SLC Unveils Strategic Annual Business Plan for 2026-27: Key Insights and Initiatives

SLC has unveiled its Annual Business Plan for the financial year 2026-27, detailing the organisation’s commitment to serving its customers, shareholders, and colleagues. In his introduction to the plan, CEO Chris Larmer reflects on the future direction for SLC over the coming year.

Commitment to Enabling Opportunities

It is with great pleasure that I present SLC’s annual business plan for the 2026-27 financial year. This document outlines our strategies to fulfil our fundamental mission of enabling opportunities through the effective provision of student finance.

The plan not only illustrates our commitment to our core responsibilities but also highlights our approach to advancing the priority policy reforms set by our Government shareholders. Additionally, it outlines our ongoing transformation into a more streamlined, modern, and digitally-focused organisation.

Track Record of Improvement

SLC has established an impressive history of enhancing the services we deliver. Over the past year, we successfully navigated the academic cycle, disbursing approximately £12 billion to over two million students and an equivalent amount to universities and colleges. This year has seen significant advancements in our key priorities.

For our customers, we achieved the most successful application cycle to date, initiated improvements for disabled students, implemented substantial digital enhancements, and made consistent progress in repayment processes.

From the perspective of our shareholders, we are now much closer to realising the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE). We have recorded outstanding results in public sector fraud prevention and have received recognition from the Department for Education (DfE) for our financial management, all while maintaining robust technical and security resilience.

Fostering a Supportive Environment for Colleagues

For our colleagues, we have introduced new values, developed skills, embraced innovative working methods, and established new colleague networks. Our plans for 2026-27 remain focused on fostering progress for customers, shareholders, and colleagues through our strategic objectives.

We will continue to fulfil our essential public service role by administering student finance effectively and efficiently. Additionally, we will collaborate closely with our Government shareholders to co-design and implement priority policy changes aimed at reforming the student finance system, while pursuing our transformation into a simpler, more modern, and digitally adept organisation through Programme Enable.

Acknowledgments and Future Directions

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to our outgoing Chair, Sir Peter Lauener, for his invaluable contributions to SLC, both in his role as Chair and during his previous term as Interim CEO. His astute guidance and steadfast support have been greatly appreciated.

Finally, I extend a very warm welcome to our new Chair, Gary Page, who brings with him a wealth of experience as a member of the SLC Board. We look forward to a successful year ahead under his leadership.