Guidance

Turing Scheme: guidance for schools

Updated 22 March 2024

Provider eligibility 

Schools are eligible to apply for Turing Scheme funding.

To be eligible to apply, schools must be:

• registered in the UK or British overseas territories 
• responsible for delivering education or training to the student taking part in a placement  

Schools in British overseas territories should email [email protected] to confirm their eligibility before applying. 

Using the services of external organisations

Eligible schools can pay for the services of third party organisations, using organisational support funding, to help them to administer Turing Scheme placements.

These organisations may not be eligible to apply to the scheme themselves.

You should include details of these relationships in your application.

Consortium partnerships  

Schools may partner with each other and apply for funding as a consortium.  

The lead consortium coordinator:

• must submit all applications
• agrees to act as the signatory of a grant funding agreement 

A lead consortium coordinator must be based in the UK or British overseas territory and can be:

• a participating direct education provider
• a multi-academy trust, on behalf of its academies or other schools
• a local authority, on behalf of a group of schools
• an executive government agency
• a non-profit, membership organisation which represents direct education providers

Schools can join more than one consortium application if the placements have different aims and objectives.

Any consortium members who are not acting as coordinators should be schools participating in the scheme.

You will need to name all member organisations of the consortium in your application.

Who can go on placements 

To take part in a school placement, students must be:  

• registered with the school which sends them
• participating in primary to secondary level education 
• at least 4 years old 

Students on school placements longer than 2 months must be at least 14 years old.  

We fund staff accompanying schools students on placements, where required. You will be asked to set out the number of accompanying staff required for your placements in your application. The student to staff ratio should be proportionate to the numbers and ages of students going on the placement and a risk assessment.

Accompanying staff are subject to the same requirements of placement length as students. If you wish to swap one staff member for another part way through a placement, you can only claim funding for the equivalent of one staff member.

Recruiting students from underrepresented groups 

You must show how you will recruit and support participants from underrepresented groups and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Underrepresented groups for the scheme include:

• ethnic minorities, including white minorities
• people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) – this includes people with additional learning needs (ALN) in Wales and people with additional support needs (ASN) in Scotland 

Placements 

Placements must lead to outcomes in education and develop skills that are beneficial for the student’s attainment and future career prospects. 

They must take place during an academic year, between 1 September and 31 August.

Length of placements 

Students can take part in short-term or long-term placements. In all placements, students should spend most of their time in the classroom, working with other students to support their learning and development.

Short-term placements: 3 days to 2 months

Students on short-term placements can travel with their teachers and study with students from a school in another destination.

Long-term placements: 2 to 6 months

Students over the age of 14 can carry out a longer term placement, attending lessons and living with a host family.

Where students can go 

Students must go to non-UK schools, or in the case of applicants in British overseas territories, schools outside the British overseas territory in question.

It must be an institution providing general, vocational, or technical education on any level from primary to secondary education. 

Placements can take place in any destination or territory, but you must follow official foreign travel advice.

Funding  

Turing Scheme funding is a contribution towards the costs of international educational placements. In most cases, it is provided on a per-student basis.

Funding is available for accompanying staff to chaperone students where necessary as part of safeguarding or duty of care.

You should not use Turing Scheme funding towards any costs that are already covered by another source of funding.

Travel funding 

The Department for Education (DfE) will provide funding towards the direct costs of travel to a placement, for one return journey including transfers.

Travel grants will be available to all students from the school sector. We will also fund the travel of accompanying staff members.

We will provide funding for each student, based on a travel grant rate for each destination. There is a list of destinations and grant rates.  

If the cost of travel is below the suggested rate, you can use the difference for travel costs in other placements.

We will no longer provide funding for exceptionally expensive travel. 

We may request evidence of actual travel costs.

You must:

• ensure that total travel claims do not exceed the granted amount
• return any travel funding that is not spent on eligible travel activity to DfE

Contribution to living costs 

We will provide funding to help with daily living costs for each student and accompanying staff members.

The amount each student can receive depends on the group the destination is in. Groups are based on an assessment of the general cost of living in those destinations:

• group 1 – higher cost of living
• group 2 – lower cost of living

Information on destinations in each group is available in the list of destinations and grant rates.

The funding we will provide is:

Placement duration	Group 1	Group 2
First 14 days	£55 a day	£50 a day
After 14 days	£40 a day	£35 a day

Extra funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds  

Students from disadvantaged backgrounds can receive extra funding. You will need to set out the disadvantaged groups that you intend to support in your application.

We generally define these students as people who meet any of the following criteria:

• someone with an annual household income of £25,000 or less
• someone who has been entitled to free school meals at any point in the past 6 years because of being in a low-income household
• someone with experience of being in care or who is a care leaver – including anyone who is or has been in care, or from a looked after background, at any stage of their life
• a refugee or an asylum seeker
• someone who is receiving Universal Credit or income related benefits themselves, or lives with someone who does

Receiving free school meals in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England or primary 1 to 5 in Scotland does not automatically meet the criteria for funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.    

This list is not exhaustive. If you identify students who do not precisely meet these definitions but share similar characteristics which justify extra support, you may include them in your application.

We will review the eligibility criteria for students from disadvantaged backgrounds for future years of the scheme.

Readiness to travel funding 

We will provide funding to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds prepare to travel.

You must only use readiness to travel funding for: 

• passports
• visa applications and reasonable associated costs such as translated documents and police certificates
• vaccines
• travel insurance
• medical certificates

You should apply using estimated actual costs associated with the items. They will be paid as actual costs rather than at set rates.

Extra funding for students with SEND

We provide extra funding for students if their school says they attend as a student with special educational or additional needs or disability, including ASN in Scotland and ALN in Wales.

You can claim support for additional costs that these students may face on international placements.

For example, we will fund visits, of up to 3 days, where staff or students may need to visit the host destination to carry out pre-placement checks. You must outline why you need the funds when you apply for the scheme.

You should apply using the estimated costs associated with students with SEND. These will be paid as actual costs, rather than based on set rates.

Organisational support 

We will provide funding to support administration and implementation costs.

We will provide £315 per student for the first 100 students, and £180 per student after that. 

You must only use organisational support funding for:

• direct staffing costs which are proportionate with running placements, including language preparation and student ambassadors involved in the scheme
• costs associated with appointing an external organisation (such as a private company) to administer and implement placements, including language preparation
• external audit fees
• room bookings for preparatory or post-placement events

You cannot use organisational support funding for any other activity, including:

• promoting or marketing the scheme
• appointing an external organisation to write your application
• IT service costs such as licenses, software, or hardware
• contingency funding for other budgets, or to cover emergencies
• staff accompanying students on placements
• staff or student visits to attend events with current or potential partners inside or outside the UK

You cannot claim organisational support for placements at overseas campuses of your own organisation.  

Direct staffing costs may be:

• short-term costs
• entire roles
• proportions of entire roles, for example if the staff member has other responsibilities not associated with running placements

You will need to record the costs incurred for staffing because of running placements directly.

Where any of the eligible organisational support costs are paid directly by students, you may give them the money, but you will need to collect receipts.

When you apply, you will need to set out how you will use organisational support funds for your project, including how procurement of external services represents value for money.

You must regularly report how much of these funds you spend and return any unused funds to DfE. 

You should keep evidence of any expenditure and be prepared to provide a detailed breakdown on request. This may include items such as: 

• receipts
• quotes
• records of how staff time has been spent