Introduction 

This document helps you complete the form for the adult business case for the 2025 to 2026 funding year. 

More information on business case allocation is detailed in the links below. 

19+ funding allocations guidance 

19+ funding allocations technical guidance 

Who is this publication for 

The guidance is for the organisations, further education, and sixth form colleges that deliver adult funding. 

When to complete your submission  

The deadline to submit a business case is 28 March 2025 for apprenticeships non-levy (procured). You can change and resubmit your return up until this time. 

Accessing the form  

Access the adult business case digital form to complete your return. The form will open 7 February 2025.

If you require further help completing your return, or have any queries, you can contact us via the Customer Help Portal. 

Before you start  

Make sure you have: 

• a DfE Sign-in account 

• read our 19+ funding allocations technical guidance, and our 19+ funding allocations guidance

• read our annual allocation timeline, this shows when your allocations will be issued, and when you can submit a business case. 

DfE Sign-in 

To access the form you need to have an active DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your local authority. If you have not used DfE Sign-in before you will need to create an account. 

Only access the form using the link. The adult business case form option won’t show within your DfE Sign-in account as a service. 

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account 

Follow the below steps to access the form: 

1: Access the online form and when prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication. 

2: Choose the organisation that you are completing the form for – this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations. 

3: The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of your organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into DfE Sign-in. 

4: If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page. 

5: If you believe these details are incorrect, contact us via the Customer Help Portal and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission. 

Your account must be connected to the local authority you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE sign-in, it is used only for authentication. 

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account  

You will need to create one by following steps 1 to 5 below:  

1: Select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’ on the DfE Sign-in page. 

2: Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name). 

3: We will send you an email to verify your email address; copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page. 

4: Create a memorable password that must be at least 14 characters. A good way to create a secure and memorable password is to use 3 random words. You can use numbers, symbols and spaces.  

5: Sign in using your new credentials, and request access to the organisation for which you would like to submit the form. 

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account 

To add a new organisation to your account, follow the steps below: 

1: Login to your DfE Sign-in account. 

2: Select ‘Organisations’. 

3: Select ‘Request access to an organisation’. 

4: Enter the URN or UKPRN of the organisation you would like to add. 

5: Select the organisation from search results. 

6: Enter comments for the approver and select ‘Confirm’. 

Your request will be sent to the approver of that organisation.  

An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually an administrator or a senior manager. 

For security reasons, you will need the authorisation of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form. 

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under the ‘Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account’ section to complete the form. 

 If you need further assistance 

For problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our DfE Sign-in help service to request assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘other.’  

If you encounter problems accessing the form, use our Customer Help Portal. 

 Completing the forms  

When authenticated through DfE Sign-in, you will find a portal with a list of forms to complete. 

You must submit all the relevant forms to complete your return. When you select a form from the portal, you will find a ‘save and continue’ button that will take you through each page of the form. If you sign out of the form, or leave your form opened for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in and the digital portal will record the status of your form completion accordingly. 

Once you have submitted the form, you will be advised of next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission with a link to download a PDF copy of your submission. This link will expire after 6 months, so you should download a copy as soon as possible. 

You must submit all the relevant forms to complete your return. The digital portal will record the status of your form submissions, you can edit and resubmit your forms until the submission deadline. 

Further details on how to complete each form are outlined below. 

 Your details  

We will show you the information we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into the form using your DfE Sign-in credentials.  

Reason for business case request 

The form will ask for the reason for your business case. Select the option that is relevant to your business case. 

Select allocation line 

The form will ask you to select the appropriate allocation line within the selected funding stream for which you would like to submit a business case request. 

Allocation line 

The form will ask you to enter the new funding allocation amount that you would like to request. The form will then calculate your percentage change and difference in allocation value (pending business case approval).  

The minimum increase that can be requested is 5% of your current allocation. You can also request a decrease of your current allocation down to zero funding (£0) for the selected allocation line.   

If your current allocation value is zero (£0), the percentage increase will also show zero (0%) after you have entered your requested funding increase. If your current allocation is zero you can request up to a maximum of £25,000 for this funding year. 

Supporting information 

The form will ask a series of questions to help us understand the nature of your business case request. 

The form will also ask you to briefly describe the reason for your request. You must include evidence of: 

• your capability and capacity to deliver the funding requested 

• why you require an allocation this year when you have not used the funding previously as appropriate 

You will also have the option to upload a document to support your business case request, this is not mandatory. Before you upload any documentation, you should ensure that: 

• the document is in .xlsx format 

• the document does not contain any special characters (a character that is not a number or a letter) within its file name   

• the document does not contain any spaces within its file name (replace any necessary spaces with an underscore) 

Check to make sure that your document does not contain any personal data. 

We will contact you directly if we require further information. 

Declarations page 

Once you have completed all data entries, you will be required to agree to the mandatory declarations. 

You will not be able to submit your form without completing the mandatory declarations. 

Submission summary 

The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting the form. You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry. 

You can also save this summary by selecting ‘Save summary as PDF’ before you submit. Alternatively, you can download it by following the steps below: 

1: On the summary page, select ‘File’ and then ‘Print’. A new window will open. 

2: From the dropdown menu, select ‘Save as PDF’. 

3: Select ‘Save’. 

We cannot accept a PDF summary of your answers as proof of submission. You must still submit the form. 

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page and you will receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed. 

 Confirmation  

The final page for the form confirms your submission and will provide a unique reference number. 

You will then be sent a confirmation email to the email address that you logged into the form with. This will contain a link to download a PDF of your submission, which is valid for 6 months from the date of your submission. 

Make a note of your unique reference number as we will not include this information in your confirmation email. 

Amending your submission 

You can resubmit your form within the business case request submission window for the relevant funding stream. To do this, you will need to sign in and resubmit the form. 

If you make any subsequent submissions, we will use the details you provide on your most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions. 

You will receive a new unique submission reference number for your amended submission. 

Enquiries  

If you have read this guidance and have any questions, contact us via the Customer Help Portal . 

Feedback 

We are committed to enhancing our user experience and providing an improved forms’ service to our users. User feedback is invaluable to help us to improve. We welcome your feedback, using our short feedback form.