Guidance to support post-16 funding assurance audits

With relatively little fanfare, on the 4 September the ESFA published guidance aimed at providers that return ILR data, and others who wish to understand the ESFA assurance process and the funding assurance review process.

This incredibly useful document demystifies some of the uncertainties and unknowns on some of the funding rules and the processes that funding audits take. There is a 35 step-by-step guide on how a funding audit should be run, and there is an 11 page guide that illustrates the evidence requirements for apprenticeship funding. The latter document on apprenticeship funding contains 139 steps which illustrates just how complex this funding regime is.

Finally there is also a handy handy guide of Common findings from funding assurance work on post-16 education providers: 2022 to 2023 – this report is produced annually so one to keep on your reading list. This guidance is an absolute ‘must read’ for the student records team as it gives valuable insight into how the ESFA Funding Audits are conducted and gives the opportunity for the team to use these checklists when performing checks on the College’s ILR data.