Published: 16/01/2026 · Last Updated: 16/01/2026

Bulletin for January 2026

Service Review Forums 2025/26

We're currently planning our 2025/26 Service Review Forums. The forums have always been well attended, and we look forward to welcoming you along to one of the events.

We plan to host face to face and virtual forums. We'll send out a 'save the date' email shortly, so please look out for it.

Bonus allocation

If a student has met their objectives, please allocate their bonus on the 'Confirm Bonus' tab. You should mark students who did not meet their objectives as ‘bonus disallowed’. These students will not receive a bonus payment. If you have disallowed a bonus you must explain the reason why to the student. You should do this during a bonus review meeting.

When you've submitted bonus confirmations, students will receive a text confirming their bonus. This will happen just before we send the payments out.

We started paying January bonuses on 6 January. You should confirm all bonuses by 31 January.

If you're unsure if a student should receive a bonus by 31 January please mark it as ‘disallowed’. You can change it to ‘allowed’ in the future should the decision change.

View missing evidence on a student's application

You can now view the details of evidence that may be missing from a student's application.

We've recently introduced this from feedback received during previous Service Review Forums. We hope the change will assist you with EMA application queries from your students.

Students can still apply for AY 2025/26

It’s not too late for students to apply for EMA for Academic Year (AY) 2025/26. Please encourage any students you may feel are eligible to apply as soon as possible.

Students can download the application form and guidance from nidirect.

'Coming soon' materials

The 'coming soon' materials for AY 2026/27 will be available to download on the LC Services website in March.

Please consider how best to share these documents in areas your students will see. This could include websites, social media or information boards. These materials are an important part of the promotion of EMA. They'll help students to make informed choices about their future education.

We thank you as always for your continued support in making this information accessible to students.

Attendance confirmations

It's as important as ever that students receive their EMA payments on time, every 2 weeks.

To make sure this happens, please confirm attendance on the Learning Centre portal every week.

You should submit your confirmations before 5pm on a Wednesday for the previous week. You can find the payment information guide on the Learning Centre Portal.

Learning Centre Portal housekeeping and security

You should expire the accounts of any Learning Centre Portal users who no longer need access to the system. For example, they may have left their job or changed role. This helps to maintain the security of the portal and the student data. You can find more information on the Learning Centre Portal user guide on how to do this.

You should also be aware that only email addresses on the 'profiles' page within the portal will receive our bulletins.

Please review and update your contacts list to make sure all necessary staff are there.

EMA support desk

Our support desk team is available from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday to answer any day to day operational questions about individual students, application processing, payments and system issues.

You can contact the support desk on 0300 200 4050 (option 5) or email emainfo@slc.co.uk.