Scenarios
Follow it through to the audit test
32 situations, worked all the way through. A learner withdraws in week six. An apprentice goes off sick. Results arrive after the year has closed. Each one shows what happens next, and why.
- Learner eventThe learner enrols, attends, pauses, leaves or achieves.(Something happens)
- Operational actionSomebody in curriculum, registry or admissions does something about it.(Somebody does something)
- Source dataA record is created or changed in the student record system.(Data is created or changed)
- ILR fieldsThe record becomes fields on the learner and the learning delivery.(Data is created or changed)
- ValidationThe file is checked against the published rules for the year.(A check or a rule)
- FundingEarnings are calculated across the whole year to date.(A result)
- ReportsFunding, data quality and monitoring reports are produced.(A result)
- EvidenceThe records that demonstrate it genuinely happened as recorded.(A check or a rule)
- PerformanceRetention and achievement measures are calculated from the same data.(A result)
- AuditA sample is tested back to the evidence.(A check or a rule)
Read this diagram as text
Something happens to a learner. Somebody takes an operational action in response. That action creates a record in the college's own system. The record becomes fields in the ILR. The ILR is validated. Funding is calculated from it. Reports are produced. Evidence is expected to support what was claimed. Performance measures are calculated from the same data. Finally, an audit tests whether the claim was earned and can be demonstrated.
16 to 19 study programmes
Some experience
An enrichment session is cancelled in November
A weekly enrichment session counted in planned hours is withdrawn after half term. Nobody thinks of it as a funding decision.
16–19
Work through itNew to this
A student needs maths but nothing shows it
A 16 to 19 student without a qualifying maths grade is studying maths, but the record does not show it.
16–19
Work through itSome experience
The December count includes students who have left
Preparing for the December return, the in-learning list is larger than the curriculum areas recognise.
16–19
Work through itNew to this
A learner starts three weeks after the class
A late joiner is enrolled with the class start date rather than their own. It looks tidier and it is wrong.
ASF16–19
Work through itNew to this
A learner transfers to a different course in October
A learner decides the course is not right for them and moves to a different one. Two aims have to be handled correctly.
16–19ASF
Work through itSome experience
A high needs student starts before the top-up is agreed
A student with significant needs starts in September. The local authority top-up has not been agreed by December.
High needs16–19
Work through itNew to this
A learner's age puts them in the wrong stream
A learner's age at the start of their aim determines which stream can fund them. A date of birth error moves them.
ASF16–19
Work through itExperienced
A qualification is withdrawn part way through the year
A qualification the college is delivering stops being available for new starts. Existing learners continue, new ones cannot.
ASF16–19
Work through itExperienced
Hours are planned to reach a band rather than to deliver a programme
A programme is designed with just enough hours to reach a higher funding band. Is that legitimate?
16–19
Work through itAdult Skills Fund
New to this
An adult learner withdraws in week six
A learner on a fully funded adult qualification stops attending six weeks in. Follow it from the tutor noticing to the audit test.
ASF
Work through itSome experience
An adult learner moves house mid-programme
A learner moves from a devolved area to a non-devolved one halfway through their aim. Which authority's rules apply, and does anything change?
DevolvedASF
Work through itNew to this
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.
ASF
Work through itSome experience
Support that everybody knows about and nobody recorded
A learner receives real, substantial support from their course team all year. The claim is made. Nothing in the records shows the support happened.
Learning supportASF
Work through itSome experience
An adult learner is recorded under the wrong funding model
An aim has been recorded under a funding model that does not match the provision. Everything downstream is assessed against the wrong rulebook.
ASFCross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
Adult delivery is running above the allocation
By May, adult skills earnings are tracking above the allocation. What can be done, and what evidence is needed?
ASF
Work through itNew to this
A learner starts three weeks after the class
A late joiner is enrolled with the class start date rather than their own. It looks tidier and it is wrong.
ASF16–19
Work through itExperienced
Evidence for subcontracted delivery cannot be produced
A subcontractor delivers provision the college claims for. When evidence is requested, the subcontractor is slow to provide it.
Cross-cuttingASF
Work through itNew to this
A learner transfers to a different course in October
A learner decides the course is not right for them and moves to a different one. Two aims have to be handled correctly.
16–19ASF
Work through itExperienced
Tailored learning recorded under the wrong allocation
Non-formula-funded adult provision has been recorded alongside formula-funded delivery. Two allocations, one set of records.
Tailored learningASF
Work through itNew to this
A learner's age puts them in the wrong stream
A learner's age at the start of their aim determines which stream can fund them. A date of birth error moves them.
ASF16–19
Work through itExperienced
A qualification is withdrawn part way through the year
A qualification the college is delivering stops being available for new starts. Existing learners continue, new ones cannot.
ASF16–19
Work through itTailored learning
Apprenticeships
Some experience
An apprentice goes on long-term sick leave
An apprentice is signed off work indefinitely. Deciding between a break in learning and a withdrawal is a funding, performance and evidence decision all at once.
Apprenticeships
Work through itSome experience
An employer agrees a price above the band maximum
A negotiated price sits above the funding band maximum for the standard. Who pays the difference, and what is recorded?
Apprenticeships
Work through itExperienced
An apprentice changes employer mid-programme
An apprentice moves to a new employer and wants to continue the same apprenticeship. Several records have to change together.
Apprenticeships
Work through itSkills Bootcamps
Devolved adult funding
High needs
Learning support
Cross-cutting
Some experience
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?
Cross-cutting
Work through itNew to this
A returning learner is enrolled as a new person
A learner returns after two years. The enrolment search does not find them, so a new record and a new ULN are created.
Cross-cutting
Work through itNew to this
The first return of a new funding year fails badly
The first validation run of the new funding year produces hundreds of failures. What is the fastest route to a clean file?
Cross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
An adult learner is recorded under the wrong funding model
An aim has been recorded under a funding model that does not match the provision. Everything downstream is assessed against the wrong rulebook.
ASFCross-cutting
Work through itNew to this
A flagged record turns out to be entirely correct
A learner appears on a monitoring report every period. Each time, investigation shows the record is correct.
Cross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
Earnings fall sharply after a bulk data update
A bulk update is applied to a cohort and the next funding report shows a material fall. Where do you look?
Cross-cutting
Work through itExperienced
Evidence for subcontracted delivery cannot be produced
A subcontractor delivers provision the college claims for. When evidence is requested, the subcontractor is slow to provide it.
Cross-cuttingASF
Work through itSome experience
An achievement is recorded before the result is confirmed
A tutor is confident a learner has passed and asks for the achievement to be recorded before the awarding organisation confirms it.
Cross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
Working in two funding years at the same time
It is September. The new year's first return is due and last year's final return has not closed. Two rulesets, two datasets, one team.
Cross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
The same records appear on a report every single period
A monitoring report returns the same cluster of records month after month. Each time they are worked and each time they return.
Cross-cutting
Work through itNew to this
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?
Cross-cutting
Work through itNew to this
A new finance director asks why income moved
A finance director new to further education sees earnings fall in a month where recruitment was strong. The explanation is in the mechanism.
Cross-cutting
Work through itSome experience
The only person who knows where the evidence is has left
Eligibility evidence for a cohort was filed by a member of staff who has since left. Nobody can find it.
Cross-cutting
Work through it