Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions her Department has had with the Department for Education on the potential impact of changes to the level of funding for the Adult Skills Fund on the number of people entering employment.

Adult Skills Funding (ASF) supports people with access to local skills training and provision, helping remove skills barriers to work, which in turn both secures and helps people progress in work. Work Coaches are able to help people access a broad range of local skills provision funded via the Adult Skills funding including; Skills Bootcamps, vocational and essential English, maths, digital skills training, ESOL, as well as Sector-based Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs). Jobcentres also work closely with local stakeholders.

The Department for Work and Pensions works closely with the Department for Education given our collective ambition to better align delivery of skills and employment support with both individual need and national and local labour market demand.

As the majority of ASF is devolved to strategic authorities they are responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers.