Advanced Learner Loan bulletin - November 2024

October performance management review point

If we've awarded you an increase to your loan facility, you'll have received an updated contract. You must digitally sign this before the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) tells us about the increase.

If you return it by 3 December, you’ll see the increase on the Learning Provider (LP) Portal after 9 December. If not, please ensure you sign your contract by 1 January. We can then add you to the portal after 6 January.

The second and final performance management point for academic year 2024/25 is also approaching and the review date is 16 January. Providers will need to use at least 90% of their loan facility to automatically be in scope for consideration of a growth award.

LP Portal enhancement

We've made an enhancement to the LP Portal that prevents a user submitting a withdrawal Change of Circumstance (CoC) after the course end date.

When attempting to perform a ‘withdrawal’ CoC, if the effective withdrawal date is later than the course end date, validation will now prevent this. The system will also display a relevant error message to alert the user.

A withdrawal date cannot be after the course end date held on the portal. Please make sure you regularly review course end dates and amend them if you're still delivering the learning aim.

December drawdown

The next drawdown date is Thursday 12 December. Please make sure you review your attendance worklist and your CoC worklist ahead of this date. You must submit any necessary confirmations or changes before this.

Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE)

DfE will continue the plans to deliver the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE). They've recently announced a one-year postponement to the launch of the programme.

This means the LLE will now launch in academic year 2026/27 for learners studying courses starting on or after 1 January 2027.

You can find further information on GOV.UK.

Advanced Learner Loans – Learning Provider forums

We'll be running face-to-face and virtual forums in March 2025. Here, we'll reflect on the current academic year and look towards academic year 2025/26. We’ll consider how the further education sector is evolving and the latest updates on the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE).

You’ll be able to feed back on all areas of our partnership with Learning Providers and speak with other providers. We'll gather insight to feed back to DfE, ESFA and other partners and share best practice.

We’ll publish dates and venues in the new year.

Partners Support Desk

Our Partners Support Desk is here to help you with any day to day operational questions. This could be about individual learners, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 100 0643 or by emailing lpservices@slc.co.uk.