Period 2, September · 2026–27
R02
The first substantial return of the year. Most of the year's enrolment now exists in the data, so this is where the shape of the year becomes visible.
Preparation
Preparation for this return normally starts about 10 days out.
Readiness checklist
Generate a checklist scoped to this return, your streams and your role.
Generate itThis date follows the published monthly pattern and is marked provisional in the Academy until it has been reconciled against the official timetable. Confirm it against Data Collection Timetable 2026 to 2027 before planning around it.
What this return drives
- Earnings for September, the month most enrolment actually happens.
What each role should do
MIS or ILR officer
Before
- Check that late enrolments have been completed rather than left part-entered.
- Check start dates against actual attendance rather than against the planned timetable.
After
- Compare enrolment numbers against the curriculum plan and query any gap with the relevant area.
Curriculum manager or head of department
Before
- Confirm every learner who started has been enrolled and every learner who did not start has been removed.
- Confirm planned hours for each programme match what is actually timetabled.
After
- Review the enrolment position for your area and tell MIS about anything that looks wrong.
Finance director or finance manager
Before
- Share the income assumption for the year so the first real comparison can be made.
After
- Compare earnings to date against budget and agree with MIS what explains any difference.
Checks before you submit
- Check for learners enrolled with no aims recorded.
- Check planned hours against the timetable for a sample of programmes.
- Run validation locally before submitting, and work the errors by rule rather than record by record.
- Check learners still recorded as in learning whose planned end date has passed.
- Check aims that have ended with no outcome recorded.
- Reconcile the funding report for the period against your own expectation, and explain any movement since last period.
- Confirm withdrawals notified by curriculum this month have actually been recorded.
Sign-off
- Curriculum confirms the enrolment position for their area is complete.
- MIS confirms validation is clean or understood.
After submission
- Download and keep the funding reports for the period. They are your record of what the submission earned.
- Circulate the reconciliation position to Finance, with the explanation for any movement.
- Log any issue you could not resolve in time, so it is picked up rather than forgotten next month.
What commonly goes wrong
- Learners who never actually started still recorded as enrolled.
- Planned hours entered as a default rather than from the actual timetable.
- Aims recorded at the wrong level or against the wrong funding model.
Each of these has a full diagnostic in the error and assurance lookup, with the causes, the investigation, the fix and the control that prevents it.
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.