School sixth forms and colleges face a real-terms cut in their funding next year, leaders have warned, after the government confirmed rates for 16 and 17-year-olds will rise by just 0.5 per cent. Ministers have been ssures. The Department for Education today confirmed the national funding rate for 16 and 17 year old learners will only rise by 0.5 per cent in academic year 2026-27, from 拢5,105 to 拢5,133. This marks the lowest increase since funding rates were frozen in 2021-22. Claire Green, post-16 and skills specialist at the ASCL leaders鈥� union, said the funding rate announced yesterday 鈥渄oes not align鈥� with the white paper ambition, 鈥渘or does it support the government鈥檚 previous commitment to improving the financial stability of the sector鈥�. 鈥淭he money that has been given to this part of the sector is being spread extremely thinly because student numbers are growing. 鈥淭he paltry 0.5 per cent increase in the learner rate next year means that colleges and school sixth forms will be seeing a real鈥憈erms cut in the amount per student that they receive.鈥� T-level uplift removed Officials have also removed the 5 per cent uplift to the national T-level funding rate for several subjects. T-levels with technical qualifications introduced before 2022 will have their 5 per cent uplift removed in 2026-27, even if their occupational specialisms were introduced after 2022. The uplift was introduced to support extra costs associated with the early rollout of T-levels. This means the funding rate has dropped by 4.3 per cent from last year for T-levels in digital, construction, education and early years and health and science. The funding rate for band 9 鈥渧ery large鈥� T-levels of 1,830 total planned hours for the programme鈥檚 two years will be reduced to 拢14,772 in 2026-27 from this year鈥檚 rate of 拢15,430. Band 8 (comprising an average 1,680 planned hours) will reduce from 拢14,146 to 拢13,544. Band 7 will shrink from 拢12,864 to 拢12,316 and band 6 will fall from 拢11,154 to 拢10,680. Sitting alongside the above funding bands are three additional 鈥渦plifted鈥� funding rates across bands 6 to 8. The 5 per cent uplift has applied to T-levels in business and administration, legal, finance and accounting, engineering and manufacturing, agriculture and animal care, creative and design and marketing. The uplifted band 6 will fund the marketing, finance, accounting and legal services T-levels at 拢11,214 per student across the two-year qualification. Uplifted band 7 has been boosted to 拢12,932, affecting T-levels such as management and administration, craft and design and media, broadcast and production. Meanwhile, all three engineering and manufacturing T-levels and most routes under agriculture, environmental and animal care courses will be boosted to 拢14,222 per student under the uplifted band 8. Ministers today confirmed plans to limit new T-levels to 1,080 guided learning hours, lower than the current minimum of 1,180 hours. The move followed new starts data this morning showing ministers failed to meet their T-level recruitment target for 2025-26 by nearly a fifth.