Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling Up in the East of England - the Region’s Progress towards the Government’s Twelve Levelling Up Missions, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendation in that report for opportunities for greater local oversight of skills funding and coordination across local partnerships.

In the current academic year, the government has devolved approximately 60% of the Adult Education Budget (AEB) to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Greater London Authority (GLA), which are responsible for the provision of AEB-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the AEB to providers. This includes Cambridgeshire and Peterborough MCA which received £11.9 million devolved AEB in the 2022/23 financial year to enable it to address the skills needs of the area.

As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, devolution of adult education funding has been a core part of all MCA devolution deals to date. The department has committed to devolving adult education functions and the associated core AEB to new areas from 2025/26, as part of new devolution deals.

Over recent months, the department has been working with six new geographic areas, including Norfolk County Council and Suffolk County Council to support them with the announcement of their devolution deals. The government will fully devolve the AEB to Norfolk County Council and Suffolk County Council from the 2025/26 academic year, subject to readiness conditions and parliamentary approval of the required secondary legislation conferring the appropriate functions.

Apprenticeships funding is already devolved to employers across the country who decide which apprenticeships they offer. Funding for 16 to 19 education and training has not been devolved because it is different to adult education. It is a core part of the compulsory education and training system. Young people have a duty to participate up to the age of 18. It enables young people to choose from a set of high-quality options which will support them into an apprenticeship, into other work, or into additional learning such as higher education or higher technical programmes. As such it is important to maintain a national offer which is consistently high-quality across the country and promotes social mobility.

The National Skills Fund (NSF) is not devolved but uses a range of funding mechanisms to ensure a good range of adult skills provision is delivered across the country. Skills Bootcamps are being delivered online or across multiple areas of England. Funding includes £70 million to MCAs and the GLA and other local areas to deliver Skills Bootcamps that specifically meet local skills.

The department is currently making funding and accountability reforms, aiming to create a simpler and more effective system that spreads opportunity across England, focused on delivering good outcomes for learners, employers, and the taxpayer. We want to ensure that the funding system actively supports further education providers to work collaboratively with other local providers, local employers, and other key stakeholders. Two public consultations were ran, with the second one closing on 12 October 2022. A formal response to the second consultation will be published in spring 2023.

The Strategic Development Fund awarded the East of England £10.1 million to develop new courses and facilities in sectors identified as having the greatest skills challenges. Building on this, Employer Representative Bodies are now leading on the development of Local Skills Improvement Plans across the region. The plans will set out priority changes to provision and associated funding will help enable providers to adapt their curriculum offer.