16 Apprenticeship Standards Defunded from September 2026

From 1 September 2026, the DWP has withdrawn government funding from 16 apprenticeship standards. No new starts can be funded on these standards from that date — with some providers facing an immediate ban and others capped at 75% of last year’s delivery volume until 17 December 2026, after which no new starts are permitted regardless.

Existing learners on any of the affected standards continue to receive funding through to completion. This only affects new enrolments.

Which standards are affected

The full list of 16 standards is published in the DfE Update article linked below. All 16 are:

• Chartered Manager (degree) — Level 6
• Cleaning Hygiene Operative — Level 2
• Coaching Professional — Level 5
• Custody and Detention Professional — Level 3
• Facilities Management Supervisor — Level 3
• Improvement Leader — Level 6
• Improvement Practitioner — Level 4
• Lead Practitioner in Adult Care — Level 4
• Learning and Skills Assessor — Level 3
• Learning and Skills Mentor — Level 4
• Operations Manager — Level 5
• Outdoor Learning Specialist — Level 5
• Professional Security Operative — Level 2
• Public Sector Compliance Investigator and Officer — Level 3
• Security First Line Manager — Level 3
• Team Leader / Supervisor — Level 3

The two largest by volume are Team Leader (12,670 starts in 2024-25, around 450 providers) and Operations Manager (12,530 starts, 398 providers) — together over 25,000 starts a year. The current status of any standard can also be checked on the Skills England standard search.

Start caps for current providers

To prevent a rush of last-minute enrolments (as happened when Level 7 funding was withdrawn), the DWP applied immediate start limits:

• Providers that did not deliver a standard in 2024-25, or have not recorded starts in 2025-26, are immediately banned from new starts on that standard.
• Providers that did deliver the standard in 2024-25 can continue recruiting new apprentices, but capped at 75% of their 2024-25 volume for that standard.

The cap runs until 17 December 2026, when all new starts on affected standards end entirely, regardless of previous delivery history.

Existing learners are protected

Funding for learners already on these programmes is not affected. All existing apprentices continue to be funded through to completion under the terms in place when they started.

The private funding option

Employers who want to use a defunded standard — for example, to continue using the Team Leader programme as staff development — can still do so by funding it privately. Private apprenticeships follow the same statutory framework as government-funded ones (same minimum duration, same off-the-job requirements, same end-point assessment), but the employer covers the full cost and there are no government funding payments or incentives.

See Privately Funded Apprenticeships for more detail on how this works in practice.

Why these standards

The government’s stated reason is that these programmes have primarily served as employer-funded CPD for workers aged 25 and over, rather than creating new career pathways — which is the stated purpose of the Growth and Skills Levy. Minister Jacqui Smith described these as “not only not what people would traditionally think of as apprenticeships” and indicated they should be employer-funded going forward.

Official sources

• DfE Update further education: 25 March 2026 — original announcement
• Apprenticeship standard search — current status of specific standards
• Apprenticeship funding rules: 2026 to 2027