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A short guide for specialist colleges to support ILR completion.

This guide was last updated February 2026.

Table of contents

Introduction

This guide has been produced by Natspec using information published by the Department for Education (DfE). The DfE updates ILR guidance throughout the year. Always check the latest guidance before submitting any return. Natspec provides this as guidance, but it is the college/provider’s responsibility to ensure that all information submitted in their ILR is correct and complies with the current guidance provided by the DfE.

All publicly funded education providers must collect and return data about their learners. The further education (FE) and skills sector in England uses the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) to collect data about learners in the sector and the learning undertaken by each of them. The ILR is an electronic data return (XML file type) submitted to the DfE, with information about your learners. You must submit your return in accordance with the ILR Specification, which is published each January and is regularly updated mid-year.

For specialist colleges, the ILR returns deal with learners aged 16–19 that meet basic eligibility rules for funding, or those learners eligible for funding who are aged 19–24 and who hold an EHC Plan.

Funding through the 16–19 funding formula is per learner, not per qualification, however data is returned for all qualifications a learner undertakes. If a single learner, during the course of one teaching year, benefits from more than one type of funding, then a single learner record should be returned detailing all of the learning aims that they are undertaking.

Providers must follow the five Data management principles for ILR completion which can be found in the DfE provider support manual.

It is imperative to submit accurate data because:

  • the ILR is used to calculate funding for your organisation
  • ILR data underpins achievement rates and other published performance measures
  • Ofsted may use ILR data for pre-inspection analysis of performance
  • ILR data contributes to government statistics
  • the ILR is used to monitor your delivery against your funding allocations
  • inaccurate ILR data can result in funding recovery or financial adjustments.

Your organisation has secure access to submit data to the DfE via this link: Submit learner data

The basics

Learner data

Basic information about each learner is required: their Unique Learner Number (ULN), name, address and postcode, ethnicity, sex, etc.

  • ULNs can be found via the Learner Records Serviceif not known.
  • Many learners provide preferred names on enrolment; you must ensure their name on your ILR matches that on their identity documents (their legally registered name).
  • Details such as telephone and email address are not mandatory.
  • The learner’s date of birth is used to calculate their academic, or funding year age (their age on 31 August of the funding year) which in turn determines whether they are eligible for 16–19 funding or not.
  • Planned Learning Hours (PLH) and Employment Enrichment & Pastoral (EEP) Hours are collected annually for all 16–19 funded learners and used to determine the number of full-time and part-time learners in FE which in turn determines which funding band each learner is assigned to. (Learners in SPIs are generally funded at Band 5, so above 580 hours should be the target). This is a fundamental part of the 16–19 funding methodology and determines the base rate of funding each learner receives. They should be finalised within the funding qualifying period (42 days for most full-time learners), but this data is not returned until the first ILR return of the year (December for most providers). They should not be changed after this unless it is to correct administrative or entry errors.

English and Maths Condition of Funding (CoF)

Learner’s Circumstances Programme type What the learner must study
Programme under 150 hours Any Condition does not apply
GCSE grade 9–4 (or equivalent) in Maths or English Full-time or part-time Condition met for that subject – no further study required
GCSE grade 3 in Maths and/or English Language Full-time Must study GCSE in the subject(s) without grade 4+
Part-time Must study an approved qualification (GCSE or stepping‑stone) for minimum hours
GCSE grade 3 in English Literature only Full-time or part-time Must study an approved qualification (GCSE or stepping‑stone) for minimum hours
GCSE grade 2 or below, no GCSE, or equivalent overseas qualification Full-time or part-time Must study an approved qualification (GCSE or stepping‑stone) for minimum hours
Functional Skills level 2 pass Full-time or part-time Condition met – no further maths/English study required
Overseas qualification equivalent to GCSE grade 9–4 Full-time or part-time Exempt from the condition
EHC plan + institutional assessment confirms learner cannot study GCSE or stepping‑stone qualifications Full-time or part-time Exempt from the condition
EHC plan but no such assessment Full-time or part-time Must study an approved qualification for minimum hours
  • In addition to the participation element of the condition of funding, from 2025/26, there is the requirement for full time learners to be taught a minimum of 100 planned hours delivery for Maths and/or English for each accredited learning aim. To confirm compliance with this Code 1 should be recorded within the English Minimum Hours (EMH) and Maths Minimum Hours (MMH) fields
  • For learners with EHC plans, Institutions can use flexible delivery methods to provide these delivery hours, while staying compliant with CoF. For example, teaching may be in small groups or include embedded learning.
  • Learners with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), who are assessed as not able to study either GCSE or stepping stone qualification, can be exempted from the CoF: “In this case, in addition to the learner’s EHC plan, the institution must hold some form of evidenced assessment that the learner is not able to study these subjects. All exemptions must be considered on a case-by-case basis and re-assessed annually. There is no blanket exemption for whole institutions. There are a small number of learners who are not able to take any qualifications. These learners are exempt from studying qualifications, but appropriate literacy and numeracy should still be included in their programme at an appropriate level and delivered in a way that best meets the needs of the learner e.g. RARPA evidence.”
  • Stepping Stone, GCSE and UK qualifications deemed equivalent to GCSEs for the purposes of the condition of funding can be found in the Find a Learning Aim service easily by searching with the ‘EFA Funding condition – English/Maths qualification validity’ filter ticked
  • Please check the approved list regularlyto ensure that the qualifications you are using remain approved and funded each year (access the ‘Funding’ tab to identify the ‘Valid to’ date for the valid funding steam.)

LDD / High Needs / EHCP fields

Specialist colleges would normally code all learners indicating that they have a learning difficulty, disability, or health problem. Of all the declarations made, a primary disability must be assigned.

A learner’s High Needs status and whether or not they have an Education Health Care plan is recorded using the learner funding and monitoring (learner FAM) type and codes. The definition of a High Needs learner is where the local authority is paying top up funding (Element 3) because it agrees that the support costs are in excess of £6,000.

For High Needs learners as defined above, use the Learner FAM type HNS and FAM code 1. Please do not use this field in any other circumstances, as the DfE may adjust your funding allocation if you complete this field incorrectly.

Most, if not all, learners in specialist colleges would have this indicator.

Learner FAM type EHC and code 1 identifies a learner having an education health care plan. Most learners in specialist colleges would have an EHC plan and have this indicator. Only two groups of 19+ learners are funded through the 16-19 funding methodology:

  • 19+ continuing learners (those who started their programme when under the age of 19 and who are continuing the same programme after turning 19)
  • 19–24 year olds with an EHCP.

Learning Aims

Key information

All learners must have at least one core learning aim that either began in the current year or began in a previous year and has continued into the current year. A ‘Planned End Date’ in this or a future year is needed in order for it to be valid.

Learners may have multiple learning aims, but one aim must always be recorded as the Core Aim (Aim Type 5) – the substantive part of the programme.

Give consideration to the planned duration of the learner’s qualification/learning aims. Aims constrained within one academic year are easier to manage from an ILR perspective and also pose less risk to Achievement Rates should a learner not secure funding in subsequent years. However, be realistic in planning delivery. Substantial size aims with high Planned Learning Hours e.g. Diplomas may need to be planned over 2 or more years, despite the potential risk to Achievement Rates.

Learner Study Programmes can contain just regulated qualification learning aims, just non-regulated learning aims, or a combination of both.

Once you have returned learning aim Start and Planned End dates these should not be amended, with the only exception to correct administrative errors, please see the online section on correcting errors.

The funding model is normally ‘Code 25 (FM25) – 16-19 funding’ (excluding Apprentices): this includes those aged 19+ with an EHCP.

The provider support manual provides guidance on recording 16-19 study programmes in the ILR.

The Learning Aim Class Codes document, which is still relevant, details which non-regulated (‘Z-code’) learning aims can be used and how to find them. Learners under funding model 25 should use codes from Categories E (general) and G (maths and English), and additional codes from Categories I and J for work experience and supported internships. These categories can be seen, and searched for, within the Learning Aim Database (LAD) application (Find a learning aim) by using the quick access filter box for Maths or English only and clicking ‘Search’.

Search for Z-codes that have a Sector Subject Area that match your delivery e.g. ‘Preparation for Work’, ‘Hospitality and Catering’, ‘Performing Arts’, ‘Mathematics and Statistics’. Remember that Z codes are used to describe your learning delivery / activities.

Z-code aims normally have no planned learning hours prescribed, so you need to plan appropriate length courses of learning. Non-regulated delivery needs to be tracked with RARPA methodology, and a genuine appraisal of achievement or failure made at the point the learner leaves the course.

Work experience

If a learner plans to undertake work experience within an academic year, a single work experience learning aim should be recorded. If the learner undertakes multiple placements within a year, these are attached to the single learning aim using the work placement entity which collects multiple instances of work placements, their start and end dates, the type of placement and the hours delivered. As such, the Start and Planned End Dates of the learning aim must encompass all attached placement records. If a learner completes their planned placement, and their overarching learning aim, but later in the year undertakes further work experience outside of the original date scope, subsequent learning aims can be added and will validate, just be aware they will generate a ‘potential duplicate learning aim’ warning in the PDSAT report.

Planned vs EEP hours

In your ILR return you must identify the Planned Learning Hours (PLH) and Enrichment, Employability and Pastoral hours (EEP) uniquely. PLH should not be confused with Guided Learning Hours (GLH), which are the recommended hours set for study time of the learning aim as assigned by the awarding organisation and approved by Ofqual.

The PLH field is for registering how many hours the learner will be timetabled to study on ALL ‘Regulated Learning Aims’ within that academic year only. Regulated Learning Aims are those usually set by awarding organisations and approved by government for public funding.

EEP hours are for ALL hours in the academic year that the learner is undertaking applicable timetabled activities, usually with RARPA targets etc as evidence, or work placements which again will have a timetable and evidence from job coaches, attendance sheets, feedback from placements and so on.

Regulated Learning Aims in Find a learning aim will identify the Awarding Body or it will list the word ‘NONE’ of it is non-regulated.

The PLH & EEP hours fields should represent the balance of a learner’s study programme, so if they have a high proportion of EEP hours then the learner will have more Non-Regulated provision. If the learner is only studying Non-Regulated aims (EEP), or only studying Regulated aims (PLH), then the hours for the learner should only be entered in the appropriate box with a 0 (Zero) in the other box. This will raise a ‘Warning’ when checking for Rule Violations, but it is acceptable and will not raise an error.

ILR data accuracy good practice

Submitting accurate data to the DfE is crucial to getting an accurate funding allocation on time and avoiding additional work in submitting a business case post-allocations. Business cases are subject to a materiality threshold so there is no guarantee of a successful business case.

There are a number of ways to ensure you submit accurate data which we strongly advise all ILR returning institutions to use.

Rule violation reports: Funding Information Service (FIS)

FIS is a free application you can download to check and validate your data prior to submitting it to the DfE via Submit learner data. When you load your file into FIS you can do many of the things that the HUB does – in particular, you can run the same validation rules, rule violation reports and funding reports giving you early sight of any errors in your data before you have submitted it.

For those institutions who want to dig deeper into their data FIS also allows you to export your data into CSV files or into Microsoft SQL after all the DfE funding calculations have been performed on it giving you access to the same funding data the DfE uses to calculate your allocations from.

It is recommended you use the FIS system to check the validity and integrity of your data in the ILR often and importantly before submitting to the ‘Submit Learner Data’ portal

Please note that importing your ILR file into FIS will not transmit it to the DfE, you must upload your file to the HUB in order to transmit the data to DfE.

Submit Learner Data

When you submit your ILR file to the DfE using Submit learner data, the system runs a series of automated data checks to ensure your data is accurate and valid. The algorithms and validation rules used by this hub vary to those contained within FIS, so providers should leave time to review these ahead of any funding return deadline. This validation process outputs 2 very important reports: the rule violation summary and rule violation detail reports.

The summary report will show you any validation rules your data has failed and how many instance of each rule have failed. The detail report will show which records have failed which rules.

Validation rules are split into:

Warnings: things that could be correct but should be checked as they fall outside normal expectations and

Errors: things that are incorrect and need to be amended. If a learner has any element of their record that fails validation with an error, the whole learner record will be rejected from your return, and the data will not be transmitted to the DfE.

Validation errors are a common cause of learner counts being lower than anticipated in 16-19 funding allocations and so it is imperative you submit your ILR data well in advance of the return deadline to give you chance to identify and fix any validation errors.

16-19 funding reports

When the ILR submission process is complete the system will post a reports zip file for you to download containing a suite of very useful funding reports.

There are a number of 16–19 funding reports.

  • 16–19 Funding Claim report: this gives you a summary of all the valid 16–19 learners in your ILR return who qualify for funding broken down by the funding category and funding band they fall into. If the report shows fewer learners than you expected to see this will either be because they have failed validation and not been submitted to the DfE or they do not pass the funding qualifying period and so don’t count for funding purposes.
    • Please note that this report in the hub shows all fundable learners regardless of their start date. In 16–19 allocations the DfE applies a reference date of 1 November to your R04 data and 1 February to your R06 data – any learner starting after this date is not counted. If you want to replicate this count in your report, you can do so by running it out of FIS and applying a reference date filter – see below.
  • 16–19 Funding Calculation Full Output report: this report outputs all of the calculated variables for every recorded 16–19 learner from the 16–19 funding calculation. These have always been available through the SQL output and CSV exports in FIS but is now generated automatically. The report is in Excel format with one sheet showing the data for all your 16–19 learners and another containing a glossary explaining the content and derivation of each field output in the report. It contains all of the elements available in the Allocation Calculation toolkit where are normally available from the Document exchange during February/March each year.
  • 16–19 Summary of Funding by Learner Report: this shows you key information about all of your 16–19 learners who have passed validation. If a learner is valid but does not pass the qualifying period, you can identify them in this report as it includes all learners regardless of whether they qualify for funding and shows you who does and doesn’t qualify. If a learner fails to qualify and you think they should, you need to review their start, planned and actual end dates to ensure they meet the minimum 2 or 6 weeks qualifying periods.
  • Maths and English Report: this report shows you if your 16–19 learners are compliant with the condition of funding on maths and English. In order to identify non-compliant learners, you will need to filter for learners identified as ‘Doesn’t have Maths, not Studying Maths within the ‘Maths GCSE Status column (H) and/or ‘Doesn’t have English, not Studying English within the ‘English GCSE Status column (I). If you have non-compliant learners in this report who you think should be compliant you should check:
    • That the learner’s highest prior attainment in GCSE English and Maths (Eng grade and Math grade) is correct.
    • That they are recorded on English and Maths aims that count toward the condition of funding (using Find a Learning Aim as mentioned earlier on in this document) and that they stayed on the qualification(s) long enough to qualify (usually 6 weeks [42 days] unless the aim has a very short, planned length).
    • If they hold Grade D/3 that they are undertaking a GCSE or equivalent qualification – i.e. they are not undertaking a stepping stone qualification.
    • Review the English and Maths Condition of Funding (CoF) section to check whether any exemptions need to be applied
  • High Needs Learners Summary and Detail reports: these reports show you how many learners you have recorded as high needs and/or having an EHCP. These flags can be very important in ensuring you are allocated correct levels of funding.

More information about the 16-19 funding reports can be found on 2025 to 2026 ILR funding reports.

Bursary funds

Bursary Fund guidance for learners can be found at 16 to 19 Bursary Fund: Help.

Operational Bursary Fund guidance can be found at 16 to 19 Bursary Fund guide: 2025 to 2026.

The 16–19 Bursary Fund provides financial support to help learners overcome specific barriers to participation so they can remain in education.

There are two types of 16–19 bursaries: bursaries for defined Vulnerable groups of up to £1,200 a year, and Discretionary bursaries of no set amount, which institutions award to meet individual needs, for example, help with the cost of transport, meals, books and equipment. Being awarded one kind does not necessarily exclude the learner from receiving the other.

To be eligible to apply for a Vulnerable bursary a learner must be aged 16–19, funded by the DfE, and meet UK residency criteria. They must also meet further criteria based on benefits they receive or be in (or leaving/recently left) Care.

To be eligible to apply for a Discretionary bursary a learner must be aged either 16–19, or 19–24 with a current EHCP. They must also be funded by the DfE, meet UK residency criteria, and meet further criteria as set out by the provider they are enrolled at. It is expected that providers use household income in some way to help establish which learners are eligible before confirming the actual amount of support available.

Both types of Bursary, if awarded, must be returned via the ILR using Learner Funding and Monitoring (FAM) type ‘LSR’ with a code of 55 or 56 (or both), depending upon the type of bursary received

Read the guidance

There is a wealth of information about the ILR and how to submit your data on gov.uk. In particular you should ensure you have read the provider support manual and have the ILR specification close to hand for detailed information on all ILR fields.

Also ensure you have read the 16–19 funding rules, in particular the Rates and formula and funding regulations books.

Ask for help

Use the Home  – Customer Help Portal (to get best use of this, create an account) if you have questions about ILR submission, or contact Natspec for available support.

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