Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to increase access to adult education on media literacy.

The adult skills fund (ASF) fully funds or co-funds education and skills training for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, including media literacy education.

Currently, approximately 62% of the ASF is devolved to 9 mayoral strategic authorities and the Greater London Authority. These authorities are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers to best meet their local needs. The department is responsible for the remaining ASF in non-devolved areas. In non-devolved areas, adults who earn less than £25,000 in annual gross salary are eligible for full funding, but it is the responsibility of providers to decide what training to offer.

More broadly, civil society and community organisations are instrumental in delivering media literacy programmes to adults, leveraging their expertise to support diverse and vulnerable groups.

The Digital Inclusion Action Plan outlines steps toward delivering digital inclusion and media literacy for everyone in the UK, including supporting local and community initiatives to increase digital participation.

Under updated media literacy duties, Ofcom is developing a ‘place-based’ model to embed media literacy into community digital strategies, working with the Good Things Foundation to support Digital Inclusion Hubs.