Apprenticeship funding guidance for providers wishing to support apprentices and employers affected by termination of another provider's funding agreements

Overview

This article provides information on apprenticeship funding for training providers wishing to support apprentices and employers affected by the termination of another provider’s funding agreements.

This guidance applies to apprentices who started their apprenticeship after 1 May 2017.

The guidance covers negotiating a new total negotiated price (TNP), co-investment, and additional payments.

Apprentice transfers

When employers or apprentices seek assistance from you due to the termination of their original provider's funding agreement(s), you can proceed with accepting the transfer of apprentices to your organisation without requiring permission from the DfE.

You should consider the following points before agreeing to any such transfers:

• you must have the appropriate funding agreement(s) with the ESFA in place
• you must conduct an initial assessment
• you must accurately account for and record recognition of prior learning (RPL)
• you must encourage apprentices to provide a complete copy of all their learning evidence to date to inform the initial assessment and RPL review
• you must collect personal information required to satisfy your enrolment and start-up audit trail directly from the apprentice
• you should be approved by the same, or an appropriate alternative, awarding organisation, to deliver the same qualification(s) that the apprentice started with the previous provider

In addition to the above, you must ensure you satisfy the applicable Apprenticeship Funding Rules, this list is not exhaustive:

You:

• must agree a new TNP with the employer for the balance of delivery remaining, including the cost of assessment (EPA)
• must put in place a new contract for service with the employer and agree a new commitment statement
• must record the apprentice as a re-start (see Provider Support Manual), not a new start in your ILR
• must ensure that the minimum duration criteria is met (e.g., by adding the time spent on programme with the previous provider to the planned duration you identify is required)
• must satisfy the 20% Off the Job Training requirements for the proportion of the apprenticeship you deliver as the new provider
• must aim to continue to deliver the same programme that the apprentice started
• must work with the employer to review the amount of funding remaining to fund the rest of each individual apprentices training
• must only claim the balance of funds remaining within the funding band maximum (FBM) for the apprenticeship from ESFA, accounting for funds already paid to previous providers (the FBM applies across all instances of the same programme)

Other considerations

• You cannot enrol an apprentice who is already at Gateway. This is because only the EPA element of the apprenticeship remains to be delivered i.e., no further training is required.
• You cannot include apprentices on your ILR if no learning has been delivered. You would be unable to claim any On Programme Payment (OPP) funding or the achievement and/or completion payment as no learning will have taken place.
• If an employer has already paid all the co-investment payments to a previous provider ESFA does not expect an employer to make those payments again to you. The co-investment section below provides further information
• An employer’s eligibility to additional payments is not affected by the termination of their previous providers funding agreement. If an additional payment was not earned by their previous provider, you will be able to earn any subsequent additional payments due. The additional payment section below provides further information.

Data Sharing

Providers that have had their funding agreements with ESFA terminated must not share any information about apprentices or employers with any other organisations without written permission from DfE to do so.

If you employ former employees of another provider, they must not share information about employer or apprentices with you.

Receiving apprentice personal information from any other organisation could potentially lead to a breach of your ESFA funding agreement(s).

DfE monitor the destinations of apprentices who transfer following the termination of a providers funding agreement(s), and DfE will challenge any concerning behaviour.

Agreeing a new total negotiated price when your apprentice transfers

You will need to discuss and agree a new TNP with the employer for the remaining training including the cost of End Point Assessment (EPA).

Initial assessment and recognition of prior learning

Before a new TNP can be agreed you will need to conduct an initial assessment.

You are responsible for assessing the apprentice’s prior learning and experience. To do this, you should:

• determine the apprentice’s prior learning and experience including conducting a review of the evidence in the apprentice's portfolio
• compare this to the requirements of the occupational competence in the apprenticeship standard
• using the assessment results, you can identify which parts of the training programme the apprentice no longer needs. You can then customise the apprentice’s training plan

Following the initial assessment, you will conclude whether the apprentice has any relevant prior learning and experience. If so, this must be recognised, and the cost of the remaining apprenticeship training and assessment (and the duration) should be adjusted considering any knowledge or skills the apprentice has already gained.

You will then confirm to the employer how much additional training the apprentice requires to finish their training and be ready for their EPA.

For further information on initial assessment and RPL refer to: Apprenticeships: initial assessment to recognise prior learning - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Value of funding remaining review

It is probable that the previous training provider has already used up some of the government funding available for the apprentice's training.

You can only claim the remaining funds within the FBM from ESFA, accounting for funds already claimed by any previous providers.

You will review how much funding is remaining to cover the rest of the apprentice's training and assessment.

You will look at the funding remaining, how much more training the apprentice needs following the initial assessment and RPL review, and how much the training and assessment will cost you to deliver.

Then, you will suggest a price for the employer to consider. Sometimes, this price might be higher than the amount of funding remaining within the FBM.

Funding above the band maximum

Additional funding above the FBM will not be made available via ESFA.

If you believe that additional funding is required, and there is insufficient funding available in the FBM to complete an apprentices training and assessment, then you will need to establish with the employer why their apprentice has made insufficient progress compared to the funding claimed to date and agree how the employer will pay for the required amount.

This cannot be funded from an employer’s apprenticeship service account. The payment required above the FBM should be paid directly to you by the employer.

Approximate value of funding remaining

This guidance aims to help you understand roughly how much funding is left so you can negotiate a price with the employer. However, keep in mind that the amount of funding remaining may be different once the apprentice's enrolment is processed through the apprenticeship funding system.

To understand the approximate value of funding claimed by previous providers, the employer can download the previous transactions from their apprenticeship service account.

The help centre article “Understanding approximately how much funding has been claimed by other providers” provides guidance for employers.

If they are happy to, the employer can share an extract of their transaction download with you to inform the value of funding remaining review.

You can then use this report to review the approximate funding claimed for multiple apprentices across multiple instances of the apprenticeship claimed by multiple providers.

Note: If any instance of the apprentice’s apprenticeship training was funded outside of your apprenticeship service account the transactions will not be included in this breakdown.

Calculating the approximate value of funding remaining

To estimate the remaining funding, follow these steps:

Subtract the approximate value of funding claimed by other providers from either the FBM or the previous TNP.

You can find the FBM for each relevant apprenticeship standard by searching on the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) website.

Alternatively, if the employer knows the TNP they agreed with the previous training provider, you should use this value instead of the FBM (use which ever value is the lowest).

Co-Investment Contributions

When apprentices transfer to a new training provider you will agree a new TNP for the cost of the remaining training and assessment.

The employer will need to pay a 5% or 10% co-investment contribution to you based on the new TNP agreed.

The co-investment rate you charge will stay the same as what it was at the start of the apprentice’s apprenticeship programme.

If the employer has already paid the full co-investment contribution to the previous provider, they should seek to recover the money from their previous provider. Once the money has been recovered the employer could then recycle this money and pay it to you to cover the co-investment contribution payment based on the new TNP.

If the employer is unable to get a refund, ESFA does not expect the employer to pay the full co-investment contribution again, to you.

The Individualised Learner Record (ILR) will automatically subtract the appropriate co-investment rate from the new TNP.

Typically, you are required to show us that you have collected the co-investment payment due from the employer by updating the ILR.

If you do not confirm you have collected the co-investment on the ILR then the completion payment is withheld (referred to as completion payment holdback).

To prevent this from happening you can request to use Learning Delivery Monitoring (LDM) code 361 on the ILR to waive the need to record that you have collected the co-investment contribution payment in the ILR.

The employer will need to show you evidence that they paid the co-investment payment to their previous provider. This evidence should exist as a financial transaction will have occurred. Once you have collected this evidence it should be stored in the evidence pack for audit trail purposes.

You can then request approval to use LDM code 361 from DfE by following these steps using the Customer Help Portal:

• When prompted with the "Is this enquiry about a specific organisation?" screen select "yes" and provide details of the employer’s previous provider
• When asked "What is your enquiry about?" select "Provider Closure"
• On the enquiry details screen, you will be prompted to specify the nature of your enquiry
• In the "Add a short title" box, type "Co-Investment Waiver Approval”
• In the "What is your enquiry?" box, include the following information at least:
• Confirm the name of your organisation, your UKPRN, the apprentice ULN, their employer’s name, employer apprenticeship service account ID and/or Employer Reference Number (ERN)
• Confirmation that you have received the evidence from the employer (we do not need to see this evidence; we just require assurance that you have the evidence in place for audit trail purposes)

Using the co-investment waiver does not mean that the system will release the shortfall in co-investment funding for you. However, it will ensure that you receive the completion payment if applicable.

If the employer has already paid the full co-investment amount to the previous provider, you will only receive 90-95% of the new TNP that you agree with the employer (depending on the applicable co-investment rate).

Additional Payments

An employer's eligibility for extra payments remains the same if their provider's funding agreements are terminated, and they move their apprentice to your organisation.

If any extra payments were not earned by their previous provider, you can request and receive both the provider and employer payments once the apprentice has transferred to you. You can claim these additional payments in the usual way.

In situations where the employer's previous provider ceased trading or went into insolvency, and an additional payment was earned but not paid to the provider, you may be able to claim these extra payments on behalf of the employer through the Earnings Adjustment Statement (EAS). To do this, you would need to contact DfE to request clarification and approval.

You can enquire about additional payments by following these steps using the Customer Help Portal:

• When prompted with the "Is this enquiry about a specific organisation?" screen select "yes" and provide details of the employer’s previous provider
• When asked "What is your enquiry about?" select "Provider Closure"
• On the enquiry details screen, you will be prompted to specify the nature of your enquiry
• In the "Add a short title" box, type "Additional Payments”
• In the "What is your enquiry?" box, include the following information at least:
• Confirm the name of your organisation, your UKPRN, the apprentice ULN, their employer’s name, employer apprenticeship service account ID and/or Employer Reference Number (ERN)
• Details of the query