The government has confirmed that 16 apprenticeship standards, including several widely used leadership and management programmes in the NHS, will be defunded from September 2026. These reforms form part of efforts to redirect apprenticeship funding towards young learners, aligning with wider plans to expand the Youth Guarantee and refocus the Growth and Skills Levy.
Key changes
The following apprenticeship standards will lose funding:
- Coaching professional – Level 5 – Coaching professional / Skills England – for anyone working with individual and teams looking to enhance their professional performance.
- Chartered Manager – Level 6 – Chartered manager (degree) / Skills England – for anyone responsible for long term organisational success, managing people, projects or services.
- Improvement Practitioner – Level 4 – Improvement practitioner / Skills England – for those identifying and leading the delivery of change across organisation functions and processes.
- Learning and Skills mentor – Level 4 – Learning and skills mentor / Skills England – for those seeking to support individuals and groups towards their learning and goals
- Learning and skills assessor – Level 3 – Learning and skills assessor (level 3) – apprenticeship training course – for those seeking to assess vocational learners, usually on a one-to-one basis, in a range of learning environments.
- Improvement leader – Level 6 – Improvement leader / Skills England – for individuals responsible for developing improvement strategy, providing leadership in improvement for the business and for coaching and supporting Improvement Specialists in advanced analysis.
After September 2026 these apprenticeships will no longer be eligible for funding via an Apprenticeship levy so will be chargeable at the full cost.
If you or a member of your team would like to access one of these apprenticeships before the defunding, please complete the below EOI form and a member of the team will be in touch with suggested next steps.