Funding rules monitored: 31 official sources · awaiting first verified checkFunding Intelligence →
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Glossary

LARS

Learning Aim Reference Service

The database of learning aims and their funding attributes.

In full

The Learning Aim Reference Service holds every learning aim with the attributes that drive funding, including level, guided learning hours, funding eligibility by stream and the dates between which it may be delivered.

Checking an aim here before enrolling a learner is the cheapest possible way to prevent a funding problem.

Where this comes up

diagnostic

Learning support is claimed but the evidence chain is incomplete

A learning support claim has been made, but one of the links in the chain is missing: the assessment of need, the record of support actually delivered, the cost of delivering it, or the recording that triggers the claim.

module

Apprenticeship funding: price, band, service and evidence

A price negotiated with each employer, capped by the band maximum, paid monthly with a completion element, and dependent on the ILR and the apprenticeship service agreeing.

diagnostic

An aim is on the ILR but generates no funding

The aim validates and appears on the ILR, but generates no earnings. Validation and funding are different tests: a record can be perfectly valid and still not qualify for funding.

diagnostic

The same learner appears twice

One person has been recorded twice, usually with two different learner reference numbers, and sometimes with two different ULNs. The system treats them as two people.

module

Learning support: the evidence chain from need to claim

Need assessed, support delivered, cost recorded, claim made. Every link has to hold, and a gap anywhere makes the claim indefensible however genuine the support was.

diagnostic

An apprentice is on the ILR but is not generating any payments

The apprentice exists on the ILR and looks correct, but no earnings are being generated for them. Apprenticeship funding depends on the ILR and the apprenticeship service agreeing, so a record that is perfect in one and absent or different in the other produces nothing.