ESFA have announced that, at this point in time, it won’t be imposing a hard cap on management fees in apprenticeship subcontracting arrangements. On Monday, 6 August it announced:

“ESFA recognises that subcontracting has an important role to play in delivering quality learning to apprentices and adult learners. In recent years, we have strengthened our rules around subcontracting. These changes have ensured that providers’ fees and charges are transparent.

In the coming months, we will undertake further work to develop our expectations about the services that providers should offer to their subcontractors with the sector. Our key priorities will be to develop an approach which:

• increases the amount of funding that reaches front line delivery 
• increases transparency by ensuring that providers explain in detail the make-up of their fees and charges

We plan to publish our final expectations by the end of the (academic) year (2018/19) and any changes will come into force in 2019.”

End

Information and current guidance on subcontracting ESFA funding can be found here.