Guidance

Adult business case 2026 to 2027 data return: guidance for completing the digital form

Updated 4 February 2026

Applies to England

Introduction 

This guidance will help you complete the form to request a business case for funding year 2026 to 2027. You should also read this information:

• adult education and skills funding allocations
• adult education and skills funding allocations technical guidance: 2026 to 2027

Who is this publication for 

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

When to complete your submission  

The deadline to submit your 2026 to 2027 adult business case is in the 2026 to 2027 allocations technical guidance. You can change and resubmit your return up until this deadline.

Accessing the form  

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

If you require further help completing your return, or have any queries, you can contact us through the customer help portal. 

Before you start  

Make sure you have: 

• a DfE Sign-in account 
• read our business case guidance
• read our annual allocation timeline which shows when we will issue your funding allocation and when you can submit a business case

DfE Sign-in

To access the form you need to have an active DfE Sign-in account that is linked to your local authority. If you have not used DfE Sign-in before you will need to create an account. 

You must use the business case link to access the form. The adult business case form will not show within your DfE Sign-in account as a service.

Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account 

Follow the below steps to access the form: 

1: Access the digital form and select ‘Start now’. When prompted, enter your DfE Sign-in credentials (your username and password) for authentication.

2: If multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled on your account, you will need to enter a verification code to login. To send the verification email with the code you need to click on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity page’ you were directed to after entering your email and password.

3: After clicking on ‘Email code to [your email address]’ you will progress to the next page ‘Enter code’. Copy the code from the verification email and paste it into the box. Then select ‘Verify’.

4: Choose the organisation for whom you are completing the form for (this is only required if your account is linked to several organisations).

5: The next page displays the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and unique identifier of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into the form.

6: If these details are correct, select ‘Continue’ to go to the next page. If you believe these details are incorrect, contact us through the customer help portal and we will investigate. However, 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  

If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account, you will need to create one by completing steps 1 to 7 below:

1: Access the DfE Sign-in page and select ‘Create a DfE Sign-in account’.

2: Enter your email address. You must use a valid business email address that contains your name. We cannot accept generic emails, such as ‘admin’ or ‘info’. You cannot use a personal email address.

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 that is a minimum of 8 characters and contains 3 out of: lowercase characters, uppercase characters, numbers, symbols. Enter your given name and surname.

5: Sign in using your new credentials. Request your MFA verification email by clicking on ’Email code to [your email address]’ on the ‘Verify your identity’ page.

6: We will send you a MFA email to verify your identity. Copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.

7: Follow the next step instructions outlined in ‘Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account’ below.

Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account 

To add a new organisation to your account, follow the steps 1 to 6 below:

1: Login to your DfE Sign-in account.

2: Select ‘Organisations’ from the tab at the top of the page.

3: Select ‘Request access to an organisation’ from the ‘Related actions’ on the righthand side of the page.

4: Enter the name, URN or UKPRN of the organisation you wish to add.

5: Select the organisation from search results.

6: Enter comments for the approver and select ‘Confirm’.

Your request will be sent to an approver within your organisation. If you do not already have an approver your request will be actioned by the DfE Sign-in support team.

An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually an administrator or a senior manager. 

For security reasons, you will need the authorisation 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 under the ‘Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account’ section to complete the form.

 If you need further assistance 

If you need help with DfE Sign-in, use our DfE Sign-in help service where you will be able to request further assistance. When raising a support request, select ‘other.’

If you are having problems accessing the form, you can contact us through the customer help portal. 

 Completing the forms  

Access the digital form and select ‘Start now’. When authenticated through DfE Sign-in, you will find a portal with a list of forms to complete.

You must submit all the relevant forms  to complete your return. You can edit and resubmit your forms until the business case deadline.

When you select a form from the portal, you will find a ‘Save and continue’ button that will take you through each page of the form. If you sign out of the form or leave your form open for an extended period before submitting it, you can resume your submission when you sign back in. The digital portal will record the status of your form completion accordingly.

Once you have submitted the form you will receive an email confirmation of your submission. This email will contain a link to download a PDF copy of your submission. This link will expire after 6 months and we recommend you download a copy as soon as possible.

 Your details  

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

Reason for business case request 

The form will ask for the reason for your business case. Select the option that is relevant to your business case. 

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 new funding allocation amount that you would like to request. The form will then calculate your percentage change and difference in allocation value (pending business case approval).

The minimum increase that you can request is 5% of your current allocation. You can also request a decrease for some or all of your current allocation for the selected allocation line.

If your current allocation value is zero (£0), the percentage increase will also show zero (0%) after you have entered your requested funding increase. If your current allocation is zero you can request up to a maximum of £25,000 for this funding year.

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. You must 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 as appropriate

You must not include any personal data within your answers or business case description.

You will also have the option to upload a document to support your business case request. This is not mandatory. You must not include any personal data in the document. Before you upload any documentation, you must 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

We will contact you directly if we require further information.

Declarations page

Once you have completed all relevant sections, you must agree to the mandatory declarations before you can submit your form.

You will not be able to submit your form without fully completing the mandatory declarations. You must tick each statement box to confirm your agreement.

Submission summary 

You can check your answers on the summary page before submitting the form. You can change your answers using the ‘Change’ link that appears next to each data entry.

You can also save a breakdown of the form information by selecting ‘Save summary as PDF’ before you submit. We cannot accept a PDF summary of your answers as proof of submission. You must still submit the form.

You must select ‘Submit’ at the bottom of this page.

 Confirmation  

The final page confirms you have successfully submitted your form. You will receive a unique reference number, followed by an explanation of what happens next.

Make a note of your unique reference number as we will not include this information in your confirmation email.

You will receive an email confirming successful submission of your form which contains a link to download a PDF copy of your submission. This link will expire after 6 months and we recommend you download a copy as soon as possible.

Amending your submission 

You can resubmit your form up until the business case deadline for the relevant funding stream. To do this, you will need to sign in and resubmit the form.

If you make any subsequent submissions, we will use the details you provide on your most recently submitted form and disregard previous versions. You will receive a new unique submission reference number for your amended submission.

Enquiries  

If you have read this guidance and have any questions, contact us through the customer help portal . 

Feedback 

We are committed to enhancing our user experience and providing an improved forms’ service to our users. User feedback is invaluable to help us to improve. We welcome your feedback, using our short feedback form.