On the 28th March 2024 the ESFA published the draft apprenticeship funding rules for the 2024/2025 academic year.
On publication of the draft rules, we started a process of assessing the announced changes and their impact on the Bud platform and confirming the effect of these changes with members of the funding and compliance forum.
In release 4.73.0 we have made the following changes to the bud platform to support the new funding rules and, as part of the same workstream, we have made several small enhancements to the platform.
Enrolment - Changes to extended residency options (Funding rules)
These changes apply to the extended residency options in enrolment accessed when "none of the above" is ticked.
- Moved the position of the "person granted stateless leave" to ensure it is covered by the "The husband, wife, civil partner or child of any of the above in this list" option.
- Edited the name of the "Leave outside of the rules" option to "Leave outside of the immigration rules" for clarity
- Replaced the "Indefinite leave to remain" option with:
- "Individuals with indefinite leave to remain or enter granted as a victim of domestic abuse"
- "Individuals with indefinite leave to remain or enter granted as a bereaved partner"
- Added "British citizens who were born in the British Indian Ocean Territory" option
Enrolment - Renamed residency options (Funding rules)
- Text changed from "A Family member of an EEA National" to "A Family member of an EEA or Swiss National"
- Updated sub-text to: "Who has obtained pre-settled or settled status under EUSS and has been ordinarily resident in the UK, EEA and/or Switzerland for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of their apprenticeship.
- Text changed from "Irish national living in the UK" to "Irish citizen living in the UK or Republic of Ireland"
- Updated sub-text to: "and have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands, and/or Republic of Ireland for at least the previous 3 years on the first day of the apprenticeship."
- Text changed from "Irish national living in the EEA or Switzerland" to "Irish citizen living in the EEA or Switzerland"
Training Plan document - Add wording to commitments section (Enhancement)
- Under "The Employer (manager of apprentice) will" section added new commitments:
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"4. Confirm that the Apprentice is included in the PAYE scheme declared in the apprenticeship service account used to fund this Apprenticeship"
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"5. Confirm that the Apprentice will spend at least 50% of their working hours in England over the duration of the apprenticeship (also applies to remote and hybrid workers)
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- Under Main Provider section added "(also applies to remote and hybrid workers)" to commitment 1 bullet point 2.
- Under Learner section added "(also applies to remote and hybrid workers)" to commitment 11 bullet point 2.
Training Plan document - Add wording to progress reviews section (Enhancement)
- In the "progress reviews" section of the Training Plan document, amendments have been made to the following text:
- "They will be carried out every 12 weeks as a minimum" to "They will be carried out every 3 calendar months as a minimum" (NB: this change will only be visible on training plan documents where the learner's start date is after 01/08/24)
- Added in Release 4.72.0
- Added the words "Progress reviews may be carried out face-to-face, virtually or via email"
Funding page and document - add wording to funding outcome section (Enhancement)
- Changed wording from "This application qualifies for additional support from the government. You will receive" to "This application may qualify for additional support from the government, subject to meeting current funding rule requirements. If eligible you will receive"
Co-Investment logic changes
In release 4.72.0 we release a number of changes to the co-investment logic to mirror the changes announced by the Prime Minister, later confirmed in the funding rules documents. Full details of these changes are detailed HERE
Forthcoming Changes
Add "programme delivery model" to programme build.
In the final July release, we will be looking to make changes to the programme build area of bud to allow providers to select the "programme delivery method" for a given programme. This is in direct response to the funding rule changes regarding the frequency of progressive visits where an alternative delivery method is used (i.e. Front-loading or Bulk-release)
The options available for selection will be:
- Activity based sequential delivery
- Day release
- Front-Loaded
The selected value will then be appended to the Training plan "Applicant details" section for any learner on that programme.
NB: if no programme delivery method is selected for a given programme then the additional "programme delivery method" value will NOT be displayed in the training plan.