An official probe that scoured thousands of learner records at two training providers has resulted in a clawback – of £321 and 78 pence. A Department for Education team investigated private-equity owned TEND Training and The Child Care Company after noting high numbers of learners were recorded as withdrawn or entering a break in August 2025. A report published today revealed compliance breaches were found at TEND Training around data accuracy and learner records, including incomplete or improperly evidenced progress reviews, and learners not being provided with maths and English qualifications. Similar issues were identified at The Child Care Company, plus cases where it failed to evidence management of learners’ breaks in learning and off-the-job training records that lacked “sufficient detail”. But the DfE found “no evidence” the training providers had sought to manipulate qualification achievement rates or funding recovery calculations, and demanded just £321 from TEND that related to “errors”, and nothing from The Child Care Company. TEND, previously called Impact Futures Training, has around 2,900 apprentices taking standards in health and adult care, and business and management. The Child Care Company manages around 2,300 apprentices. Both companies are owned by private equity firm August Equity and have a ‘good’ overall effectiveness grade from Ofsted. ‘Really pleased’ Investigators are understood to have probed funding claims from the companies totalling £300,000 between 2020-21 and 2024-25. The DfE said the businesses had since “implemented a range of measures” to improve the recording and monitoring of learner activities, and added: “Notable improvements were observed in the quality of evidence and audit trails available during the investigation.” Simon Rouse, CEO of Impact Futures Group, which is owned by August Equity and oversees the two companies alongside Captiva Training and ABM Training, said he was “really pleased” that the “incredibly thorough” investigation found so few funding errors. He added: “Effectively [the DfE] is saying that not only did they find £321 in funding errors, they remarked how much our processes and controls had improved over the four-year period – there was nothing of concern. “We’re really pleased with what the report says about our compliance culture. They went through literally every learner file.” August Equity, which describes itself as a “lower mid-market private equity investor”, bought TEND Training and The Child Care Company in May 2024. It then bought Captiva, which has about 1,800 apprentices, in August 2025, and ABM Training, which has 230 apprentices, three months later. Outcome reports unpublished Since the DfE updated its investigation publication policy in December 2023, it has released 12 ‘outcome’ reports into FE providers, including independent training providers, colleges and one university. An FE Week investigation previously revealed that findings from hundreds of investigations launched into FE providers’ funding claims since 2017 remained unpublished. This included probes into Brooklands and Strode colleges, plus independent training providers such as 3aaa and four companies owned by Angela Middleton. Between 2017 and 2023 the agency only published two investigation reports – for the College of West Anglia in 2018 and Bournville College in 2019.