Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they intend to take to ensure that lifelong learning is available to all, including those with special educational needs.

We are committed to supporting everyone, whatever their age and background, including those with a special education need or disability, to attain the skills that will be needed in the economy of the future.

In the first three quarters of the 2020/21 academic year (August to April), 16.2% of all adult learners declared a learning difficulty or disability, which demonstrates our commitment to those learners with additional needs.

Our Skills for Jobs white paper published in January 2021, is focused on giving people the skills they need, in a way that suits them, so they can get great jobs in sectors the economy needs and boost this country’s productivity. Through our reforms we are ensuring people have opportunities to study, by delivering my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee, to upskill and reskill at different points in their life.

Starting this year, the government is investing £2.5 billion (£3 billion when including Barnett funding for devolved administrations) in the National Skills Fund. This is a significant investment and has the potential to deliver new opportunities to generations of adults who may have been previously left behind.

Since 1 April this year, the government is supporting any adult who does not have A level equivalent or higher qualifications, to access over 400 fully funded level 3 courses, with Free Courses for Jobs.

This offer is a long-term commitment, backed by £95 million from the National Skills Fund in year one. Removing the barrier of funding training for millions of adults gives more people the chance to get ahead in work, no matter their age or background.

Complementing this support for adults, Skills Bootcamps offer free, flexible courses of up to 16 weeks, giving people the opportunity to build up sector-specific skills and fast-track to an interview with a local employer. We expect the Skills Bootcamps to represent the diversity of the local population and we encourage people from under-represented groups to take advantage of these fantastic opportunities.

Through our lifelong loan entitlement, introduced from 2025, we will make it easier for adults and young people to study more flexibly. This will allow them to space out their studies across their lifetimes, transfer credits between colleges and universities, and enable more part-time study.

More specifically, students with special educational needs and disabilities are an important part of our vision for, and motivation behind, a flexible skills system. We believe that more flexible provision can be of particular benefit to these students and plan to use the upcoming consultation on the lifelong loan entitlement to build our evidence base on how to support all people to access or benefit from this offer.

We are also continuing to invest in education and skills training for adults through the Adult Education Budget (AEB) by providing £1.34 billion in the 2021/22 financial year. The AEB fully funds or co-funds skills provision for eligible adults aged 19 and above from pre-entry to level 3, to support adults to gain the skills they need for work, an apprenticeship or further learning.

The AEB also provides funds to providers to help adults overcome barriers to learning. This includes learner support for those with financial hardship and learning support to meet the additional needs of learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.