £16,000 or less) as a funding priority. This is dependent on having adequate Bursary funds allocated to the school by the Department For Education to cover all transport costs.
If transport costs for students who meet our eligibility criteria exceed the Bursary budget allocation, we will undertake to pay a proportion of transport costs for these students.
The bursary fund is designed to help students overcome the individual financial barriers to participation that they face and we are required to ensure the funds available go to those who genuinely need them. All schools must obtain proof that students are eligible for a bursary. We will ask for evidence from each student and retain copies for audit by the DfE.
For further details contact the Sixth Form Team.