Funding guidance for young people: ILR funding returns

What’s new for 2021 to 2022?

We have set out some small changes to responsive growth for 2021 to 2022. For this funding year, all responsive growth including traineeship growth will be paid on the same profile.

We are issuing some additional advice to assist any funded institutions having difficulty in calculating planned hours as part of their early ILR returns for this year. Any institution who has already resolved these issues for themselves does not need to amend any planned hours for the advice below.

In normal years, to derive planned hours for the year ahead, institutions look back at delivery in the current year and then use this information to update their course master files, which then feed through the planned hours for every student for the following year. It was clear in April that the in-year delivery for 2019 to 2020 was “not normal” and in responding to the pandemic issues, it was too early for some funded institutions to determine how they should alter planned delivery for 2020 to 2021.

Some institutions have simply used their planning assumptions from the start of the 2019 to 2020 funding year for the current funding year and we are content with this approach, subject to advice below. All funded institutions are now expected as they go through this funding year to consider how they need to adapt their planning of delivery so they could put in place more up to date planning assumptions for 2021 to 2022. This includes building on the knowledge of their education delivery to individual students during both the last and this funding year.

Any funded institution intending to “roll over planning assumptions from 2018 to 2019” must, however, also take into account any funding audit advice received on their funding data for either 2018 to 2019 or 2019 to 2020 so that any issues found in those years are not simply repeated as planning assumptions for 2020 to 2021.

If, during 2020 to 2021, planned funded activity becomes impossible to deliver due to local ‘social distancing requirements’ (or other obstacles), we expect institutions to arrange substitute activities. For example, where external work experience becomes impossible then students should be offered alternative arrangements that help them meet their original study programme objectives.

The advice above, together with the additional advice we have already given in Funding regulations 2020 to 2021 Annex B on evidencing planned hours to funding auditors, may also help in planning hours for students in these current difficult circumstances and avoiding any funding audit issues later in the funding year.

For information

Colleges, providers, schools and academies receive annual funding allocations from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for provision of 16 to 19 education.

These documents give advice about individualised learner record (ILR) returns for institutions funded by the ESFA. It is important for all institutions that we fund to carry out data recording checks each year.

You will also find our published funding guidance books useful.

Funding claims

All ILR funded institutions must submit funding claims by the deadline.