Additional Learning Support (ALS) / Learning Support Funding (LSF)
If your support records can't survive a funding audit, neither can the claim built on them
Learning support funding for apprenticeships carries a funding audit obligation whether or not you ever claim ALS. One sample finding can extrapolate across a year's claim: the downside is six-figure clawback, not a slap on the wrist.
The claim, eligibility and Individualised Learner Record (ILR) coding stay entirely yours. Cognassist is the evidence architecture, not the funding administration.
Learning Support Funding
A reconstructed claim file vs one that already exists
| Manual process | With Cognassist | |
|---|---|---|
| Identifying learners with an identified need | Ad hoc disclosure | One standardised assessment, every learner |
| Evidencing above-and-beyond support | Recorded after the fact | Classified and recorded as it happens |
| Standing up to a funding-audit sample | A scramble to reconstruct | Already defensible, exportable records |
| Keeping the ILR honest | Guesswork | Traces back to the assessed need |
What evidence survives a funding audit?
Four links, one thread: the same evidence that supports Ofsted's graduated approach, read forward as delivery or backward as an auditor would.
Assessed need
The cognitive assessment surfaces a domain scored 84 or below: a potential barrier, and a signal for professional judgement, never a diagnosis.
Matched reasonable adjustment
The barrier is matched to a reasonable adjustment that states its intent: why this support, for this learner.
Delivered and recorded
The tutor delivers the adjustment and records it, classified Above and Beyond where it applies. The Coverage Checker scores the record in real time: green meets the standard, amber needs improvement, red means nothing recorded yet.
Evidenced impact
The record shows what changed, and rolls up into leadership oversight in Insights (admin-only).
Customer story · Brighter Horizons
A training provider that turned records into a defensible claim position
Brighter Horizons Training builds its Additional Learning Support evidence the same way it builds every support record: as it happens, not reconstructed for an audit. The claim followed.
“We're now much more confident in our compliance, and we're able to claim funding we previously missed out on. Cognassist has become a real strength for us.”
- 100%learning support funding claim compliance
- 15%of apprentices receiving support funding, up from 5%
- 100%of learners rating overall support 5 out of 5
How providers build a defensible position, month by month
A recommended path, not a mandated one. Adapt it to your provider.
Make it routine
Make the assessment part of enrolment for every apprentice, provider-wide, not a special exercise.
Build the habit
Build the Coverage Checker into the coaching cadence your tutors already run, so recording becomes routine, not a task bolted on afterwards.
Review monthly
Review coverage with your quality lead every month, not just before an audit, so gaps surface while there's time to close them.
Decide together
Decide, with your quality and finance leads, whether to consider a claim off the back of the evidence. Your call, your ILR coding.
Go deeper, or find your own funding mechanism
See every funding mechanism
The funding hub covers every route to a defensible position, not just ALS/LSF.
ExploreThe general cost-recovery case
The provider-agnostic case for audit-grade evidence, across FE, apprenticeship and HE provision.
ExploreSee the delivery mechanism
Reasonable adjustments, recorded to the Three I's standard: the everyday capability this evidence chain draws on.
ExploreIs this the right fit?
The fuller picture for apprenticeship and training providers, beyond funding alone.
Explore
FAQ
The questions apprenticeship and training-provider leaders actually ask about learning support funding
What is learning support funding for apprenticeships?
Additional Learning Support (ALS) is the apprenticeships name for funding that can help a provider recover the cost of reasonable adjustments delivered to a learner with an identified learning difficulty or disability. No diagnosis is required: the provider identifies the need, and eligibility and claiming are entirely the provider's decision.Who administers learning support funding now the ESFA has been abolished?
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) was abolished on 31 March 2025; its functions moved into the Department for Education (DfE). Your funding audit and the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) are what still apply. Source: Department for Education, Adult skills fund: funding and performance-management rules 2026 to 2027, on gov.uk.Is this the same everywhere?
Mostly, but not entirely. National Adult Skills Fund rules cover learners outside devolved-authority areas. A Mayoral Combined Authority or the Greater London Authority (GLA) may run its own equivalent rules, so check locally. Source: Department for Education, Adult skills fund: funding and performance-management rules 2026 to 2027, on gov.uk.How do training providers claim learning support funding?
Evidence delivered support to the Three I's standard (Intent, Implementation, Impact), classify it Above and Beyond where it applies, and file via the ILR under your own quality policy.What evidence do you need to claim it defensibly?
The golden thread: assessed need, matched reasonable adjustment, delivered and recorded support, evidenced impact. An all-green Coverage Checker and the Above and Beyond classification are the defensible basis, if a claim is made.Does Cognassist claim learning support funding for us, or guarantee a claim?
No. The claim, eligibility and ILR coding stay entirely yours. Cognassist supplies the evidence, never the funding administration.Is the cognitive assessment behind this a diagnosis?
No. It's a signal for professional judgement, not a diagnosis, and it doesn't by itself establish disability under the Equality Act 2010.Does good evidence guarantee our claim will be accepted, or guarantee compliance?
No. Cognassist helps you evidence delivered support defensibly. The claim decision and compliance stay yours.
Talk to us about your learning support funding position
See how the golden thread turns everyday support into a claim you can stand behind, if you choose to make one.