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Audio lesson · 9 minutes

Closing the funding year

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.

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Chapters

  1. Three things fixed at once
  2. The close plan
  3. Rolling into the new year

Transcript

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Introduction

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.

Three things are fixed at once

An error left in an in-year return can be fixed next month. An error left at the close is permanent in three dimensions simultaneously. The most damaging errors at the close are omissions rather than mistakes: an outcome never recorded, a learner never withdrawn.

The close plan

The dry run at R13 is the step colleges most often skip and most often regret. If the first time you run the final checks is at the final return, you will find work you cannot complete. Documenting what is known to be wrong, and why it could not be corrected, materially changes how a later audit conversation goes.

Rolling into the new year

Configuration for the new year has to be right before the first enrolments, not before the first return. An aim configured under last year's rules produces errors from day one. Review the specification changes, the validation rule changes and the devolved position before the year starts.

Read it instead

Closing the funding year properly

The written module carries the same content at three depths, with the worked examples, the pitfalls and the sources.

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.

Funding allocations and data returns information (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting first verification

Qualification achievement rates and minimum standards (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting first verification

Advice: funding rules for 16 to 19 provision 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Adult Skills Fund funding and performance management rules 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Data collection timetable 2026 to 2027 (opens in a new tab)

Department for EducationOfficial technical document2026–27Awaiting first verification

Content reused from GOV.UK is Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence. FEFunding is not endorsed by the Department for Education.