funding rules and restarts

If you fully withdrawn them (don't put them on a BIL), when you restart, you don't record an Original Start Date, though you do still flag as a restart. What rules from this years will cause a problem that weren't in 20/21?

Hi Ruth

the challenge back is not to withdraw them but bring them back from a break with the new employer.

Thanks

Sarah

If the employer changes during the break, then they should be withdrawn. When last I spoke to the ESFA they confirmed;

Thank you for contacting the ESFA Service Centre. 
 
You need to amend to a withdrawal from the break in learning date and then record a new start as per the PSM, return without an agreed break.

Recording restarts (without an agreed break in learning)

The following guidance applies in scenarios such as where a learner has withdrawn from their learning for a reason other than an agreed break in learning or transfer, and subsequently returns to learning on the same aim(s).

When the learner withdraws, their learning aims must be closed with the relevant code in the Withdrawal reason field. Refer to guidance for recording leaner absence or withdrawal.

If the learner later returns to learning, the new aims must be created. Refer to guidance below for recording new aims when a learner restarts..

The original learning aims must not be re-opened.

PSM 2021-22. Provider support manual: Recording breaks in learning, transfers and restarts (fasst.org.uk) 

If the employer changes during the break, then they should be withdrawn

That's always been my guidance. However, since we can now have a larger gap between employer, dealt with by a BIL, that complicates that.

I still say that, if the change of employer happened during a BIL, that's no longer a BIL, and it's a withdrawal. The only time we'd record a BIL with a change of employer, is when they left their employer before going on a break, and we've only applied the BIL to deal with the longer than 30 day gap in employer.