Funding rules monitored: 31 official sources · awaiting first verified checkFunding Intelligence →
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Scenario

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.

Funding year2026–27Awaiting verificationSee the sourcesReport an issue

The situation

Learner
Studied at the college two years ago
Enrolment
Name entered in a shortened form; no match found
Result
A new learner record and a new ULN

Constructed for teaching. No scenario in the Academy contains real learner data, and none ever will.

What is the consequence, and what should be done?

The rules behind this

Official requirement

The Unique Learner Number identifies a learner across providers and across years, which is how prior attainment, prior learning and cross-provider activity can be recognised.

Recommended good practice

Corrections should be made in the source system that owns the data, then regenerated into the ILR. Editing an ILR file directly leaves the source system wrong and the error returns at the next generation.

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.

Individualised Learner Record (ILR) collection (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting first verification

ILR: sources of data (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UKOfficial funding documentAwaiting 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.