Correspondence

DfE Update further education: 18 June 2025

Published 18 June 2025

Applies to England

1. Action: College financial data (CFD) service portal now available

The college financial data (CFD) service portal is now available for colleges to submit their completed College Financial Forecasting Return (CFFR).

Colleges must submit their completed CFFR and associated documents, including the commentary, to DfE through this portal by Thursday 31 July 2025.

A DfE Sign-in account will be required to login. If you do not have access to DfE Sign-in, you can make a request to create a DfE Sign-in account. 

This is a mandatory return and part of DfE’s ongoing review of college financial health and budget forecasting.   

We also have published a CFFR user guide that includes updated information on completing the CFFR.

2. Information: 2024 to 2025 year-end forecast funding claim: indicative reconciliation statement(s)

We will upload your indicative year-end reconciliation statement(s) through manage your education and skills funding, following submission of your year-end forecast funding in July, for the following grant funding streams:

• adult skills fund (ASF) (Adult Skills and Tailored Learning)
• 19 to 24 traineeships
• level 3 free courses for jobs
• advanced learner loans bursary (ALLB)

These statements are indicative and based on your recent year-end forecast claim and R10 ILR data return, so that you are aware of the indicative reconciliation position before we publish your final reconciliation statements in November 2025.

Where appropriate, we will show any post-16 monitoring errors within your indicative reconciliation statement. This is so you are aware of the potential impact before final claim reconciliation statements.

If you have any queries, please contact us through the customer help portal.

3. Information: Adult residency eligibility criteria simplification

To support adult learners in utilising the adult skills fund (ASF) in non-devolved areas, including free courses for jobs, the residency eligibility rules will be simplified from Friday 1 August 2025.

Individuals will be eligible for funding if they are ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of learning and the learning is taking place in England.

There is no change to the eligibility requirements for asylum seekers.

Individuals will not be able to access ASF funding if:

• they are here without authority or lawful status
• they are resident in the UK on a student visa, unless they are eligible through meeting any other of the categories
• they are in the UK on holiday
• they are in the UK on a sponsorship visa
• their residence permit imposes a study prohibition or restriction

We will provide full details in an updated version of the ASF funding rules which will be published in early July.

4. Information: Free Courses for Jobs construction expansion

In DfE Update Wednesday 28 May, we shared that we are expanding the free courses for jobs (FCFJ) offer to support providers to deliver more construction training.

We can confirm that all providers with a non-devolved DFE-funded free courses for jobs allocation for 2025 to 2026 will receive a 20% uplift to their allocation.

You must use this funding on construction training places.

You will receive an updated allocation statement on manage your education and skills funding by Monday 30 June 2025.

Business case requests

If additional funding is allocated to you, and you do not want this funding or have the capacity to deliver, please use the digital business case form to decline or request a reduced amount.

The form will be available when updated allocation statements are issued.

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.