Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how Skills England will work with (a) the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Mayoral Combined Authority and (b) local employers to increase skills levels in Cambridgeshire.

Part of Skills England’s role is to ensure that skills sit at the heart of joined-up decision making across government. This includes working closely with Strategic Authorities, to ensure that regional skills needs are met and there is alignment with national priorities.

Skills England also oversees Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs), which provide an ongoing mechanism through which local employers, Strategic Authorities, further education and higher education providers and other stakeholders can come together locally to identify and resolve skills needs and issues.

The English Devolution White Paper, published December 2024, sets out the intention to strengthen the role Strategic Authorities will play in the LSIPs, through joint ownership of the LSIP model alongside employer representative bodies (ERBs). These changes will come into force in Autumn 2025, to align with the next round of LSIP development.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, the Mayoral Combined Authority will be expected to set out its sector skills priorities to the designated ERB, the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce. These will inform the development of the LSIP for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and provide the framework within which it exists, alongside the Local Growth Plan, the Industrial Strategy, the views of local employers and providers and Skills England’s assessment of skills needs.