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Ooh, I wrote a reply to this earlier and it disappeared!
I'd strongly disagree with putting them on a BIL without the consent of them and their employer (go and check the flowchart!!!) but feel that 4 weeks with zero contact (where contact was expected) is about right to start worrying. If you're being hardcore, you'd withdraw them at that point, because you can always unwithdraw them in-year if they do pop back up. Often it's not the ones that completely vanish that are the problem (just get rid), it's the ones that promise you they'll turn up for the next session, promise they'll submit that piece of work etc and then don't that are the really tricky ones.
I'd definitely sort out any wayward ones before hard close though because it gets messy if you don't and having Some Difficult Conversations over the next five weeks is a good idea.
Yeah i've been having weird issues with ESFA Communities the last couple of days where my posts have been disappearing!
Thanks for your input though both, always appreciated. Regarding un-withdrawing, do you mean simply removing the withdrawal from their ILR (i.e. setting them back to '1 - continuing' etc.) or processing them as a restart?
Marvellous. Haha, yes definitely in year! I don't fancy any additional FRMs thank you very much. Do you anticipate there being any DAS related issues with re-opening a closed learner? They'll obviously re-appear on the ILR with their original start date.. but the initial DAS entry for them will have presumably been closed by the employer at this point..
Ben James
Apprentice not contactable
Edited
If an Apprentice hasn't been contactable for a significant period of time, despite many documented attempts, what's the consensus on a provider's next steps? Is there a commonly agreed protocol around withdrawing unreachable apprentices after 'x' amount of weeks, or is the expectation that we continue to email/call them ad infinitum? The funding rules define a withdrawal as when an apprentice leaves or "stops taking part in their apprenticeship before they have completed it", which this could be construed as.
We're discussing this internally as hard close is obviously fast approaching and we don't want to be in a position whereby apprentices are carried over into the next contract year, only for them then to be withdrawn using their last evidenced learning date which will ultimately be in the current contract year.