Listen to this story Members can listen to an AI-generated audio version of this article. 1.0x Audio narration uses an AI-generated voice. 0:00 0:00 Become a member to listen to this article Subscribe A review of apprenticeship subcontracting rules that was supposed to conclude this month has been pushed back. Reforms from the review, which launched in July to examine policy, rules and definitions, were due to come into effect from January 2027. But the Department for Work and Pensions today said the review “will take longer than planned”. Any changes resulting from the review will now take effect from August 2027. Officials said this later date should give providers sufficient time to adjust to the changes. Engagement with sector representative bodies will begin towards the end of this year, while wider comment from the sector will follow “shortly afterwards, in early 2027”. The DWP is looking to update their definitions after finding some providers were failing to declare subcontracting because they were unsure what counts, particularly when associates or freelancers were involved. DWP said it was “reviewing the definition of a subcontractor to make it clearer who is and who is not a subcontractor and what we mean by directly managed and controlled”.
JustSaying 9 September 2026 Freelance staff are an essential part of delivery capacity for many training providers and any changes to subcontracting rules should embrace this not ostracise it. That is of course unless you want to reduce apprentice delivery capacity in the sector even further. We already have a failing system, why would you prioritise at this time to make things worse. Surely civil servant resource responsible would be bettered served in spending time to identify significant measures to remove 50% of existing regulation nonsense and focus on ensuring that apprenticeships main priority is to give young people the occupational skills and knowledge to perform the role defined in the Standard! This could be done using only 10% of the word count in the current funding rules regulations. You could chose from a range of available Ai tools to help you do this!!