Overview of Service
Ensure you are ESFA-ready!
Many of PAL’s audit & compliance team previously worked for ESFA provider audit team and therefore have first-hand knowledge of how to fulfil the ESFA’s compliance expectations. Our team can help to ensure that your funding claims are valid and that any errors or systematic issues are identified and corrected before any ESFA funding audit. Our team can also add value by highlighting any neglected opportunities to claim valid funding that would otherwise be missed.
Our team has produced a comprehensive, user-friendly online resource which can be accessed by our clients. It contains the latest compliance guidance, funding rules updates and sector news.
How can we support you?
Mock ESFA-style Audits
The ESFA have the power to sanction providers if they consistently fail to comply with funding rules. An independent mock audit can highlight data issues and potential, systematic errors so that they can be addressed and rectified prior to an official ESFA audit. Our team has vast experience of administering and managing ESFA audits and will apply the same methodology to a mock audit as the ESFA use.
Non-judgemental feedback is provided throughout, as well as a comprehensive report with constructive recommendations on action to take to improve controls, prevent error recurrence and ensure any additional, unclaimed funding is highlighted.
Subcontracting Standard Audit and Devolved Subcontracting Audit
Any main provider or employer provider who subcontracts £100,000 per year or more of ESFA funding must ensure that they have adequate controls in place for these arrangements, as detailed in the Subcontracting Standard. The ESFA stipulates that these controls must be audited by an external organisation with appropriately qualified and experienced personnel. Providers who sub-contract devolved adult skills funding are required to engage an external auditor.
Our team provides this service to large and small providers using up-to-date knowledge of ESFA requirements and how they are applied.
Data Analysis
Regular scrutiny of data and understanding the results is essential in order to identify and address potential anomalies.
Our team’s expertise supports identification of risks by using various tools and reports, including PDSAT, analysing the reports and highlighting areas for further investigation.
This scrutiny can be targeted at areas of highest potential risk and, once again, can also identify where valid funding has not been claimed.
Processes and Procedure Review
Regular changes to funding rules means providers must ensure that their processes and procedures are kept up to date and fit for purpose. Compliance issues can arise where procedures are not robust or easy to follow.
Our team can undertake a full review of processes, procedures and recording mechanisms to improve efficiency and compliance. They can also support the design of new documentation and workflows to ensure all evidence in scope of ESFA scrutiny provides a clear audit trail.
Funding Rule Interpretation and Resources
PAL understands that the complexity of the funding rules and their regular updates might be a challenge for providers. A simple misinterpretation can cause significant funding issues.
Our team can provide funding rule interpretation to complement the support from your ESFA relationship manager. Our help-desk approach can be a short-term input session or a longer-term retainer agreement where unused hours each month can be ‘banked’.
What people say
We express our thanks to PAL and particularly Julie, for helping us recently. The insight and expertise has been greatly appreciated. All of the work Julie did with us made us more aware of the data we could provide, and prepared the apprenticeship staff and managers for the process and expectations of ESFA audit. The Vice Chancellor is extremely pleased with the outcome.
Professional Assessment has been outstanding with the information, advice and guidance they have provided to us. The knowledge and experience they have shared has greatly benefited us in ensuring we remain in line with ESFA funding rules. Many thanks to Rupert and the team for all your support and feedback!
Working with PAL and Rupert has really helped and shaped our compliance monitoring. That, along with the ongoing guidance support and direction, has put us in a much better place. Using PAL and Rupert’s expertise has helped us embed some strong monitoring tools, as well as gaining more knowledge on the funding rules and PDSATS.
We have been working with the team at Professional Assessment for three years, providing audits and advising us on the requirements of ESFA funding rules to maintain our compliance. The expertise and professionalism of the team has supported us to make some really useful changes to our processes to safeguard our funding and our reputation.
The auditors from PAL work well with all members of our team and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone looking for support with audit, ESFA funding and data compliance or process review.
We could not recommend Rupert and his team highly enough for their knowledge, expertise, and guidance in the field of funding compliance for Apprenticeships. We engaged PAL to support us with our audit readiness over a 6-month period which involved a range of activities which ultimately led us to achieving a positive outcome in our actual funding assurance audit when it happened. This proved to be well worth the cost to safeguard our funding, our reputation, and our business as a whole. The PAL team are candid, engaging, very experienced, and we are very grateful for their support.
Mock ESFA-style Audits
The ESFA have the power to sanction providers if they consistently fail to comply with funding rules. An independent mock audit can highlight data issues and potential, systematic errors so that they can be addressed and rectified prior to an official ESFA audit.
The PAL compliance team has vast experience of administering and managing ESFA audits and will apply the same methodology to a mock audit as the ESFA use.
Non-judgemental feedback is provided throughout, as well as recommendations on action to take to improve controls, prevent error recurrence and ensure any additional, unclaimed funding is highlighted.
Subcontracting Standard Audit and Devolved Subcontracting Audit
Any main provider or employer provider who subcontracts £100000 per year or more of ESFA funding must ensure that they have adequate controls in place for these arrangements, as detailed in the Subcontracting Standard.
The ESFA stipulates that these controls must be audited by an external organisation with appropriately qualified and experienced personnel.
PAL’s Audit and Compliance team provides this service to large and small providers using up to date knowledge of ESFA requirements and how they are applied.
Data Analysis
Regular scrutiny of data and understanding what the data tells us is essential in order to identify and address potential anomalies.
PAL’s compliance team support providers by using various tools and reports, analysing the reports and highlighting areas that might need further investigation.
This scrutiny can be targeted at areas of highest potential risk and, once again, can also identify where valid funding has not been claimed.
Processes and Procedure Review
Funding rules change regularly, meaning that training providers must update processes and procedures so that they’re fit for purpose. Compliance issues can arise where procedures are not robust, or are not sufficiently detailed to meet the evidence requirements of the funding rules.
PAL’s compliance team can undertake a full review of processes, procedures and recording mechanisms in order to highlight any areas that may need to be strengthened.
If needed, our team can support the design of new documentation and work-flows to ensure all evidence in scope of ESFA scrutiny provides a clear audit trail.
Please contact us to discuss your requirements – info@professionalassessment.co.uk
Funding Rule Interpretation and Resources
Funding rules should be clear and concise. However, the complexity of the rules and the regular updates they receive mean that it can be difficult to keep track. A simple misinterpretation can cause significant funding issues.
PAL’s compliance team can provide funding rule interpretation to complement the support from your ESFA relationship manager. This can be a short term input session or a longer-term retainer agreement where unused hours each month can be ‘banked’.
We have also produced a simple, cost-effective online resource that is kept up to date with the latest compliance information, updates, news and documents created by the team to support providers.
Please contact us to discuss your requirements – info@professionalassessment.co.uk
Get in touch
If you have any questions on Professional Assessment or would like to hear more about the process, please get in touch.
All queries will be responded to within three working days.
Call us on 0800 160 1899
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