Glossary
Adult Skills Fund
The funding stream for regulated learning aimed at adults aged 19 and over.
In full
The Adult Skills Fund funds regulated learning for adults, covering legal entitlements, fully funded provision for certain groups and co-funded provision for others.
It is allocation-based and earned through the ILR, and it is reconciled: delivering less than the allocation can reduce the funding retained, and delivering more does not automatically bring more.
A substantial share of it is devolved, so the learner's home postcode decides whose rules apply.
The rules behind this
Adult Skills Fund delivery is earned through the ILR against an allocation, and is reconciled: earning less than the allocation can reduce the funding retained, and earning more does not automatically increase it.
Where this comes up
module
Adult Skills Fund: earning, evidencing and reconciling
An allocation you have to earn, with eligibility that must be evidenced before you claim, and a reconciliation at the end that can reduce what you keep.
module
Devolved adult funding: whose rules apply
The learner's home postcode decides which authority funds their adult skills learning, and therefore which rules, rates and reporting apply.
scenario
Adult delivery is running above the allocation
By May, adult skills earnings are tracking above the allocation. What can be done, and what evidence is needed?
scenario
An adult learner withdraws in week six
A learner on a fully funded adult qualification stops attending six weeks in. Follow it from the tutor noticing to the audit test.
scenario
An adult learner moves house mid-programme
A learner moves from a devolved area to a non-devolved one halfway through their aim. Which authority's rules apply, and does anything change?
module
How further education funding actually works
Colleges are not paid a block grant for teaching. They are funded through several separate streams, each with its own rules, and each earned by recording delivery in the ILR.
Sources
These are the official documents this page rests on. Where a figure, a deadline or an exact rule matters, the document is the authority and this page is the explanation.
Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.