Funding stream
Apprenticeships
Employer-led training funded through negotiated prices within funding bands, drawn from the levy (including transfers), through co-investment, or fully funded by government where the rules for the start date waive the employer contribution, and earned monthly through the ILR alongside the apprenticeship service.
ILR funding model 36Not to be confused with Bootcamps
Understand it
Apprenticeship funding: price, band, service and evidence
A price negotiated with each employer, capped by the band maximum, paid monthly with a completion element, and dependent on the ILR and the apprenticeship service agreeing.
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 itWithdrawals, breaks and restarts
How leaving is recorded, why the date matters as much as the fact, and where the line falls between a break in learning and a withdrawal.
Read itThe rules in one place
Each statement is labelled so you can tell an official requirement from our explanation of one.
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.
An apprentice is on the ILR but is not generating any payments
The apprentice is not funding: they exist on the ILR and look correct, but no earnings are being generated for them. For apprenticeships starting from 1 August 2026 the provider enters the details once, on the ILR, and no payment is made until the employer approves them in their apprenticeship service account. For apprenticeships that started earlier, the ILR and the apprenticeship service must still match, so a difference between them stops payment.
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.
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.
See it play out
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.
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?
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.
A learner appears on FRM27 and nobody knows why
A funding monitoring report names a learner whose aim you reported as continuing last year and as withdrawn this year. Work out whether the record moved for a good reason, and what to do either way.
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, after which the year's ILR data cannot be amended and the funding, the achievement rates and the audit population are all taken from it.
Year-end close readiness
The wider close programme that runs from the spring, of which the final return is the last step.
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.
Apprenticeship assurance
The apprenticeship-specific checks that sit alongside the general routine.
Learning support evidence
A focused review of the learning support chain, which is one of the most consistently tested areas in funding audit.
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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