Editorial and source-verification policy

Official sources come first

Every factual statement about funding or compliance must be supported by an official source: normally GOV.UK guidance from the Department for Education or the Department for Work and Pensions, Skills England, or another body with authority over the rule, such as a strategic authority for devolved adult funding.

A link is not enough on its own. The statement must reflect the source accurately, including:

• the funding year it applies to;
• the dates it takes effect, and for apprenticeships the start dates it covers;
• who is eligible, and the exceptions;
• the funding stream it belongs to.

Where two official documents give different dates or figures for what looks like the same thing, we say which applies to what. For example, ILR submission deadlines come from the official data collection timetable. Where another document gives a different date for the same return, such as a 16 to 19 monitoring date, we name it as that document's date, not as the deadline.

What kind of statement you are reading

We keep four kinds of content apart, and say which is which:

• Official rules and published figures, quoted or summarised from the source, with the source named;
• FEFunding's explanations and calculations, which are derived from official information and are not official themselves;
• Assumptions and estimates, labelled as such, with the assumption stated;
• Proposed, withdrawn, superseded or not-yet-effective guidance, labelled with its status and dates, and never presented as the current rule.

What we never do

• Invent an official announcement, a funding rate, a deadline or an eligibility condition.
• Claim that something has been checked against its source when it has not.
• Claim that a person has reviewed content unless that review is recorded.
• Imply that FEFunding is operated or endorsed by the Department for Education or any government body.

What the labels on a page mean

• Funding year: the year the page applies to. Rules and rates change each year.
• Sources checked: the date our automated monitor last confirmed the official documents behind the page were unchanged. It is an automated check, not a review by a person.
• Reviewed: shown only where a named person has reviewed the page and the date is recorded. Otherwise the page says it has not yet been reviewed by a person.
• No tracked official source: the page is not linked to a source the monitor checks, so its currency is not confirmed.

The sources page lists the official documents FEFunding tracks and the state of each.

How the official sources are monitored

Automated checks run every day against the official documents FEFunding relies on, and look for new versions and changed text. A change is flagged so the affected content can be checked; it is not applied automatically. Rate changes, ILR return dates and reference data such as apprenticeship funding bands are read from their official publications on a schedule. Changes to the reference data go through review before they reach the site.

AI

FundingGPT and Ask FEFunding answer from the official documents and FEFunding's own guidance, and list the documents an answer relies on. Their answers are not reviewed by a person before you see them. Where a fact can be decided in code, such as an ILR deadline from the timetable or a funding band from Skills England's data, the code decides it and the model does not. More detail is on how we use AI.

FEFunding does not publish articles written automatically. An article would be published only after a person had approved it and it cited the official sources it relies on. There is no blog at present: the earlier blog posts did not meet this standard and were permanently removed on 24 October 2026.

Corrections

If something is wrong, out of date or unclear, email hello@fefunding.co.uk or use Report an issue on any Academy page. Please say which page and, if you can, which official source disagrees with it. Please do not send learner personal data.