Guidance

Adult business case 2024 to 2025 data return: guidance for completing the digital form

Updated 21 March 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

This guidance helps you complete the adult business case form for the 2024 to 2025 funding year. 

More information on business case allocation is detailed in:

• 19+ funding allocations guidance
• 19+ funding allocations technical guidance

Who is this publication for 

The guidance is for organisations, further education and sixth-form colleges that deliver adult funding.

Accessing the form

Access the adult business case digital form to complete your return.

Before you start  

Please make sure you have: 

• a DfE Sign-in account
• read our business case technical guidance and our guidance on using the allocation calculator
• read our annual allocation timeline, which shows when your allocations will be issued and when you can submit a business case, if necessary

DfE Sign-in 

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account 

Follow the steps below to access your DfE Sign-in account: 

1. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in username and password for authentication

2. Choose the organisation that you are completing the form for

3. The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique reference number (URN) or UK provider reference number (UKPRN) of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into DfE Sign-in

4. If these details are correct, then all you need do is to select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page

5. If you believe these details are incorrect, please contact us through our customer help centre  and we will investigate. You can still proceed with your submission

Your account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in; it is used only for authentication.

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account  

You will need to create one by following steps 1 to 5 below:  

1. Select ‘create a DfE Sign-in account’ on the DfE Sign-in page

2. Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name)

3. We will send you an email to verify your email address; copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page

4. Create a memorable password of 8 characters or more. Your password must include 2 uppercase letters, 2 lowercase letters and 2 numbers

5. Sign in using your new credentials and request access to the organisation for which you would like to submit a claim. Your request will be sent to the approver(s) at your organisation for action

You might have noticed the term ‘approver’ when creating your account. An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It’s usually a senior person, such as an administrator or a manager. 

For security reasons, you will need the approval of one of your organisation’s approvers before you can access the form. 

Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined in the already have a DfE account section to complete the form.

 Completing the form

There is a ‘save and continue’ button at the bottom of each page. Clicking on this button will take you to the next page. The form will remember information you have saved if you sign out of the form or if you leave it open for an extended period.

You’ll also be advised what will happen next once you have submitted the form.

 Your details 

We will show you the information we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into your DfE Sign-in.  

Select allocation line

The form will ask you to select the appropriate allocation line within the selected funding stream for which you would like to submit a business case request.

Allocation line

The form will ask you to enter the funding increase you would like to request. The form will then calculate your new allocation value (pending business case approval) and indicate the percentage increase requested. The minimum increase that can be requested is 5% of your current allocation.

If your current allocation value is zero, the percentage increase will also show zero after you have entered your requested funding increase. If your current allocation is zero, you can request a maximum of £25,000.

Supporting information

The form will ask a series of questions to help us understand the nature of your business case request.

The form will also ask you to briefly describe the reason for your request. For new requests only, please include evidence of:

• your capability and capacity to deliver the funding requested
• why you require an allocation this year when you have not used the funding previously  

It is important that you do not include any personal data within any answers or within your business case description

You will also have the option to upload a document to support your business case request. Before you upload any documentation, you should ensure that the document:

• is in .xlsx format
• does not contain any special characters (a character that is not a number or a letter) within its file name
• does not contain any spaces within its file name (replace any necessary spaces with an underscore)
• does not contain any personal data

We will contact you directly if we require further information.

Select funding stream 

The form will ask you to select the funding stream for which you would like to submit a business case request. If the funding stream you select is not accepting any applications at the time you access the form, you will not be able to submit a business case request for that funding stream. 

Declarations page

You must complete the declarations. You will not be able to submit your form without completing this section fully.

Submission summary

There is a summary page so that you can check all your answers before submitting the form on behalf of your organisation. You can change your answers by using the ‘change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You can also save your submission summary by clicking ‘save summary as PDF’ before you submit it.  This will allow you to gain internal approval where necessary. If you are unable to see your submission summary within the PDF, you can download it by following these steps:

1. At the summary page, select ‘file’ and then ‘print’ option, a new window will pop up

2. From the dropdown, select ‘save as PDF’

3. Click on the ‘save’ button

Confirmation

The final page confirms your submission and shows a unique reference number. Make a note of your reference number as we will not include this information in your confirmation email. 

We will send an email to confirm we have received your submission to the email address you provided.

Amending your submission

You can make changes to and resubmit your form up until 5pm on the last day of the business case request submission window for the relevant funding stream. To do this, you will need to sign in and resubmit the form.

You cannot amend your submission after the submission window has closed. We will use your latest submission as final. We will not be able to grant any extensions to the deadline.

Contact us

If you have questions after reading our guidance, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support in our customer help centre.