It is your responsibility to watch your loan allocation and ensure you do not exceed it. If you exceed your allocation, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will ask us to block the approval of any new applications.

You can use the financial reports on the Learning Provider Portal to monitor your loan allocation. You can find more information about these reports in our Learning Provider Portal user guide.

You will be assessed for growth through 2 desk-based reviews. These will take place in October and January. Funds will be increased if you meet certain criteria. If you do not meet the criteria but have an exceptional case, you should raise this with your ESFA territorial team lead ahead of the review point.

You can find the Advanced Learner Loans funding rules for 2020 to 2021 on GOV.UK.

The Learning Aims website (part of the Hub) is being replaced by Find a learning aim for the start of AY 2020/21. Find a learning aim, which is now live, has simplified the user experience while still providing all the necessary information. The old website will still be available, but please use the new website to ensure you have the most up to date information.

If you have any questions, please submit an ESFA online enquiry form.

Learning provider virtual forums – register now

The ALL learning provider virtual forums will take place in November 2020 and registration is now open.

You can find more information and register on the SLC Events website.

Verification of National Insurance numbers

We are aware of a possible 3-4 week delay for new learners without a National Insurance number. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been working on a process that replaces the face to face interview with a new postal application.

Our process for sending National Insurance numbers for verification remains unchanged for AY 2020/21. The file is run on a Wednesday night and returned the following Tuesday. For 98% of students these come back as matched and 2% come back as exceptions.

Changing a learner's end date 

Please remember that you cannot change a learning aim end date once the date has passed. You must ensure that the learner's application details, including the end date, are correct before you confirm their initial attendance and while they are in learning.

Attendance confirmation

You must submit any outstanding attendance confirmations by close of business on 15 October to ensure payment on 21 October. Please check that your learners' details are correct and up to date, especially when submitting initial attendance confirmations.

You will also need to action any changes to learners' circumstances by 15 October. 

GOV.UK queue system

If the number of visitors to the GOV.UK website exceeds capacity, you will be redirected to an online waiting room. From there, visitors are placed back into the main website on a first come, first served basis.

The capacity is currently at 150 customers per minute, so the queue will start when the number trying to sign in goes above that.

We’re likely to only hit this cap during peak periods.

Reminder: Update the url for the Learning Provider Portal

We can see that some of you are still using the temporary url to access the portal. If you have not done so yet, please update your bookmarks to https://www.lpportal.slc.co.uk.

As always, you can also access the portal by selecting the Sign into the LP Portal button that appears at the top of every page on this website.