Glossary
Sampling
Selecting a subset of records for testing, from which conclusions are drawn about the whole population.
In full
Auditors test a sample rather than every record. Where errors are found in a sample, the conclusion may be extrapolated across the population, which is how a small number of errors can produce a large adjustment.
This is why consistency matters more than perfection on any single record: a systematic error found in a sample is assumed to be systematic everywhere.
Where this comes up
module
Being ready for a funding audit
What an audit tests, how sampling turns a few errors into a large adjustment, and the preparation that actually helps.
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
Closing the funding year properly
At the final return the funding, the achievement rates and the audit population are all fixed at once. Everything that will be corrected has to be corrected before it.
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
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.
scenario
Results arrive after the final return has closed
A batch of awarding organisation results for last year arrives in November, after the final return closed. What can be done?