Glossary
Learning support
Funding for the additional support a learner needs to take part in and complete their programme.
In full
Learning support pays for the additional help a learner needs because of a learning difficulty or disability, such as a support worker, specialist equipment or adapted materials.
Every claim has to be backed by a chain: the need was assessed, the support was provided, it cost what is claimed, and the ILR records it correctly. A gap anywhere in that chain puts the claim at risk.
The mechanism differs between streams, so check the rules for the stream and year before assuming how a claim works.
The rules behind this
Learning support funding requires a documented chain: an assessed need, the support actually provided, the cost of providing it, and the claim made. A claim without the chain is not defensible.
Not to be confused with
Learning support pays for additional support within a programme. High needs funding is a separate arrangement for students with significant needs, built from place funding and a local authority top-up.
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
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.
scenario
Support that everybody knows about and nobody recorded
A learner receives real, substantial support from their course team all year. The claim is made. Nothing in the records shows the support happened.
module
The anatomy of the ILR
What is actually inside the Individualised Learner Record: the entities, how they nest, and which fields carry the funding.
module
The data quality routine that prevents most problems
A small number of checks, run every month without exception, prevent the majority of funding, performance and audit problems in further education.
module
What good evidence looks like
Evidence is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the demonstration that a funded activity genuinely happened as recorded, and it has three properties.
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.