Schools funding

Your organisation
To apply for schools Projects, your organisation must be registered in the UK or a British Overseas Territory and either:

• a school providing general, vocational, or technical education at any level from primary school to upper secondary education
• a school consortium applying on behalf of a number of schools, for example, local or regional authorities, school coordinating bodies or a social enterprise or other organisations with a role in the field of school education.

Please see Annex D of the Programme Guide [insert link] for a list of recognised education providers in British Overseas Territories.

As part of eligibility checking, the TSA will verify an Applicant’s school status using the following databases:

• England and Wales: get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/
• Northern Ireland: apps.education-ni.gov.uk/appinstitutes/default.aspx
• Scotland: education.gov.scot/parentzone/find-a-school
• British Overseas Territories: Annex D of this programme guide.

Mobility Consortia
Lead organisations or coordinating organisations can be organisations such as a regional body, local authority, school coordinating body, social enterprise, a Multi Academy Trust, or a school/ college who can act as an Applicant on behalf of other sending organisations. A consortium application must include at least one Direct Education Provider active in the field of primary to upper secondary education.

• Coordinating organisations must explain their role, obligations and relationship with the organisations sending Participants in the application form.
• Appropriate checks will be carried out to confirm the status of the coordinating organisation.
• All contributions of supporting administrative organisations must comply with the scheme rules.
• Organisations may be included as part of more than one consortium application, provided that the Mobilities undertaken relate to different aims and objectives.

Eligible host partner organisations

The host partner organisation(s) must be a non-UK school (or in the case of Applicants in British Overseas Territories, outside of the British Overseas Territory in question). It must be an institution providing general, vocational, or technical education on any level from primary to upper secondary education.

Eligible Participants
Any pupil enrolled in an eligible school or college participating in education from primary to upper secondary level in the UK or a British Overseas Territories can participate.

• note the minimum age for Participants to take part in the Turing Scheme is four years old, in line with the minimum compulsory age for a child to enter full time formal education across the UK
• for school pupil Mobilities longer than two months, the participant should be aged at least 14
• no maximum age limit is imposed
• for Participants under the age of 18, appropriate safeguarding rules must be adhered to
• pupils do not need to be UK nationals to be eligible for the scheme
• there is no minimum or maximum number of Participants per Project.

Mobilities
School Projects should include one or both of these Mobilities:

• short-term placements: three days to two months

Participants can travel with their teachers and work with Participants from a school in another country/territory. Participants should spend most of that time in the classroom working directly with their partners on Mobilities that support their learning and development (for example soft skills, language skills, academic attainment), relevant to the school’s priorities and the aims of their Project. Funding is permitted for accompanying staff to meet safeguarding requirements.

• long-term placements: two to six months (only for Participants 14 years and older)

Participants over the age of 14 can carry out a longer- term placement at a partner school in another country/territory, attending lessons and living with a host family. The sending and hosting schools are expected to ensure high quality learning outcomes recognition and support during their time abroad. This includes funding for accompanying staff to chaperone Participants where necessary as part of safeguarding or duty of care.

1. Check the eligibility criteria and funding rules

Read the programme guide in detail to make sure you fully understand the rules around project duration, budget and eligible participants.

2. Plan your project

Prepare a project proposal for your organisation based on the funding criteria. You should consider the aims, objectives and impact of your project. For more details on the objectives that Turing Scheme projects must focus on, visit the About the scheme page.

While you are not required to provide specific details of your partners at application stage, you will need to detail the type of partnership you intend to establish. The programme guide explains how the qualitative criteria will be scored, so ensure you have read the section on international engagement and provide details on your partnership in line with this.

3. Check the deadline

Applications for the Turing Scheme in the 2023 to 2024 academic year are now closed. 

4. Use the application resources

Ensure you make full use of the application resources provided, including the programme guide, application guide, FAQs, Q&A webinars and the service centre.

Once you have applied, we will work with you to perform financial due diligence checks. We are working hard to ensure the administrative burden of the Turing Scheme is kept as low as possible and we will work with you throughout the process.

Download the 2023 to 2024 programme guide (2 MB) for full details of the Turing Scheme

You can also contact our Service Centre by emailing Turing-scheme@capita.com

Under the Turing Scheme, UK organisations with successful applications can receive funding towards delivering placements and exchanges. This will include providing participants with grants to help cover travel expenses and costs of living and administrative funding for delivering the projects.

An initial outline of what will be available has been provided below. Further guidance regarding eligibility for specific elements of funding and a comprehensive list of destination country/territory groupings for cost of living can be viewed in the Programme Guide. 

Organisational support will be made available and covers the costs directly linked to the administration and implementation of a placement. Under each project, £315 will be provided per participant for the first 100 participants. From the 101^st participant onwards, £180 will be provided per participant.

An amount of funding will be provided to go towards the direct costs of travel for a placement. This will be dependent the on distance between the home and destination provider and will support the cost of the round trip. This will be available to all participants in schools. All amounts available have been outlined below:

• 10 to 99km: £20  
• 100 to 499km: £165  
• 500 to 1999km: £250  
• 2,000 to 2,999km: £325  
• 3,000 to 3,999km: £480  
• 4,000 to 7,999km: £745  
• 8,000 to 12,000km: £905  
• 12,000km+: £1,360 

In exceptional circumstances, the scheme will also provide a financial contribution towards the costs of expensive travel. If the selected travel rate does not cover at least 70% of the actual costs of travelling between the sending organisation location and receiving organisation location, up to 80% of those actual costs will instead be covered.

Cost of living

An amount of funding will be provided to go towards the general cost of living for each participant.

Pupils and staff accompanying them on a school placement will receive:

Pupils and accompanying staff on a school placement to any destination will receive:    

• £53 per day for the first 14 days  
• £37 per day from the 15^th day onwards 

This is calculated based on the duration of the activity per participant (if necessary, including one travel day before the activity and one travel day following the activity).  

Additional support for those from disadvantaged backgrounds

School participants from defined disadvantaged backgrounds will receive actual costs for additional travel expenses, including costs of visas, passports, and health insurance. We see this as crucial because travel related expenses can often be a deterrent to potential participants. To find out more about what we define as disadvantaged groups, visit the Widening access page.

Additional support for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

For participants with SEND, the scheme will fund up to 100% of actual costs for support directly related to their additional needs. However, this funding will also cover preparatory visits by the sending organisation to carry out risk assessments and ensure participants will be able to equally access and take part in all elements of a placement. Pre-visits can be for a maximum duration of three days, and funding can be used for both learners and accompanying staff. Pre-visits are not available for any other purpose.