Correspondence

Inform July 2021

Updated 18 January 2022

This correspondence was withdrawn on 25 September 2023

This page has been withdrawn as it is out of date.

You can find the latest from ESFA in our weekly newsletter, ESFA Update.

Applies to England

Information: qualification achievement rates (QAR) 2020 to 2021

We have shared your in-year qualification achievement rates (QARs) for 2020 to 2021 via the View Your Education Data portal.

The in-year releases provide indicative QARs for apprenticeships, education & training and traineeships and provide opportunity to identify and resolve potential data issues prior to the ILR R14 hard close on 21 October 2021.

We urge you to review your data now to check that it is accurate as we cannot correct your data after the R14 submission.

To help you review your data, we have published guidance about the common data issues and on qualification achievement rates (QAR) 2020 to 2021 and the post-16 monitoring reports dashboard also available in View Your Education Data.

Further guidance to support post-16 monitoring reports dashboard can be found in ESFA financial assurance: monitoring the funding rules.

In addition, within the dashboards we are aware providers may not see the data they are anticipating.

This could be due to:

• Where a substantial proportion of E&T delivery fall under the ‘Teacher Assessed Grade’ rule noted in both the QAR Business rules and E&T Technical Specification which means they are out of scope for QAR. The spreadsheet within Ofqual’s Summer 2021 Qualification Explainer Tool confirms which categories apply for normal assessment/teacher assessed grades. This is in recognition of the ongoing impact of the pandemic and published guidance on the awarding of qualifications for summer 2021, those qualifications confirmed as subject to normal assessment (category A) will be included in institution level QARs and shared with Ofsted and providers. Those qualifications confirmed as teacher assessed (category B1) and those which may be subject to a teacher assessed grade if they cannot safely access an assessment (category B2 and Access to HE courses regulated by QAA) will not be included in institution level QARs or shared with Ofsted or providers for 2020 to 2021.

• Two known issues where the hybrid end year has been incorrectly identified as 2020.5. They are records that have ended or planned to end between the R10 freeze date and 31/07/2021 and Apprenticeship standards that have a blank achievement date and have withdrawn.

If you have any queries in relation to QARs, please contact us via enquiry form, select the QAR query type, and ask us to assign your query to ‘ESFA Business Operations QAR’.

Where the enquiry relates to specific learner queries, please also complete and submit the data query form which can be downloaded from qualification achievement rates (QAR) 2020 to 2021. Your learner related query will not be investigated unless the form has been completed.

9.5 Action: common QAR data issues

To minimise the number of queries for the 2020 to 2021 year, we have again supplied information about the common issues below and ensure you make any amendments to your 2020 to 2021 ILR data before the ILR R14 hard close on 21 October 2021.

Once the R14 ILR submission window closes, you will not be able to fix any issues from your 2020 to 2021 ILR return. We cannot change your data on your behalf. The common issues we receive through provider queries include:

Agreed breaks in learning

Recording breaks in learning incorrectly can lead to records counting as withdrawn or cause duplicate aims in the QAR calculation.

If you recorded a learner on a planned break with a ‘Completion status’ of 6 (Learner has temporarily withdrawn from the aim due to an agreed break in learning) in your 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR but there is not a corresponding restart record in the same year or by your 2021 to 2022 R04 ILR, then we will treat the planned break as overdue in your 2020 to 2021 QAR.

Overdue planned breaks are counted as withdrawn for your QARs, and have a value of 1 in the ‘Overdue_Planned_Break’ column of your QAR data extract (available on View Your Education Data).

If the learner was recorded as on a planned break in your 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR but has now been identified as withdrawn, you must change the ‘Completion status’ from 6 (planned break) to 3 (withdrawn) and complete the ‘Withdrawal reason’ field with the relevant code. You must not amend any of the dates or other data for the aim.

If the learning aim that the learner was on is no longer available when they return from their break (for example the certification end date has passed), then you cannot class this as a break in learning. If you change a completion status from a planned break to a withdrawal where the ‘Learning actual end date’ is before 1 August 2020, check that your Management Information (MI) system can export learning actual end dates that are in previous years.

You must continue to report a break in learning until either the learner returns and restarts their learning, or you report the learner as withdrawn.

The Funding Monitoring report FRM08 can help you identify aims at risk of being counted as overdue planned breaks. You should correct any data entered in error by following the guidance in the Provider Support Manual.

Continuing learners

We will treat any learners you reported as continuing in your 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR that are not included in your 2020 to 2021 ILR as overdue.

Overdue continuing aims are counted as withdrawn for your QARs, and have a value of 1 in the ‘Overdue_Continuing_Aims’ column of your QAR data extract (available on View Your Education Data).

You can use the Funding Monitoring report FRM06 to identify these aims.

Changes to learner reference numbers

If a learner’s reference number has changed between 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021, then you must record this by completing the ‘Learner reference number in previous year’ field. If you do not return this field then duplicate records will be generated when we try to match the learner’s aims between years. This will have a negative impact on your QAR.

If you return the ‘Learner reference number in previous year’ field when there has not been a change in the learner’s reference number, then this will prevent us from correctly matching the learner’s aims. This will also have a negative impact on your QAR.

The example below illustrates when you should complete the ‘Learner reference number in previous year’ field.

Example: Learner A has a Learner reference number of ‘LNA1234’ in 2019 to 2020. Due to a change in the provider’s management information (MI) system, Learner A has a new Learner reference number in 2020 to 2021 of ‘LRA9876’. This must be recorded in the ILR as follows:

In 2019 to 2020:

• Learner reference number = LNA1234
• Learner reference number in previous year is not returned

In 2020 to 2021:

• Learner reference number = LRA9876
• Learner reference number in previous year = LNA1234

In 2021 to 2022:

• Learner reference number = LRA9876
• Learner reference number in previous year is not returned

Recording restarts correctly

When a learner restarts an aim or programme, you must ensure that you use the restart indicator and the same learning aim or apprenticeship programme aim as the learner originally started.

When a learner restarts after a planned break, the ‘Original learning start date’ must exactly match the ‘Learning start date’ of the planned break record. Where the original aim record and restart aim record does not match, the original aim will default to ‘withdrawn’ when we calculate your QAR.

Transfer exclusions

Transfers to another provider are only excluded from your QAR where the reason was due to intervention from us, a provider merger or to meet a specific government strategy identified by these ‘Withdrawal Reasons’:

• 7 (Learner has transferred between providers due to intervention by or with the written agreement of the Education & Skills Funding Agency),
• 41 (Learner has transferred to another provider to undertake learning that meets a specific government strategy)

We also exclude transfers to new learning within the same provider where the learner starts their new aim within 120 days of the end date of the original aim. The exception to this rule is where a learner transfers from an apprenticeship to a non-apprenticeship aim; we treat this type of transfer as a withdrawal.

Duration of learning calculation

When calculating the duration of learning for the funding qualifying period exclusion, we count the first day in learning. This means that the duration of learning is either:

• the difference between the ‘Learning start date’ and ‘Learning planned end date’ plus 1 day (if the Learning actual end date is not returned), or
• the difference between the ‘Learning start date’ and the ‘Learning actual end date’ plus 1 day (where the Learning actual end date is returned)

Changes to learning aims between years

If you change details on a learning aim between years, we will not be able to correctly match those aims in the QAR calculation, which can have a negative impact on your QAR.

If you need to correct an administrative error that was in your R14 2019 to 2020 ILR, please follow the relevant guidance about how to record this in your 2020 to 2021 ILR:

• to correct a planned end date, refer to the FRM05 guidance section below
• to correct an actual end date, refer to the FRM04 guidance section below

If you need to change a learning aim reference, for example if the awarding organisation for the aim has change, you must record this as a transfer:

• change the ‘Completion status’ to code 3 ‘withdrawn’ and complete the ‘Withdrawal reason’ using code 40 ‘learner has transferred to a new learning aim with the same provider’
• record the relevant ‘Learning actual end date’
• record a new learning aim with the new ‘Learning aim reference’, relevant ‘Learning start date’, and the following:
  • record this aim as a restart (Learning Delivery Funding and Monitoring Type = ‘RES’)
  • where appropriate, complete the ‘Funding adjustment for prior learning’ field with the percentage of learning that is still to be delivered

For other scenarios and additional guidance, refer to section 5.1 of the Provider Support Manual and the Funding Monitoring reports user guide.

9. Action: Qualification Achievement Rates (QARs) 2020 to 2021 - funding monitoring reports and common data issues

9.1 Funding Rules Monitoring reports (FRM)

There are FRM reports for 2020 to 2021 that identify data issues that affect your QARs. You must review the reports below to ensure your data is accurate.

9.2 FRM04 - actual end date changes

This report relates to changes to the ‘Learning actual end date’ between ILR years. If you recorded an aim as complete in the previous year’s R14 ILR and continues to be returned in the current year, then you must return the same ‘Learning actual end date’ that you reported in the previous year.

You must not amend the ‘Learning actual end date’ between years. Changing this date between years will mean we will not be able to match the learner’s aims, this may generate orphan records that could negatively affect your QARs and may affect your funding.

If a learner undertakes an aim, finished learning, takes the final assessment and fails, then you must close the aim and record it as not achieved. Where this learner is then identified as needing further support or additional learning to pass the assessment, then you must record a new learning aim as a restart, with the ‘Funding adjustment for prior learning’ field completed to account for the new learning required to pass the resit.

9.3 FRM05 – planned end date changes

This report relates to changes in the ‘Learning planned end date’ between funding years.

You must not change or update the ‘Learning planned end date’ after the funding qualifying period has passed.

You must not change this date to account for a change in circumstance such as illness, slow progress or unemployment. Changing this date between years will mean we will not be able to match the learner’s aims, this may generate orphan records that could negatively affect your QARs and may affect your funding.

If you identify the planned end date as significantly incorrect or incorrect due to an administrative error, after the 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR, you must:

• set the ‘Completion status’ to code 3 ‘withdrawn’ and complete the ‘Withdrawal reason’ using code 40 ‘learner has transferred to a new learning aim with the same provider’
• record a ‘Learning actual end date’ of 1 August 2020
• record a new learning aim with the same ‘Learning aim reference’ and the following:
  • a ‘Learning start date’ of 1 August 2020
  • the correct ‘Learning planned end date’
  • record this aim as a restart (Learning Delivery Funding and Monitoring Type = ‘RES’)
  • where appropriate, complete the ‘Funding adjustment for prior learning’ field with the percentage of learning that is still to be delivered

If the planned end date changes for reasons other than administrative errors, you must return the data that you reported in R14 of the previous year.

9.4 FRM06 - continuance issues

This report relates to continuing learners from 2019 to 2020 who do not appear in the 2020 to 2021 ILR.

We will treat continuing learning aims in the R14 2019 to 2020 ILR that do not have a corresponding record in the 2020 to 2021 ILR as a withdrawal for the overall QAR methodology. The 2020 to 2021 ILR must include all aims that were reported as continuing (‘Completion status’ = 1 and the ‘Learning actual end date’ is null) in the 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR return.

If you reported the learner as continuing in the 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR return, but subsequently identify them as having withdrawn before 1 August 2020, then you must set the ‘Completion status’ to code 3 (withdrawn) and complete the ‘Withdrawal reason’ field with the relevant code.

Record the ‘Learning actual end date’ as the last day the learner was in learning; this date will be in the previous ILR year - do not use 1 August 2020. If data is incorrect after the 2019 to 2020 R14 ILR due to an administrative error, then you should correct the data and continue to return this for the duration of the 2020 to 2021 ILR.

More guidance on correcting errors is available in Section 5.1 of the Provider Support Manual.

If you need to report an actual end date in 2019 to 2020 for those aims, then you need to ensure your Management Information (MI) system is set up to export 2019 to 2020 learning actual end dates.

For traineeship and apprenticeship programmes, the ILR must include the programme aim and all the associated component aims, even if the component aims are completed and closed.

Information: 14 to 16 EFA and 16 to 19 EFA validity

For the 2021 to 2022 funding year, a new validity category will be added to Find a Learning Aim (FALA) called 14 to 16 EFA.

Currently 16 to 19 EFA validity shows qualifications approved for funding as part of the 14 to 16 and 16 to 19 qualification offers.

From 1 August 2021:

• 16 to 19 EFA validity will only show qualifications approved for the 16 to 19 offer – these are qualifications that can be taken by 16 to 18 year olds and funded by the ESFA through study programmes, please note that some of these qualifications may only be approved 18+ and this can be identified using ESFA list of qualifications approved for funding
• 14 to 16 EFA validity will show the qualifications approved for the 14 to 16 offer – these are qualifications that can be taken by 14 and 15 year old students and funded by the ESFA through study programmes

We are introducing this new validity category as there are now differences in which qualifications are approved 14 to 16 and 16 to 19 due to changes arising from the post 16 qualifications review.

This includes:

• the withdrawal of funding approval from qualifications at level 3 and below approved post 16
• different principles for approving qualifications 14 to 16 and 16 to 19, including a moratorium to approve new qualifications at level 3 and below post 16.

The ILR validation rules will be updated to take into account these two validity categories. The validation rules will only affect new starts from 1 August 2021. This will therefore not affect continuing learners.

For further information about the ILR and ILR Validation rules, visit the ILR technical documents, guidance and requirements website https://guidance.submit-learner-data.service.gov.uk/

Information: 2020 to 2021 Year-end forecast funding claim – indicative reconciliation statement

We will upload your indicative year-end reconciliation statements through Manage your education and skills funding (MYESF) week commencing Monday 19 July for the following funding streams:

• adult education budget (AEB) adult skills and community learning
• AEB Covid-19 skills offer
• AEB 19-24 traineeships - grant funded
• advanced learner loans bursary – grant funded
• learner support for procured 19-24 traineeships 2020 – paid on profile
• learner support for ESFA AEB procured adult skills – paid on profile
• learner support for ESFA AEB Procured 19 to 24 traineeships – paid on profile

You do not need to take any action at this stage. These statements are indicative and based on your recent year-end forecast claim return, so that you are aware of any potential impact before we publish your final reconciliation statements in November 2021.

Please read our news story about thresholds and final reconciliation.

Where appropriate, we will show any funding monitoring return errors within your indicative reconciliation statement. This is so you are aware of the potential impact before final claim reconciliation statements.

If you have any queries, please contact the Service Desk or your Territorial team.

Information: Update to the ILR Online Documentation.

The ILR Online Documentation site has been updated to include the following:

• ILR Specification 2021 to 2022: Version 3

This includes two new National learner monitoring codes:

• NLM 21 Learner in receipt of 16-19 tuition fund
• NLM 22 Learner repeating up to one full final year of 16-19 funded provision

Provider Support Manual 2021 to 2022: Version 2

Please see Summary of Changes for updates to guidance.

For further information, please visit the ILR site

Information: Office for Students 2020 - 21 data checking tool

The Office for Students data checking tool for 2020-21 ILR data will be available to all registered providers from 5 August 2021.

The tool provides outputs designed to improve the quality of your final ILR data submission.

The OfS regards engagement with the tool as an essential part of providers’ data quality processes.

More information about the process can be found on our website.

If you have any further queries please email ilrdata@officeforstudents.org.uk.

Information: Office for Students training videos on HE records in the ILR

The Office for Students are currently preparing training videos covering the return of data for Higher Education students in the ILR and these videos will be available from their website later this month.

If you have any further queries please email ilrdata@officeforstudents.org.uk.