Correspondence

DfE Update further education: 20 May 2026

Published 20 May 2026

Applies to England

Have Your Say

This is your chance to shape future DfE Updates. Please take a few minutes to complete our survey and share your views. See the feedback article for the link to the survey.

1. Action: Year-end funding claim for adult funding 2025 to 2026

The year-end funding claim window for adult funding opens at 9am on Monday 8 June 2026.

Please submit your adult year-end funding claim by 5pm on Friday 19 June 2026. The claim form will be available on submit learner data. The funding claims user guide will help you complete the form. 

You will need to submit a claim if you receive funds through these contracts:  

• grant funded – adult skills fund
• grant funded – free courses for jobs offer
• grant funded – advanced learner loans bursary

We will review claims to ensure they are substantiated by the data submitted in your individualised learner record and present value for money.

Once you have submitted your adult year-end funding claim, you will also be able to view it on Manage your education and skills funding (MYESF). 

16 to 19 funding is no longer included in the funding claims process. We have removed the requirement to sign the final funding claim in the MYESF service.  

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

2. Action: Submit Care to Learn and 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups funding claims

The third submission window is now open for academic year 2025 to 2026. Use our Care to Learn and 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups guidance when completing the form. 

You must submit new funding claims using our form on or before Wednesday 1 July 2026 for the:

• Care to Learn scheme 

• 16 to 19 Bursary Fund for defined vulnerable groups 

You can also use this window to submit late claims for both schemes or adjust previous claims.  

Local authorities are responsible for submitting defined vulnerable group bursary claims on behalf of maintained special schools and for eligible students they place in independent provision. 

2.1 Submit end of year data 

You must submit end of year data using the same digital form as your funding claims on or before Wednesday 1 July 2026, if you claimed Care to Learn funding in the first or second digital form submission windows. We will recover funding in full if you do not provide this data. 

You do not have to submit end of year data for 16 to 19 bursary fund for defined vulnerable groups. 

3. Information: Delayed publication of the subcontracting funding rules for post-16 education and training (excluding apprenticeships)

We have delayed the publication of the subcontracting funding rules for post-16 education and training (excluding apprenticeships) for 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027 due to a technical issue.

To allow time for completion, we have extended the deadline to submit exemption requests to Tuesday 30 June 2026.

We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. We are working to resolve the issue and will publish the rules as soon as possible.

Read the DfE subcontracting standard guidance for more information.

4. Information: Post-16 National Insurance contributions grant

We have published the conditions of grant and allocations for the Post-16 National Insurance contributions grant for financial year 2026 to 2027.

This funding supports eligible institutions with the increase in employer National Insurance contributions linked to post-16 education.

The guidance explains who is eligible, how we calculated allocations and how we will pay the grant.

If you have questions after reading the guidance, please contact us using our customer help centre.

5. Information: 2026 to 2027 student financial support scheme guides published

We have recently published the academic year 2026 to 2027 guides for:

• 16 to 19 Bursary Fund
• Care to Learn
• Residential Bursary Fund
• Residential Support Scheme

The student financial support scheme guides set out the funding rules for the different schemes. 

We ask that you review the updated guides and remind yourselves of the funding rules which apply to ensure your processes accurately reflect them.

6. Information: Further education workforce data collection update

We have now published the Further education workforce data collection statistics for the 2024 to 2025 academic year.  

If you have any queries about this, please refer to the “Contact us”  section of the publication.

The 2025 to 2026 collection will open on Friday 31 July 2026.  Providers must submit data on or before Friday 11 September 2026. 

We would like to remind you that this is a mandatory statutory return for all providers. As the submission deadline cannot be extended, we encourage you to complete your return as early as possible to avoid any issues.

You can access the updated collection specification at the submit learner data service.  

We look forward to receiving your data returns.  Thank you once again for your continued cooperation and support.

7. Information: Transfer of skills and apprenticeships responsibilities

Following a written ministerial statement on 16 September 2025, responsibility for apprenticeships, adult further education, skills, training and careers and Skills England, moved from DfE to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

As part of the transition arrangements, some responsibilities will remain with DfE. DfE will continue to issue grants, payments and communications on behalf of both departments during this transition period.

Previous references to DfE on your remittance advice will now show DWP. You do not need to take any action. If you need support, contact us through the customer help portal.

8. Feedback: Tell us about your experience of the DfE Update newsletter 

We have launched a short survey for colleagues in education settings and local authorities who read DfE Update. Your responses will help us understand how you use the newsletter, what you value most and how we can improve the content, format and focus. 

Whether you read DfE Update every week or occasionally, your views will directly inform how we develop the product to better meet your needs. 

The DfE Update survey: 

• will close on Tuesday 26 May 2026
• takes around 10 minutes to complete
• keeps all personal data confidential

Thank you for taking the time to share your views.

9. Feedback: Help us improve adult funding information

We are improving how adult funding information is presented, specifically calculation information regarding allocation statements for Adult Skills Fund.

We would welcome your feedback on the design currently in development and encourage participation if your role involves accessing and using these documents.

Online feedback sessions will run from Friday 22 to Thursday 28 May 2026. Sessions will take place via Microsoft Teams and will last up to 60 minutes.

Please register your expression of interest to take part. We will then contact you to confirm your session date and time.

Your feedback will help make adult funding information clearer, easier to access and more consistent.