DfE Update further education: 6 August 2025
Published 6 August 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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1. Action: How to claim exceptional learning support (ELS) for 2025 to 2026
We have published the ELS guidance and cost form for funding year 2025 to 2026.
You must complete the form for each Department for Education (DfE) learner whose learning support costs exceed £19,000 for:
- learners aged 19 and over with an identified learning difficulty and/or disability (LDD) without an education, health and care (EHC) plan
- all age apprentices that have an identified LDD and are with or without an EHC plan
- advanced loans-funded learners with an identified LDD without an EHC plan as part of the advanced learner loans bursary fund
Submit the estimated ELS cost form at the beginning of a learner’s programme using Document exchange.
You must select ‘Exceptional learner support’ as the document’s purpose.
Do not include any personal information in the file names.
Contact your mayoral combined authority or the Greater London Authority for support funding for learners funded through the devolved adult skills fund (ASF) provision, as referenced in the ASF funding rules.
If you have any questions regarding ELS after reading our guidance, submit them via the customer help portal.
2. Information: Enter learning data
Enter learning data (ELD) will go live on Monday 11 August, for funded apprenticeship-only providers (and providers delivering Care to Learn funded courses) to manage their learning data.
The new ELD service is replacing the Learner entry tool (LET) for creating Individualised Learner Record (ILR) files.
Creating ILRs is much easier and quicker using ELD due to:
- reduced data duplication when entering learners
- real time validation to improve data quality
- guided user journeys
- improved self-service with links to guidance
- web-based service which allows multiple users for the same organisation
- storage of data in the DfE environment
- links to other DfE services
Additional funding models will be added to ELD over the coming year so more providers can switch from LET to ELD.
We will publish further information and user guidance for ELD when the service goes live.
3. Your feedback: Foundation apprenticeships survey
The first foundation apprenticeships launched on Friday 1 August 2025 and are now available for delivery.
Following the launch, we are inviting existing apprenticeship training providers to complete a short survey.
The survey is designed to capture your current thinking and help us to understand real-time intentions and respond proactively, including:
- your organisation’s plans for delivering foundation apprenticeships
- which occupational standards you intend to offer (or reasons for not engaging at this stage)
- your confidence in engaging employers and learners
- what support you may need to deliver this provision effectively
We know many of you are actively planning your offer for the year ahead, and with much of the apprenticeship provision delivered year-round, we want to give you as much time and flexibility as possible to provide feedback, particularly ahead of the autumn term and new learner intakes.
Your responses will help us to assess provider readiness and shape the support we offer during the early stages of delivery and help ensure successful early implementation of your foundation apprenticeships.
The foundation apprenticeship survey will remain open until Wednesday 1 October 2025.