Past Planned End Date - AAF

I think this is one of the elements that is not particularly intuitive but the Agency are only able to work with the measures available to them and it will allow them to benchmark and see outliers. Providers will have learners passed planned end, particularly as they approach the gateway period but there could be other reasons for this which the Agency are interested in.  

The learning actual end date is measured against the planned end date and as both of these relate only to the learning period then they should be broadly in line with each other.

I think what they are really testing for are two things;

- do you have large numbers where the LOS is shortened and you are therefore condensing programmes for funding purposes.   

- do you have a significant number where learners are taking too long to achieve because progress / training delivery is slow.

 

If you have a large number in this group then you need to check your planned lengths of stay against actual length of stay for completers and look at whether or not you need to amend these for future cohorts, dependent upon the reason why learners are going significantly passed planned end date.  

Thanks Paul, I completely understand your points, my concern is, let’s say 40 apprentices are due to complete in September and enter gateway in October/November the 40 apprentices will be measured as PPED. That’s my only query, could there be another way to measure that the learner is within the timeframe for gateway but understand that the agency are working with the data available. Thanks for your reply its very much appreciated ☺️

The other point to note is that these are indicators and failing a test does not necessarily mean action action will be triggered. Regional ESFA teams will ask for explanations and justifications and there should be sensible dialogue between provider and the agency. If you have an example that temporarily makes your data look odd, then explain that in your meetings with your agency contacts.