Attendance Management guidance

Further Education Providers - Attendance Management

1. Every Further Education Provider (provider) should have a published, auditable attendance policy to satisfy its own governance processes. A provider must not claim funding from the Student Loans Company (SLC) for learners who are not adhering to a provider’s attendance policy. This relates to various provisions in respective student support regulations and any other applicable regulations¹, which means payment of student funding is conditional on confirmation by a provider that a learner is attending and undertaking their course.
   
   
2. This document makes clear what attendance means for the purpose of entitlement to student funding. A provider is responsible for compliance with this for all its courses.
   
   
3. Attendance means active participation in a course by a learner, including, but not limited to, teaching face-to-face, online/distance learning or blended study, in line with a provider’s published attendance policy. A provider should communicate its policy to a learner and have an auditable process in place to support the action it may take when a learner does not meet attendance expectations.
   
   
4. Providers have flexibility to ensure every learner engages with a course, and that the learner and/or the course may require greater or less attendance than another due to circumstances or content. Every provider must have a published attendance policy.
   
   
5. A provider should communicate to a learner what its attendance policy is, considering the demands of the course and any personal circumstances of learners who may require specific study arrangements, for example, but not exclusively, due to a disability. If a learner’s participation in a course does not meet its expectations, a provider should act promptly to inform the SLC that it has withdrawn a learner as per a provider’s service agreement with the SLC. The necessity to do so, to reduce the risk to public funding, may arise after a provider exhausts its own procedures to help a learner remain on their course.
   
   
6. A provider should retain a sufficient, auditable record in a format that enables it to determine if a learner is attending their course. The Department for Education reserves the right to ensure there is action if it is considered a provider is not implementing an effective attendance policy.

(1) The Further Education Loans Regulations 2012, Part 5, para 19 (b) (c) and para 22 (3) (4) - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/1818/part/5