Funding stream
Adult Skills Fund
Formula funding for regulated learning aimed at adults aged 19 and over, covering entitlements, co-funded and fully funded provision, earned through the ILR and reconciled against an allocation.
ILR funding model 35 or 38Not to be confused with Tailored learningNot to be confused with Devolved
Understand it
What curriculum decisions do to funding
Curriculum teams make funding decisions every week without calling them that. This module connects each decision to the data it creates and the money it moves.
Read itAdult Skills Fund: earning, evidencing and reconciling
An allocation you have to earn, with eligibility that must be evidenced before you claim, and a reconciliation at the end that can reduce what you keep.
Read itDevolved adult funding: whose rules apply
The learner's home postcode decides which authority funds their adult skills learning, and therefore which rules, rates and reporting apply.
Read itLearning support: the evidence chain from need to claim
Need assessed, support delivered, cost recorded, claim made. Every link has to hold, and a gap anywhere makes the claim indefensible however genuine the support was.
Read itReading an allocation statement
What an allocation is, which elements are formula-driven, which are lagged, and what to reconcile it against.
Read itThe rules in one place
Each statement is labelled so you can tell an official requirement from our explanation of one.
Adult Skills Fund delivery is earned through the ILR against an allocation, and is reconciled: earning less than the allocation can reduce the funding retained, and earning more does not automatically increase it.
Adult Skills Fund eligibility depends on the learner's age, residency and circumstances, and the provider must hold evidence of eligibility before funding is claimed.
For adult skills provision, the learner's home postcode determines whether their funding is national or devolved to a combined or strategic authority, and therefore which rules apply.
Learning support funding requires a documented chain: an assessed need, the support actually provided, the cost of providing it, and the claim made. A claim without the chain is not defensible.
When it goes wrong
A learner left weeks ago but is still showing as continuing
The learner has stopped attending, but the ILR still shows their aim as open with no actual end date, so the system believes they are still in learning and keeps generating funding for them.
An aim has ended but no outcome has been recorded
The aim has an actual end date, so the system knows it finished, but nothing records whether the learner achieved it. The achievement rate calculation treats an aim with no achievement recorded as a non-achievement.
Funding dropped this month and nobody can explain why
The funding report for this period shows less than expected, or less than last period. Because every return restates the whole year, a change made this month can move earnings reported in earlier months, so the drop may have nothing to do with this month's delivery.
Should this be a break in learning or a withdrawal?
The learner has stopped, and the question is whether to record a break in learning, which pauses the programme on the basis that they will return, or a withdrawal, which ends it. The two have different funding and achievement consequences, so the choice is not administrative.
An adult learner appears to be funded by the wrong authority
The learner's recorded source of funding does not match what their home postcode implies, so the aim may be claimed from the wrong funder, under the wrong rules.
A funded learner has no eligibility evidence on file
Funding has been claimed for the learner, but the college cannot produce the evidence that they were eligible for it. The claim may be entirely correct and still fail, because at audit the evidence is the claim.
Learning support is claimed but the evidence chain is incomplete
A learning support claim has been made, but one of the links in the chain is missing: the assessment of need, the record of support actually delivered, the cost of delivering it, or the recording that triggers the claim.
An aim is on the ILR but generates no funding
The aim validates and appears on the ILR, but generates no earnings. Validation and funding are different tests: a record can be perfectly valid and still not qualify for funding.
See it play out
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Check and evidence it
Monthly return readiness
The checks to run before every ordinary return. Short, repeatable, and the reason the consequential returns are manageable.
R14 final return readiness
Preparation for the final hard close, where the funding, the achievement rates and the audit population are all fixed at once.
R10 year-end position readiness
Preparation for the return at which the year's funding outcome becomes clear while there is still time to act on it.
Year-end close readiness
The wider close programme that runs from the spring, of which the final return is the last step.
Adult Skills Fund claim readiness
Checks before signing an adult skills funding claim, so the signature rests on a reconciliation rather than on trust.
Funding audit readiness
What to have in place before an audit, across every stream. Most of it is the routine you should be running anyway.
Learning support evidence
A focused review of the learning support chain, which is one of the most consistently tested areas in funding audit.
Devolved provision assurance
Checks where adult provision is funded by a combined or strategic authority rather than nationally.
Enrolment quality review
A front-door review, which is where most funding-critical data is captured and where errors are cheapest to prevent.
Monthly data quality review
The standing data quality review, separate from the return checks, focused on trends rather than individual records.
New funding year setup
What to do before the first enrolments of a new funding year, rather than before the first return.
Governance assurance pack
What a governing body should see about funding, so assurance rests on measures rather than on reassurance.
New MIS starter induction
What a new member of an MIS team should be able to do, and by when. Not a funding control, but the thing that most often goes missing.
Terms you will meet
Official sources for this stream
These are the documents that govern this stream for the funding year. Rates, thresholds and exact conditions come from them, not from here.
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