Support funding
The AEB’s over-arching aim is to support as many eligible adult residents as possible to access learning. Some residents will need additional support to start or stay in learning. Where you identify that a resident has a learning difficulty or disability, or a financial barrier, your WMCA AEB allocation enables you to claim learning support and/or resident support funding to meet the additional needs of residents.
Learning support
The AEB’s over-arching aim is to support as many eligible adult learners as possible to access learning. Some learners will need additional support to start or stay in learning.
Where you identify that a learner has a learning difficulty or disability, or a financial barrier, your AEB allocation enables you to claim learning support and/or learner support funding to meet the additional needs of learners.
Learning support is available to meet the cost of putting in place a reasonable adjustment, as set out in the Equality Act 2010, for residents who have an identified learning difficulty or disability, to achieve their learning goal.
Learning support must not be used to deal with everyday difficulties that are not directly associated with a resident’s learning on their programme.
You must:
- carry out a thorough assessment to identify the support the resident needs
- agree and record the outcome of your assessment in the resident file
- record all outcomes on the resident file and keep all evidence of the assessment of the needs, planned and actual delivery
- report in the ESFA ILR that a WMCA resident has a learning support need associated with an identified learning aim, by entering code LSF1 in the ‘Learning Delivery Funding and Monitoring’ field and entering the corresponding dates in the ‘Date applies from’ and ‘Date applies to’ field
- You can claim learning support at a fixed monthly rate if you report it in the ILR.
- You must use the WMCA EAS if your costs exceed this monthly rate and you must keep evidence of these costs. You can find details of how to make a claim in the ILR coding guidance
You can claim learning support if learning continues past the planned end date and the resident needs continued support
Exceptional learning support claims above £19,000
If a learner needs significant levels of support to start or continue learning and has support costs of more than £19,000 in a funding year, you can claim exceptional learning support (ELS).
Learners aged 19 to 24 who require significant levels of support should have an EHC plan provided by their local authority and, therefore, would access funding from their local authority.
-
You must submit ELS claims at the beginning of the resident’s programme, or when you identify the resident requires support costs more than £19,000 in a funding year, by completing and sending the ELS claims document.
-
Claims should be submitted in a timely manner and will need to submit a business case.
-
To claim exceptional learning support for a resident aged 19 to 24 you must confirm why the individual does not have an EHC plan. This should be a letter or email from the resident’s local authority stating the reason(s) why the individual does not need an EHC plan.
-
When you claim exceptional learning support you must explain why you have claimed the amount you have, which would be linked to the learner’s assessment and planned learning support claim. You must only claim amounts for your costs of providing the support to the learner and not include any indirect costs or overheads.
-
ELS will be funded from within your AEB allocation.
Learner support
Learner support is available to provide financial support for residents with a specific financial hardship preventing them from taking part / continuing in learning. Before you award support to a resident, in addition to identify their needs within the following categories:
-
Hardship funding – general financial support for vulnerable and financially disadvantaged residents to support participation learning
-
20+ childcare funding – for residents aged 20 or older on the first day of learning who are at risk of not starting or continuing learning because of childcare costs
-
Residential Access funding – to support WMCA funded AEB residents (set out in paragraph 204 - 206) where they need to live away from home
-
COVID-19 response – support disadvantaged learners who cannot undertake online delivery in the event of local or national measures in response to COVID-19
You must not claim more than 5% of your total Learner Support final claim as administration expenditure. You must document your process for managing your administration costs over the current funding year and record, report and retain evidence on spending for each of the categories.
If you do not have a Learner Support allocation, you must follow these rules and claim learner support using the earnings adjustment statement (EAS).
You must:
- have criteria for how you will administer and distribute your funds; these must reflect the principles of equality and diversity and be available to residents and to us on request
- assess and record the resident’s needs, demonstrating the need for support
- report the appropriate Resident Support Reason codes in the ‘Resident Funding and
- Monitoring’ fields in the ILR
- complete a mid-year funding forecast and a final claim
- complete monthly EAS claims and a final claim
- consider the availability of other support for residents, for example from Jobcentre Plus
-
make it clear to residents it is their responsibility to tell the Department for Work and
-
Pensions about any resident support they are receiving from you, as resident support payments may affect their eligibility for state benefits
You must not use resident support funds for any of the following:
-
Essential equipment or facilities if the resident is eligible to full funding. However, these residents can get support funding for childcare, transport and residential costs
-
A resident in custody or released on temporary licence
-
A resident carrying out a higher education course or learning aims fully funded from other sources
-
To pay weekly attendance allowances or achievement and attendance bonuses
Hardship
You can use hardship funds for any of the following:
-
Course-related costs, including course trips, books and equipment (where costs are not included in the funding rate),
-
Support with domestic emergencies and emergency accommodation provided by others, or by providing items or services or cash direct to the learner, this can be the form of a grant or repayable loan provided by you
-
Transport costs (but not make a block contribution to post-16 transport partnerships or routinely fund transport costs covered in the Local Authority’s legal duty for residents of sixth-form age)
Examination fees
-
Accreditation fees, professional membership fees and any fees or charges due to external bodies
-
Your exam registration fees
- Support provided by others, or by providing items, services or cash direct to the resident.
This can be a grant or a repayable loan
In exceptional circumstances, you can use hardship funds with course fees for residents who need financial support to start or stay in learning
If an asylum seeker is eligible for provision, you may provide resident support in the form of course- related books, equipment or a travel pass. You must not give a resident who is an asylum seeker support in the form of cash
20+ childcare
You can only use childcare funding to pay for childcare with a childminder, provider or childminder agency, registered with Ofsted.
You must not use childcare funding to:
- fund informal childcare, such as that provided by a relative
- set up childcare places or to make a financial contribution to the costs of a crèche
- fund childcare for residents aged under 20 on the first day of learning; instead you must direct them to the ESFA’ s ‘Care to Learn’ programme
You must not use childcare for those aged 20 years or older to top up childcare payments for those
receiving ‘Care to Learn’ payments.
Residential access funding
You must:
You can use residential access funding to support ESFA funded AEB learners who meet eligibility criteria in paragraph 27, where they need to live away from home, for example to access specialist provision which involves a residential element, or to support learners who cannot access provision locally.
- set out the criteria and procedures for considering and agreeing applications for support from your residential access funds
-
only pay for travel costs for learners who are awarded residential access funding in exceptional circumstances
-
only claim residential access funding for the period the learner is resident, this could be in accommodation you own or manage or other accommodation which you have agreed to fund in line with your criteria
ensure costs claimed represent value for money for the local area
Where you have your own residential facilities, you must publish your rates
Response to coronavirus (COVID-19)
You can support disadvantaged learners who are undertaking classroom or blended learning to continue to participate via online learning where the learner is:
-
self-isolating, or caring for others affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) or is otherwise affected by local/national measures if they:
-
do not have internet access at home, and/or
-
do not have a suitable device, i.e. laptop or tablet, to compete the necessary online course work
You must secure value for money when purchasing IT devices and/or internet access including:
-
deploying any unused devices before you purchase new ones
-
exploring options to access low cost second hand or recycled devices
-
avoiding entering long term contract arrangements
-
holding a record of actual costs for any IT devices and/or internet access bought for this purpose and make this available to us, if asked
IT devices you purchase must only be loaned out to learners and returned at the end of their learning aim to allow them to be re-used by other learners. Learners must sign a declaration, confirming:
-
they will return the device when their online learning aim(s) complete, or if they leave before completing their learning
-
they will return the device in the same condition in which they received it
You must maintain an up-to-date record of the loan and return of devices to learners.
You must record the following evidence in the learner’s evidence pack:
-
the outcome of the assessment undertaken to identify the learners individual need
Job outcome payments
For fully funded learners who are unemployed, we will pay 50% of the achievement payment if they start a job before achieving the learning aim. If the learner then achieves the learning aim, we will pay the remaining achievement payment. The following conditions apply:
-
the learner must provide you with evidence through a declaration, that they have a job for at least 16 hours or more a week for four consecutive weeks
-
Where the learner was claiming benefits relating to unemployment, they must also declare that they have stopped claiming these
Community Learning
This section only applies to providers with a non-formula Community Learning allocation included in schedule 2 of their contract. We expect community learning to delivered in line with what we have set out in Annex C and our investment plans specific to work of community learning providers.
The purpose of Community Learning is to develop the skills, confidence, motivation and resilience of adults of different ages and backgrounds in order to:
- progress towards formal learning or employment and/or
- improve their health and well-being, including mental health and/or
- develop stronger communities
Community Learning Courses are delivered and reported on the ILR.
Prince’s Trust
In order to deliver the team programme, you must get approval from the Prince’s Trust and the WMCA.
For eligible WMCA residents aged 19 to 25, the WMCA will fund the team programme through the WMCA’s adult funding methodology. Please also refer to the Prince’s Trust section in the Adult Education Budget Funding Rates and Formula 2020 to 2021 document.
For eligible residents aged 16 to 19, the team programme is funded through the ESFA’s young people’s funding methodology.