On-demand webinar

2023-24 apprenticeship funding rules changes and ensuring the quality of provision for all learners

Name: 2023-24 apprenticeship funding rules changes and ensuring the quality of provision for all learners
Start: 2023-06-07T00:00:00.000Z

Dr Louise Karwowski and Sally Forsyth of Mesma on the 2023 to 2024 learning support funding changes and how to assure the quality of support. Recorded in 2023.

Recorded · 7 June 2023

This is an older recording. Some of it is out of date: see what's still relevant and what has changed.

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2023-24 apprenticeship funding rules changes and ensuring the quality of provision for all learners

Speakers

Dr Louise Karwowski
Former VP Neuro-inclusion Training, Cognassist
Sally Forsyth
Marketing and Business Development Manager, Mesma

Funding rule changes and the quality of provision

Dr Louise Karwowski, Director of Education at Cognassist, and Sally Forsyth of Mesma discuss the apprenticeship funding rule changes for 2023 to 2024, a quality assurance framework for learning support, and why employer engagement matters.

What we cover

The 2023 to 2024 apprenticeship funding rules changes
The quality assurance framework for support, with a self-assessment digitised by Mesma
The importance of employer engagement for success
Questions on learning support

The follow-up webinar, Part 2 with RSM, goes deeper into screening and evidence. For the rules as they stand now, see learning support funding.

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Recorded June 2023 · reviewed October 2026

What's still relevant

Providers must still run a learning support screening at the start of every apprenticeship, and the recording explains why hidden needs need finding early.
The initial assessment is still an eligible cost inside the apprenticeship price, while a further detailed assessment is still not fundable.
The evidence pack it describes (the assessment, why adjustments are needed, a plan the apprentice agrees before any claim, and delivery records for each month claimed) is still what providers must hold.
The five-part quality structure (identify, plan, support, review, prepare) and the examples of adjustments and assistive technology.

What's out of date

Rules year and who checks them (from 5:17). Providers are told the 2023 to 2024 rules apply, with audits by the ESFA. Now: The current rules are the apprenticeship funding rules for August 2026 to July 2027, set by DWP; the ESFA closed on 31 March 2025, and DWP and DfE may examine and investigate claims.
Review frequency (from 11:34). Learning support reviews are required every month. Now: Reviews are required at least every 3 calendar months, the first one month after adjustments start, and may be light-touch where a permanent disability makes the need stable.
Government guidance (from 45:21). The government guidance on the rules had not yet been updated and was expected to change within months. Now: DWP's guidance on supporting learners with learning difficulties and disabilities was updated on 31 July 2026; check that rather than anything said here.
Ofsted and the three I's (from 19:52). Intent, implementation and impact are presented as Ofsted's lens, under the old inspection approach. Now: Ofsted's renewed framework, in use since November 2025, grades inclusion in its own right with no overall grade, and the three I's are not a requirement, though they remain a sound way to structure evidence.
Institute for Apprenticeships guidance (from 31:26). Viewers are pointed to guidance on the Institute for Apprenticeships' website. Now: IfATE was abolished on 1 June 2025 and its functions moved to Skills England and DfE.