ISR
Individual Student Record. The earlier student-level data return used by further education colleges before the ILR. It recorded individual enrolments and student characteristics for funding, planning, and statistical purposes.
The ILR is the main learner-level data return for further education and skills providers in England. It exists so publicly funded learning can be recorded consistently, checked for quality, used to calculate funding, and reported in statistics.
The ISR and ILR
ILR
Individualised Learner Record. The successor learner-level return for the wider further education and skills sector. It records learners, aims, funding, outcomes, destinations, and monitoring information for each academic year.
Transition from ISR to ILR XML
The data collection moved from a student record to a learner record, and then from fixed-width flat files to XML returns.
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1992 to 2001
ISR
After the 1992 further education reforms transferred FE Colleges from Local Authority control and funding to being independent institutions with central funding.
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2002 to 2010
ILR Flat File
The ILR replaced the ISR as the Learning and Skills Council brought FE and work-based learning data into a single individualised learner return. These ILR submissions used fixed-width flat files.
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2011 onwards
ILR XML
The ILR moved to XML, allowing the file structure to represent nested learners, learning deliveries, employment status records, and related monitoring fields more clearly than the flat-file format.
Numbered Fields
Older ISR and ILR flat-file returns identified each item of data with a short numbered field code. For example, learner or student details could appear as fields such as S1, qualification or learning aim details could appear as fields such as Q1, and summary or supplementary sections could include fields such as E10.
In the XML ILR, the same kinds of data are now recorded as named elements and attributes within the file structure rather than only as numbered positions. This makes the relationship between records clearer: a Student is now a Learner, and a Qualification is now an Aim or Learning Delivery.
| ISR Code | ILR Flat File Code | ILR XML Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| S | L | Learner | Student or learner-level details, including identifying and demographic information. |
| SHE | LearnerHE | Learner-level Higher Education information. | |
| Q | A | LearningDelivery | Qualification, aim, or enrolment details for what the student or learner was studying. |
| QHE | H | LearningDeliveryHE | Qualification or enrolment details for Higher Education learning aims. |
| E | Details of the qualifications the learner had on entry to the course, including any achieved at the same institution. In later returns this is recorded, in a more limited form, as part of the learner dataset. | ||
| E | Information specific to European Social Fund co-financing. In later returns this is recorded within other datasets. |
The ILR Fields Viewer shows the current named ILR fields alongside their flat-file mappings where available.
Who is ILR data returned to?
The organisation receiving or managing the return has changed as the English further education funding system has been reorganised. Adult skills policy and the collection of ILR data now involve different departments.
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6 May 1992 to 31 March 2001
FEFC
Following the 1992 further education reforms transferring FE Colleges from Local Authority control and funding to being independent institutions with central funding.
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1 April 2001 to 31 March 2010
LSC
The Learning and Skills Council replaced the FEFC and Training and Enterprise Councils, taking responsibility for planning and funding post-16 learning outside higher education.
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1 April 2010 to 31 March 2012
SFA + YPLA
The LSC was replaced by two separate bodies: the Skills Funding Agency for adult skills and apprenticeships, and the Young People's Learning Agency for young people's funding.
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1 April 2012 to 31 March 2017
SFA + EFA
The YPLA was replaced by the Education Funding Agency from 1 April 2012.
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1 April 2017 to 31 March 2025
ESFA
The Education and Skills Funding Agency was formed by merging the SFA and EFA, bringing education, apprenticeships, and skills funding into one executive agency.
Devolved regions receive extracts of ILR data directly from the ESFA.
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From 1 April 2025
DfE
ESFA functions transferred into the core Department for Education, so ILR collection and related services sit under DfE. DfE also remains responsible for funding 16 to 19 education.
Devolved authorities continue to receive ILR data extracts from DfE.
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From 16 September 2025
DWP + DfE
Responsibility for adult skills policy transferred from DfE to DWP, while 16 to 19 education and its funding remained with DfE. As with the earlier SFA and YPLA split, these are distinct responsibilities, even though providers use a common ILR return. DfE continues to implement the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) on DWP's behalf and runs the Submit Learner Data service.
What the 2026 to 2027 funding rules mean
For the national ASF in non-devolved areas, the 2026 to 2027 funding and performance management rules apply to funding from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. In those rules, “we” means the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions acting through DfE. The rules must be read alongside the funding agreement, rates and formula guidance, and the ILR specification.
The distinction is about responsibility for the funding stream, rather than a new destination for ILR files. The ILR also covers DfE-funded 16 to 19 provision and other funding streams; those are not brought under DWP by the adult skills policy transfer. Adult skills funding devolved to a strategic authority is governed by that authority's arrangements; the national DWP-funded ASF rules generally exclude residents of devolved areas, subject to their continuing-learner exception.