Additional learning support for apprentices

Additional learning support for apprentices is the funding a training provider claims for the cost of the reasonable adjustments an apprentice with a learning difficulty or disability needs to complete their apprenticeship: £150 a month in 2026 to 2027, for each month the adjustments are needed, delivered, evidenced and cost money.

The claim is the provider’s own, and good records are evidence of good practice whether or not you claim.

What is additional learning support for apprentices?

Additional learning support for apprentices is learning support funding: the provider’s claim for the cost of reasonable adjustments, under rules set by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). DWP says: “Learning support is sometimes called ‘additional learning support’ or ‘additional learner support’.” Providers also call it ALS.

DWP owns the apprenticeship funding rules for 2026 to 2027 and, since 1 April 2026, the learning support guidance, Support for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. “DWP and the Department for Education (DfE) may examine and investigate claims.” The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) closed on 31 March 2025, so guidance that names it as the funder predates the current rules.

For background, our earlier explainer on learning support funding was written before the 2026 to 2027 rules. For how we approach the records behind a claim, see evidencing a defensible learning support claim.

Which apprentices are eligible?

An apprentice is eligible for additional learning support with an existing or previously issued education, health and care (EHC) plan, statement of special educational needs (SEN) or learning difficulty assessment (LDA), or where a thorough, evidence-based assessment shows a learning difficulty or disability and that they cannot complete their apprenticeship without additional support. No diagnosis is needed.

Need the apprentice declares, and need nobody has found before, both count. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance says: “This could include learning difficulties or disabilities which the learner self-declares, or which have not previously been identified.”

The assessment is evidence for the provider’s judgement, never the whole of it. Eligibility never rests on an automated assessment alone.

The funding rules take their definition from section 15ZA(6) of the Education Act 1996 (para 41): a learning difficulty is “a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of persons of the same age”, or a disability that “prevents or hinders the person from making use of facilities” of a kind generally provided for learners over compulsory school age.

What it pays for, and what it does not

Learning support funding for apprentices pays for the cost of reasonable adjustments that are additional to everyday teaching and cost money. Equipment bought for an adjustment becomes the provider’s property, to keep and reuse for future learners. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance, Support for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities, lists what the funding can pay for.

It does not pay for:

• Adjustments that cost nothing. DWP’s example is extra time to complete an assignment.
• Everyday difficulties not associated with the apprenticeship.
• Learning gaps with no identified learning difficulty or disability.
• The further, detailed assessment of need (paras 43.1.1, 44.4 and 115). The initial assessment is an eligible cost within the apprenticeship price.
• Adjustments in the workplace. “Employers should not use learning support to make or fund these reasonable adjustments.” Access to Work supports the individual at work.

How much: the monthly rate, excess and exceptional support

Learning support funding for apprentices is £150 a month in 2026 to 2027, fixed, for each month adjustments are needed, delivered and evidenced. Costs above £150 go through the earnings adjustment statement (EAS), up to £19,000 a year, and costs above that need authorising in advance.

A one-off cost above £150 in a month is claimed as £150 through the ILR plus the rest through the EAS. None of the funding comes from the employer’s account, and there is no co-investment.

A worked example

In this illustrative example, an apprentice’s claim for 2026 to 2027 is £1,650 through the Individualised Learner Record (ILR): 11 months at £150. The 12th month is not claimable, because that month’s only adjustment cost nothing.

The apprentice is illustrative, not a real learner. Their plan has costed adjustments, delivered and evidenced every month. In December, the only adjustment was extra time to complete an assignment. No month’s costs go above £150, so nothing goes through the earnings adjustment statement (EAS).

A separate example: equipment

This is the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance’s own example, and it is not part of the year above. A specialised laptop costing £1,000, used for the whole apprenticeship, is claimed as one month’s £150 through the ILR plus £850 through the EAS. There are no further monthly claims for the laptop. The provider keeps it to reuse for future learners, so it is reimbursed in full even if the apprentice leaves early.

How a claim works

A provider records the need in the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) and claims £150 for each month the adjustments are delivered and evidenced. The provider decides eligibility, codes its own ILR and files its own claim.

1. Hold the evidence first. Claims “can only be made from the date that evidence is acquired” (para 43.1.2).
2. Agree the support in writing. The apprentice agrees the support arrangements in writing before any claim.
3. Record it in the ILR. Learning Delivery Funding and Monitoring, LearnDelFAMType = LSF, code 1.
4. Claim each month. £150 for each month adjustments are delivered and evidenced. Costs above £150 go through the earnings adjustment statement (EAS), with invoices.
5. Claim on time. The deadline is the last ILR collection of the funding year (para 45).

The evidence pack, line by line

For every apprentice claimed for, the provider holds six things: the assessment, the reasons for the adjustments, the impact without them, the agreed plan, evidence of delivery each month and reviews at least every three months.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sets no format: “Your evidence does not need to be in a specific format.” For what goes in the plan itself, read what a learning support plan is, with a template.

Kept as the work happens, the pack stays current. One special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) puts it simply:

The case study shows how Brighter Horizons keeps its evidence ready.

Reviews: at least every three months

Learning support for apprentices is reviewed at least every three calendar months, and the first review comes one month after the adjustments start. Each review confirms the adjustments are still necessary and effective, and that the months claimed are accurate (para 44.5).

• New for 2026 to 2027: where a permanent disability makes the need stable and unlikely to change, the review can be light-touch (para 44.5).
• When support ends, stop claiming from that date and update the Individualised Learner Record (ILR) (para 44.5.1).
• One meeting can do both. The learning support review can be combined with the three-monthly progress review, with evidence of both (para 102.3).

Apprenticeship units

An apprenticeship unit is “a targeted flexible training programme designed to upskill employees in a critical skill”, in the words of the apprenticeship unit funding rules (para 1). For an apprenticeship unit in 2026 to 2027, learning support is a one-off fixed payment of £150, claimed through the earnings adjustment statement (EAS) once Milestone One is reached. Eligibility, assessment and evidence follow the apprenticeship rules above.

• Costs above £150: claim to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) at the start of the unit, or as soon as it is clear the support will cost more. The first £150 still goes through the EAS after Milestone One.
• Staff costs: the “Apprenticeship Units: Learning Support – Estimated Cost” form, then the “Actual Cost” form when the learner completes or leaves, paid less the £150.
• Materials such as specialist equipment: the “Actual Cost” form with the invoice, paid less the £150.
• Reviews are good practice, but DWP says: “We do not require you to evidence this”.

DWP updated its guidance on 21 October 2026 to reflect changes in claiming the fixed payment. The unit rules are in the apprenticeship unit funding rules for 2026 to 2027.

Finding need at the start, including need not declared

Every apprentice’s initial assessment must screen for learning support: “The provider must undertake a screening exercise for learning support” (para 43). Where it points to a possible learning difficulty or disability, a further, evidence-based assessment follows, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance is clear: “Do not only use an automated assessment.”

Two figures sit side by side. They measure different things, so one is never subtracted from the other:

• 16.7% of apprenticeship starts in 2024/25 declared a learning difficulty or disability (Department for Education (DfE) statistics).
• Approximately 1 in 3 learners we assess in further education (FE) and apprenticeships may have a cognitive barrier that warrants support, and some of them may have a barrier that self-declaration misses (Cognassist assessment data).

A flag is a potential barrier for a tutor’s judgement, not a diagnosis and not a claim.

Asking a learner tells you how they see their own learning. Measuring tells you how they process, remember and reason. Research finds the two only loosely agree, and DfE’s own data guidance recognises that many learners will not be able to identify themselves: “It is recognised that many learners for whom information is recorded in this field will not be able to identify themselves as having learning difficulties” (ILR specification 2026 to 2027).

The rules allow for this. Need the apprentice self-declares and need newly identified are both eligible.

What a funding check tests

A Department for Education (DfE) funding assurance review tests learning support for apprentices directly. DfE’s post-16 funding assurance review guidance (September 2026) asks: “Is the learner eligible for learning support funding and is there evidence of delivery of learning support?” (apprenticeships, test 5).

• The sample: normally 30 learners per funding stream.
• The threshold: a sample or overall error rate of 5% or more makes the conclusion unsatisfactory.
• An error found: the provider must self-audit every learner who could share that error, and DfE recovers any funding overclaimed, including from prior years.
• Extrapolation: DfE extrapolates from the sample error rate “only in the most exceptional circumstances”.

“DWP and the Department for Education (DfE) may examine and investigate claims”, says the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) guidance.

Fear of that check holds providers back. Many under-claim: eligible learners go unidentified, and delivered support goes unclaimed when the evidence is patchy. Research by the Learning and Work Institute for DfE in 2018, Exploring funding for apprentices with additional needs, found providers saw evidencing and auditing as “a disincentive to apply”, which “has led some to become risk averse and only claim for a small proportion of the support they provide”. The evidence pack answers test 5 for every learner, whether or not a review ever comes.

What Ofsted inspectors write about support for apprentices

Ofsted inspectors write about how early providers find need and whether they review the support they give. In our count of 495 Ofsted reports on further education and skills providers published from 12 January to 26 October 2026, 264 praise needs identified early and accurately. 41 record needs found late, or only when a learner declared them. 74 record support whose impact is not reviewed, and none of those 74 is graded strong or exceptional for inclusion.

Each count is the reports in which inspectors wrote the finding. A report that says nothing on it is silent, not clear. Ofsted names no method for finding or reviewing need; these are what inspectors record.

What inspectors praise:

What they record as gaps:

What changed for 2026 to 2027, and where each rule sits

Three things changed for learning support for apprentices in 2026 to 2027:

• The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) owns the rules. Responsibility for apprenticeships moved from the Department for Education (DfE) to DWP, and the learning support guidance moved to DWP on 1 April 2026.
• Light-touch reviews are allowed where a permanent disability makes the need stable (para 44.5).
• Apprenticeship units: DWP’s 21 October 2026 update changed how the fixed £150 payment is claimed.

The rules are also explicit that the further, detailed assessment is not fundable (paras 43.1.1, 44.4 and 115).

Every rule on this page, by paragraph of the apprenticeship funding rules, August 2026 to July 2027:

Learning support is not Learner Support

Additional learning support is not Learner Support. Learning support funding pays the provider for the reasonable adjustments a learning difficulty or disability needs. Learner Support is a hardship fund for adult learners’ own costs of attending, and apprenticeships have no Learner Support fund.

Apprentices have other payments, separate from learning support:

• £1,000 each to the provider and the employer where, at the start, the apprentice is 16 to 18, or 19 to 24 with an education, health and care (EHC) plan and/or care-experienced. It is paid 50% at 90 days and 50% at 365 days. For a 19 to 24 year old, the provider needs the apprentice’s consent to tell the employer; without it, the provider is paid and the employer is not (paras 125 to 128).
• The care leavers’ bursary: £3,000, once, to an apprentice who is or has been in the care of a UK local authority.

Higher and degree apprentices cannot get the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA), so their support runs through these rules.

How one provider runs it

Brighter Horizons Training, an independent training provider, runs learning support for apprentices month by month. Its special educational needs coordinator (SENCo) meets learners every month:

Good records are evidence of good practice. With the practice and the records in place, Brighter Horizons reports that 15% of its apprentices now receive learning support, up from 5%. That is its own published figure.

In higher education, the University of Exeter’s degree apprenticeship team identifies support needs from the start. Professor Sarah Tudor says:

Cognassist keeps the evidence record: evidence captured at the point of delivery, not built retrospectively, in one trail that keeps everyday inclusive practice separate from additional costed support. Cognassist structures and records the judgement; your staff make it, and the claim stays yours.

See how Brighter Horizons attaches the learning support plan and the assessment, so its evidence is ready when it claims.

Read the Brighter Horizons case study