Period 14, final · 2026–27
R14
The final hard close. After it, the funding, the published achievement rates and the audit population for the year are all fixed and cannot be changed.
Preparation
Preparation for this return normally starts about 30 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
- The final funding position for the year.
- The data from which qualification achievement rates are calculated.
- The population from which funding audit samples are drawn.
- The final reconciliation and any resulting recovery or settlement.
Why it matters
R14 is the final hard close for the funding year. After it, nothing about that year can be changed.
Three separate things are fixed at once. The funding position for the year becomes final, and any settlement or recovery follows from it. The data from which qualification achievement rates are calculated is taken. And the population from which any funding audit will sample is set.
That combination is what makes R14 different from every other return. An error left in an in-year return can be fixed next month. An error left in R14 is permanent: it affects the money, the published performance and the audit position simultaneously.
The most damaging errors are usually omissions rather than mistakes. An outcome never recorded counts as a non-achievement forever. A learner never withdrawn keeps funding that will later be recovered.
What changes after it
- The funding position for the year is final and any reconciliation or recovery proceeds from it.
- The qualification achievement rate for the year is calculated from the closed data and published in due course.
- Funding audit, where it happens, samples from this population and tests the evidence behind it.
- Nothing about the year can be amended, however clearly wrong it is later shown to be.
What each role should do
MIS or ILR officer
Before
- Confirm every aim that ended has an actual end date, a completion status and, where applicable, an outcome.
- Confirm every learner recorded as continuing into the next year genuinely is.
- Confirm apprenticeship records agree with the apprenticeship service.
- Confirm learning support claims have their evidence chain complete.
- Run validation early enough that a systemic failure can still be corrected properly.
After
- Archive the submitted file, the validation output and the funding reports together.
- Record anything known to be wrong that could not be corrected, and why.
Finance director or finance manager
Before
- Reconcile the final earnings against the allocation and understand the settlement position.
- Confirm the accounting treatment of any expected recovery or additional funding.
After
- Close the year's funding position in the ledger against the final reports.
Funding or compliance officer
Before
- Confirm the evidence for every material claim is in place and retrievable.
- Close any evidence gap now: after the close, the record is what it is.
After
- Assemble the evidence pack for the year while the detail is still fresh.
Data, BI or performance analyst
Before
- Model the final achievement rate and confirm it is explainable.
After
- Produce the final performance analysis against the closed data.
Senior leader, principal or COO
Before
- Ask what is known to be wrong and what the consequence of it is.
After
- Accept the closed position and commission the improvements needed for next year.
Checks before you submit
- Every ended aim has an actual end date, completion status and outcome where applicable.
- Every continuing learner is genuinely continuing into the next year.
- Apprenticeship records agree with the apprenticeship service.
- Learning support claims have a complete evidence chain.
- Eligibility evidence exists for adult learners funded on entitlement grounds.
- Validation is clean, or every remaining error is understood, accepted and documented.
- Final earnings reconcile to the allocation and the settlement position is understood.
- The modelled achievement rate is explainable.
Sign-off
- MIS confirms the data is final and documents anything known to be wrong.
- Finance confirms the funding position and the settlement.
- Compliance confirms the evidence position.
- A senior leader accepts the closed position on behalf of the college.
Who signs off
- MIS, confirming the data is final and documenting anything known to be wrong.
- Finance, confirming the funding position and the expected settlement.
- Compliance or quality, confirming the evidence position.
- A senior leader, accepting the closed position on behalf of the college.
Reports to review
- The validation error report, worked to a clean or documented position.
- The final funding reports, reconciled to the allocation.
- Your own list of ended aims without outcomes, which should be empty.
- Your own list of learners in learning past their planned end date, each with a reason.
- Apprenticeship reconciliation against the apprenticeship service.
After submission
- Archive the submitted file, validation output and funding reports as the record of the closed year.
- Assemble the evidence pack while the year is still fresh in people's minds.
- Hold a proper review of what went wrong and change the process for next year.
What commonly goes wrong
- Outcomes never recorded for aims that ended in the summer, depressing the achievement rate permanently.
- Learners rolled into the next year who actually left.
- Apprenticeship records left unreconciled against the apprenticeship service.
- Evidence gaps identified during the year but never closed.
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.
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