Adult Skills Residency 25-26

Hi - just considering all of this. Yes, will definitely use a self-declaration of address for the main residency criteria. Also, considering the "Sponsorship visa" exclusion - do others agree this is talking about employer sponsorship and NOT Ukraine Sponsorship schemes? I've asked the DfE for a clearer definition.

We're still deliberating the best way to approach this, and whether or not a simple question re ordinarily resident self-declared will suffice for all (apart from Asylum seekers), or additional questions are required re student visas etc. It's unhelpful that the list in the funding rules are examples, and not exhaustive.

Clare Roberts yes I took sponsorship visa to mean the employer sponsorship visa and not the Ukraine scheme

Daniel Dowson I agree, I never find the DfE guidance helpful, its very poorly written.  If I released this to my users as it is, we would be drowning in questions :-).
I am thinking of 2 self-dec questions, one for the ordinarily resident at start and one for their immigration status otherwise how do we identify asylum seekers, those on a student visa or those not legally in UK...?
Who does the learners with limited length visas section refer to? Asylum seekers only?

Had a response from DfE: Those learners who are in the UK on a sponsorship visa; this includes skilled worker visas and seasonal worker visas are ineligible for funding. Learners on any type of Ukraine scheme are eligible for ASF provision as long as the learner has a legal visa status for residing in the UK.

Thanks Clare Roberts, its good to get some clarification

Hi Karen Simmons, specifically on this point:

They are still referring to the learners with limited length visas needing to have enough time to complete their course - that suggests we still need to check learner’s e-Visas for an end date.

The main reason for the change (he says, cynically) is because there are no longer visa end dates visible on the e-Visa, so you've just got to ask and trust them (plus, all the stuff about it not mattering if they intend to extend the visa anyway is also still there).

So if we have asylum seekers or learners on the Ukrainian scheme who has an end date before the course completes will not be eligible for funding?

Hi all,

It looks like the DfE has dropped the clear requirement for learners to have been living in the UK for at least three years before the start of the course — at least under the ASF rules. The expectation now seems to be built into the types of immigration status they list as eligible. Most of those, like Refugee status, the EU Settlement Scheme, Afghan schemes, or Indefinite Leave to Remain, either come with long-term residency already or are treated as “permanent” from the start.

What appears to have changed is that people on Skilled Worker visas or other limited leave to remain routes are no longer able to qualify just by being here for three years — they’re not eligible under ASF regardless of how long they’ve lived in the UK.

That said, we’ve kept the question “Have you lived in England or the EU/EEA for the last 3 years?” on our learning agreements so we can still flag up and check what type of visa or permission the learner has.

As this change only applies to the national ASF, the three devolved areas we work with (TVCA, NECA, and YNYCA) are still using the old three-year residency rule — so we’re in for a potentially confusing year.

Further to this, I also can’t see any clarification yet on dependant or spouse visas, so that might be another area we’ll need to seek guidance on.

Asylum Seekers don't have an "end date" in any meaningful sense, though?

Ukrainians will, no doubt, be going to make a further application (if, in fact, they don't get a universal extension?), so this bit applies:

Where a course continues past a learner’s visa expiry date, providers may at their discretion fund that learner only where they have a high degree of confidence that a learner intends to (and will be eligible to) renew their visa.

Just on the back of this, can anyone help clarify these two seemly opposing statements from the funding rules? Does this mean anyone on Leave to Enter or Leave to Remain are not funded because neither of these are classed as 'permanent' ?

Do you think the exclusion for skilled worker visas will also apply to those here as the spouse of a skilled worker?

Goodness Tara Cutress I didn't consider that difference.  I think most learners with leave to enter/remain would answer Yes they have a permanent address in UK. 

I logged a case with the DfE to ask whether they expect providers to view and record details of e-Visas for all learners who are not british citizens and if we can use self-declarations from learners to confirm if they are here legally and will be permanently resident in the UK at the start of their course.
Their reply was:
For Audit purposes we would be happy with seeing a note made by the provider of what they have seen, when and by whom and this is signed and dated as proof of why the decision was made to fully fund the learner.

We would not consider self-certification to be acceptable evidence.

We have decided to remove the 3 year question and simply check Sharecodes for anything that suggests a work sponsor or being here as a student. Other circumstances, such as dependant/spouses and general leave to remain/enter visa's are still unclear though, as they are only permanent with 'indefinite' leave. 

Ceri Fishlock we have taken the guidance to mean that if the e-Visa or ARC (for Asylum seekers) shows an end date then this needs to be on or after the course end date for the learner to be eligible to enrol unless they can provide separate proof that they have submitted an application to extend their visa.  As Steve Hewitt has mentioned, most e-Visas don't show an end date, if there is no end date we assume their permission will cover their whole course and they are eligible.

Hi there 

How are people approaching dependent Visas? As far as we can see student on a dependent visa now appear to be okay regardless of who they are dependent on?  Has anyone received any clarification regarding this?

Hi Lisa Storey-Aung I logged a case with the DfE last week regarding spouse, partner and dependent visas.  They confirmed that they will be updating the funding rules to clarify that dependents of all individuals with sponsorship visa status, with the exception of seasonal workers, are eligible for ASF funding.  I then asked if they expected us to see the visa of the partner/spouse to ensure the sponsorship visa status is NOT seasonal worker and they said yes and that self-declaration from the learner that their partner/spouse visa is not a seasonal worker visa would not be acceptable.  

Thank you Karen Simmons that is very helpful.