Collect the renewal evidence from day one

Nearly all of it is unrecoverable later.

Renewal turns on how the course performed, which means completion rates, learner and employer feedback, moderation outcomes, and the changes made in response to each. An application for renewal that describes intentions rather than evidence is in the same position as an initial application that could not establish need.

Almost all of this must be captured as it occurs. Learner feedback from a cohort that graduated two years ago cannot be collected now. Moderation records that were never kept cannot be reconstructed. The provider either has the record or does not.

The economical approach is to identify at the point of approval what the renewal will require and set up the collection then, as part of ordinary delivery rather than as a separate exercise. That is perhaps a day's work and it determines whether renewal is routine or difficult.

It also produces something more valuable than the renewal itself, which is knowledge of whether the course is working. Providers who collect this find problems in the first cohort rather than in the third.

It is also worth capturing the things that went wrong in delivery, not only the outcomes. A renewal application that describes a problem, what was done about it and what improved is considerably stronger than one presenting an unbroken record of success, because assessors know that no course runs for five years without difficulty and a spotless account invites scrutiny.