LSF/EAS on the ILR

It would have to be option 1.

From ‘Learning support funding for apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities’, A guide for training providers October 2022

How to claim learning support

Providers should only make a claim for learning support funding in the months where reasonable adjustments are necessary, have been delivered and evidence has been obtained that costs have been incurred.

There may be some months where no reasonable adjustments are necessary, or any adjustments made do not incur a cost. In these instances, training providers must not make a claim for learning support funding.

For example, some reasonable adjustments like extra time to complete an assignment are cost neutral. A claim would not be necessary.

Training providers should make any claims promptly and in time for the final Individualised Learner Record (ILR) collection in any funding year to ensure payment.

There may be instances when costs exceed the monthly rate of £150. Details of how these costs may be covered are explained within the excess learning support and exceptional learning support section of this guide. Further information is provided in the funding rules in titled “Apprentices who need access to exceptional learning support (ELS)”.

Excess learning support and exceptional learning support

If the cost of reasonable adjustments exceeds £150 per month, but is less than £19,000 per year, you can make a claim for excess learning support via the earning adjustment statement (EAS). Evidence must be kept of all costs. For further information see Earning Adjustment Statement on GOV.UK.

Training providers should ensure they can evidence total expenditure on the apprentice and demonstrate why the cost of support is greater than the total earned from the fixed monthly learning support rate. This evidence should be linked to the apprentice’s assessment and clearly show any costs the training provider intends to claim from learning support. Exceptional learning support funding should not be used to cover any indirect costs or overheads and is intended exclusively for providing support to the learner.

HTH

Suspected this would be the consensus, thanks Martin West. 

Do you take the below 'monthly reviews' to mean every single month for the entire duration, regardless of whether support has been provided every month or not? For some reason I seem to recall previous rules saying it was only for months where support was being provided, but that seems to have disappeared (or I'm going mad):

The provider has documented evidence of monthly reviews being undertaken throughout the apprenticeship to ensure that reasonable adjustments are still necessary and appropriate (for the apprenticeship). 

Yeah, no, it did change, you're not going mad.

I'd argue it depends strongly on the type of difficulty the learner is facing. Someone isn't going to get better from Dyslexia, are they? So what's the point in checking every month? Again, their fear is that money is being claimed for people who don't "really" need it (primarily neurodiverse learners and those with mental health difficulties) because, well, have you seen this government?

And, yes, I begrudgingly agree with Martin that those are the Rules, even though option 3 (or, even better, JUST PUTTING THE MONETARY COST IN) would be a lot less hassle all round...

I actually emailed the desk about this before coming on here, and have now received a response which I thought I'd share.

My question:

If we have a 12 month apprenticeship, and an overall LSF cost of 1800 (to be delivered sporadically, and not in sequential months, meaning there would otherwise be occasion for an EAS entry in several months), could we enter a Start and End date for the LSF as the Start and End date of the programme?

Their response:

Good morning

Yes, you should claim the LSF cost through your ILR returns until this is exhausted, then claim any funding over this total amount through ILR returns through your EAS submission. So if the programme lasts for 12 months  - you would claim £150 per month through ILR and any extra incurred over the course of the programme from EAS.

Regards
Michael (Customer service) 

My response:

Can I just confirm that this is true even if during those 12 months there will be months where there is no learning support delivered, and that using this method is simply to make it easier, allowing us to claim the full amount via LSF? We obviously would only claim that which we are entitled to. 

Their response:

Hi

Yes, that's fine, as you need to exhaust all of the LSF claimable from ILR returns before you use EAS.

Regards
Michael (Customer service)

It raises some interesting questions, not least of which is why this advice is not clearer in either the funding rules or the EAS guidance. I'm also curious.. if the learning support you deliver is always less than £150 in a given month.. do people use EAS to re-pay the difference every single month, or simply keep the change? 

Oh boy, that is... different... to how I thought it worked... You can't claim for six months in a row if you're only delivering every other month, the rules are explicit on that, so you'd claim EAS for each period where you went over the centrally generated funding. I mean, if this is right (and it isn't), I'm categorically in favour of less faffing with ALS, but it's not what the Rules currently say.

But, on your second point, you absolutely DO NOT return any "underspend" because it is NOT underspend, ESFA determined that £150 a month is what we get because it was [opinion] easier than actually auditing it properly to the penny.

It does seem slightly odd, right? The maths works, sure, and I'm assuming it's less 'work' for them because there's no need to faff around with EAS.. but I can't see how it wouldn't be confusing and/or a complete bodge to any stats they might want to run. It's certainly 'easier' for us to claim 150 a month via LSF for 6 months running than LSF + EAS every other month, even if the latter follows the actual support delivery. If that's what they want though, they ought to go one step further in the EAS guidance than they currently do.

Appreciate the note on LSF 'under-spend' though, wasn't aware of that. To quote Forrest Gump, "That's good, one less thing"

Ben

As the reply from the support desk contradicts the funding rules and current LSF guidance issued by the DfE, and it was only a hypothetical question I would question the guidance you have been given.

34. The provider can only claim learning support funding for each month in which reasonable adjustments are provided to the apprentice and where evidence of costs can be provided. For months in which no reasonable adjustments are necessary, or no costs have been incurred, a claim for learning support funding must not be made.

Where in the funding rules it states ‘must’ this is always taken as mandatory by auditors.

HTH