What is the ILR? Individualised Learner Record explained for FE

The ILR is a data term that inclusion teams cannot avoid. It shapes what gets recorded about learners and how funding is claimed.

What is the ILR?

The ILR is the learner data that further education providers collect and return to the Department for Education. Providers submit returns at set points during the year, and the data is checked against validation rules. The department uses it to calculate funding and for analysis of the sector. The DfE publishes the ILR specification each year, with guidance on the data fields, validation rules and collection dates, and tools such as the Funding Information Service for checking data.

The ILR was formerly run by the Education and Skills Funding Agency. The ESFA closed on 31 March 2025 and its functions moved into the Department for Education, so older documents and software may still carry the ESFA name.

How does the ILR apply in FE and apprenticeships?

The ILR covers funded FE and skills provision including 16 to 19 study programmes, adult education and apprenticeships. It records things such as learner details, aims, start and end dates, outcomes and funding information. It also includes data about learning difficulties, disabilities and health problems, which is used in funding and for identifying high needs students. The DfE draws on ILR returns to establish post-16 high needs student numbers (see high needs funding).

For apprenticeships, some learning support claims cannot be made through the ILR itself. The government guidance on apprenticeship learning support refers to the earnings adjustment statement for claims such as excess support. Always read the funding rules for the correct claiming route.

Because the ILR includes health-related information, it involves special category data and needs careful handling. Providers often need their learner support records to line up with ILR data, which is where integrations may help. See imports and integrations for what Inclusion Studio plans, and the guides on high needs funding in FE and learning support funding for apprenticeships.

What is a common misconception about the ILR?

People often treat the ILR as the learner’s record. It is a return for funding and statistics, with defined fields, not a case record of what support was agreed, delivered or missed, or whether it helped. A flag in the ILR does not show that support was good. Another misconception is that the ILR is the same as the funding claim. Not all claims route through it. A third is that the specification stays the same: it changes each funding year, so check the current version.

Where can you find the official source?

The DfE hosts the ILR collection and specification on gov.uk. The gov.uk collection page may lag the current year’s documents, so use the ILR homepage links it points to for technical documents. Your data and funding team will know which specification applies to your provider.