Adult skills fund: funding rules
Sets out the rules that apply to Department for education (DfE) funded adult skills fund (ASF) provision for the funding year.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
These documents set out the adult skills fund (ASF) for the relevant funding year. The rules apply to all providers of education and training that receive ASF from the Secretary of State for Education acting through the Department for Education (DfE).
If you have any feedback or questions after reading our funding rules, or if there’s anything else you need help with, you can find more support on our customer help centre.
Updates to this page
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We've updated the 'all funding agreements' under section 3, in the ASF funding and performance management rules 2025 to 2026 to reflect the changes to the new Ofsted inspection framework that started on 10 November 2025.
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We have updated the residency eligibility section to clarify the eligibility for dependants of individuals on a sponsorship visa.
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We have added the section about learners who live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland back into version 2 of the ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026. You will find it under the residency eligibility section.
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Under the residency eligibility section in the ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026, we have clarified the definition of a sponsorship visa.
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We've updated our ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026. You can see a full list of the changes in our 'what's new' section.
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First published.
Update history
2026-02-04 13:31
We’ve updated the ‘all funding agreements’ under section 3, in the ASF funding and performance management rules 2025 to 2026 to reflect the changes to the new Ofsted inspection framework that started on 10 November 2025.
2025-09-09 14:00
We have updated the residency eligibility section to clarify the eligibility for dependants of individuals on a sponsorship visa.
2025-07-23 11:59
We have added the section about learners who live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland back into version 2 of the ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026. You will find it under the residency eligibility section.
2025-07-10 16:33
Under the residency eligibility section in the ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026, we have clarified the definition of a sponsorship visa.
2025-07-09 09:05
We’ve updated our ASF funding and performance management rules for 2025 to 2026. You can see a full list of the changes in our ‘what’s new’ section.
2025-04-30 10:00
First published.