The Funded Development Access Pass is a funding initiative launching at the beginning of the financial year 2026-27. It’s available only to organisations who have previously used funding to develop their management and leadership teams, and who want to commit to further development.
Developing managers and leaders changes organisations. It improves daily operations, customer satisfaction and financial performance. It decreases costly issues, staff turnover and the time it takes to make and implement strategic decisions.
It’s also known that for small to medium-sized employers, the availability of funding can dramatically increase the take up of training.
In recent years the Apprenticeship Levy and the availability of some de minimis funding budgets have supported development – either in employers of certain sizes, in certain sectors or in certain industries.
It has become the case, however, that organisations who benefit from funding tend to wait for more funding to be available before re-investing in further training. Thus, sporadic funding availability can actually decrease investment from some organisations who might otherwise go on and create the continuous learning programmes that ultimately provide economic prosperity.
The Funded Development Access Pass is a way to lock in funding for organisations who have previously used certain development budgets and who want the surety of being able to access funds for a guaranteed period of time – up to 5 April 2028.
“The Pass is a great way to support exactly the right employers,” said Jon Dean, who heads up the Learning and Development Partner team at Impellus. “As de minimis funding budgets dry up and management training is largely being removed from Apprenticeships, the Funded Development Pass is a wholly new way of giving dedicated employers the means of access to simple and effective funding over the next two years. We’re very pleased to be the provider of this innovative new budget and look forward to working more closely with benefiting employers.”
