ESFA Update further education: 2 October 2024
Published 2 October 2024
Applies to England
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Action: Recording your T Level data accurately
Making errors in your T Level data recording could have a significant financial impact. It could lead to a larger than expected recovery of funding at the T Level funding reconciliation point in early 2025.
So that you can review your submitted data and make amendments where needed, we strongly encourage you to submit your:
- autumn school census before Wednesday 6 November 2024
- R04 before Thursday 5 December 2024
You can identify your T Level students, and the funding bands assigned to them using:
- your 16 to 19 funding reports in the funding information system (FIS)
- submit learner data if you complete the individual learner record (ILR)
- collections online - learners, education, children and teachers (COLLECT) if you complete the autumn census
If some T Level students are not displaying as you expected, you can use the checklist in Record your T Level data correctly in academic year 2024 to 2025 to make sure you have recorded all programme elements correctly.
Action: Submit your 16 to 19 tuition fund end of year spend for 2023 to 2024 by Friday 11 October 2024
You must submit a digital form to tell us your tuition fund spend, if your organisation received 16 to 19 tuition funding for the academic year 2023 to 2024.
You must submit the form by 5pm on Friday 11 October 2024.
Failure to submit a report will result in the full recovery of your tuition funding for the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Guidance on how to complete the digital form is available in How to complete the 16 to 19 tuition fund: 2023 to 2024 form.
Action: 2024 to 2025 Advanced learner loans performance management point 1
The first time request form for obtaining an advanced learner loans contract is now available on GOV.UK.
Completed request forms must be sent to us using the customer help portal before 5pm on Tuesday 15 October 2024.
If you need any support, use the customer help portal to contact us.
For further information on the performance review of loans, refer to the advanced learner loans funding rules: 2024 to 2025.
Information: Changes to the administration of the Care to Learn and 16 to 19 Bursary fund (defined vulnerable bursary) schemes from the academic year 2025 to 2026
From the academic year 2025 to 2026, the Care to Learn (C2L) delivery model will change. There will no longer be an external student bursary support service (SBSS) to process applications and make payments.
Institutions will be responsible for managing C2L applications from students. You will determine eligibility, and the amount of support required, as you do for other 16 to 19 student support schemes, like the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund. You will also be responsible for making payments to your students’ childcare providers.
We recognise there are more administration activities for you in managing C2L. We will pay 5% on top of the total amount claimed per student, to contribute to those costs.
There will also be a new arrangement for handling the bursary for defined vulnerable groups funding claims.
You will need to request funding from us when you have completed your application assessment for C2L and the bursary for defined vulnerable groups. We will confirm the dates when you need to do this.
We will provide more information in future ESFA Updates. If you need any support, use our customer help portal.
Reminder: R14 is now open for training providers to submit their apprenticeship ILR data submission
You have until 6pm on Thursday 17 October 2024 to return your apprenticeship ILR data submissions for the 2023 to 2024 funding year. We encourage you to submit your data as early as possible to avoid any processing delays. Your ILR data for this period cannot be amended following the closure of the R14 data collection.
If you have already submitted an ILR file and have changes pending with employers, resubmitting files will result in the requests being reverted back to you as the provider. We recommend that you wait until changes are fully approved before resubmitting. Only resubmit if changes have been made and approved.
For additional information, read our help article on preparing your final ILR return for 2023 to 2024 and watch our Apprenticeship Service webinar recordings walking you through:
- how data locks (DLOCKs) work
- how to use and record total negotiated price (TNP) correctly and how to record a break in learning
how to use and record total negotiated price (TNP) correctly
- understanding your payment reports for apprenticeships
understanding your payment reports
If you require further support, use our help centre or contact the Apprenticeship Service Support team.