Glossary
Risk indicator
A measurable signal that funding or data quality may be going wrong.
In full
Risk indicators are the things worth watching every month: learners in learning beyond their planned end date, aims without outcomes, sharp movements in earnings, claims that sit outside the normal pattern.
They are early warnings rather than findings. The value is in acting on them while the year is still open.
Where this comes up
scenario
A governor asks what the funding risk actually is
At a board meeting, a governor asks what would have to go wrong for the funding position to be materially misstated. What is a good answer?
diagnostic
Should this be a break in learning or a withdrawal?
The learner has stopped, and the question is whether to record a break in learning, which pauses the programme on the basis that they will return, or a withdrawal, which ends it. The two have different funding and achievement consequences, so the choice is not administrative.
scenario
Eligibility was checked but nothing was kept
A sample of adult enrolments shows that eligibility was genuinely established at enrolment and the evidence was handed back.
module
From a learner walking in to funding arriving
The full chain: a learner event, the operational action it triggers, the source data it creates, the ILR fields it populates, validation, funding, reports, evidence, performance and audit.
module
Getting it right at the front door
Most funding-critical data is captured at enrolment. Front-door quality is the cheapest data quality there is, and the only kind that scales.
diagnostic
Planned hours do not match the timetable that is actually delivered
The planned hours recorded for 16 to 19 students do not reconcile to the timetable being delivered, so students may be in the wrong funding band.