Draft Combined Authorities (Adult Education Functions) (Amendment) Order 2025
(2 days, 5 hours ago)
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The Minister for School Standards (Catherine McKinnell)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Combined Authorities (Adult Education Functions) (Amendment) Order 2025.
It is a pleasure to serve under you as Chair, Mr Stuart. The draft order was laid before the House on 19 May 2025. If it is approved, the Department for Education will transfer an additional funding power to nine existing combined authorities to enable them to use their adult skills fund allocation to fund new technical qualifications that have been approved for adults, starting from the new academic year on 1 August 2025.
The function being transferred to those combined authorities is under section 100(1B) of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. Namely, it is the power to secure the provision of financial resources
“in connection with approved technical education qualifications or approved steps towards occupational competence.”
The power will be used by each of the combined authorities in respect of their area, concurrently with the Secretary of State. It will enable combined authorities to fund new technical qualifications for adults approved for funding at levels 2 and 3 from 1 August 2025.
The new technical qualifications are high quality, aligned to occupational standards and offer learners clear routes into skilled employment. There are 110 reformed technical qualifications at levels 2 and 3 that have been approved to be first taught in the next academic year. The qualifications are based on occupational standards that have been co-designed with employers. That will ensure that the skills needs of business and industry are better served, and that clear progression pathways are created, delivering the outcomes learners need either to enter into a skilled job or to progress within a skilled career.
Learners deserve high-quality qualifications that meet their needs. If the draft order is approved, combined authorities will have the freedom to fund these qualifications in order to meet the local needs of learners and employers. It is important that local areas are empowered to make decisions that address the specific challenges in their area, so that more people of all ages and backgrounds are given opportunities to develop the skills and experience they need. Adults should be able to access the same learning offer regardless of where they live. Transferring this power will enable combined authorities with an existing devolution deal to fund new technical qualifications. Ensuring that all authorities have access to reformed, high-quality qualifications is key to reducing regional disparities.
If the draft order is approved, the nine combined authorities will be able to choose to fund new technical qualifications available for delivery from August 2025 onwards. It is a statutory requirement for public consultation to take place before changes are made to combined authorities’ existing arrangements. The Department for Education carried out a public consultation in November last year, and 85% of respondents agreed that the Secretary of State should transfer this additional power to the existing combined authorities. Each of the combined authorities affected, and all their constituent councils, have also consented to the transfer of the power and to the making of the order.
Such an order can be made only if the appropriate consent is given and the Secretary of State considers that it is
“likely to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of some or all of the people who live or work in the areas to which this Order relates”.
These combined authorities have been delivering adult education functions for some time already, and have demonstrated effective administration of the adult skills fund allocated to them in respect of their area. The Secretary of State has considered the views expressed by the relevant combined authorities, as well as those received in response to the public consultation, and is satisfied that it is appropriate to make the order to transfer the power under section 100(1B) of the 2009 Act to these authorities.
The draft order is likely to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of some, or all, of the people who live or work in the areas to which it relates, because it will enable adults to access reformed qualifications that are designed to lead to sustainable occupations. It is appropriate to make the order, as it will enable combined authorities to provide the full range of technical qualifications that have been approved for adults. I therefore confirm that we have concluded that the statutory tests have been met.
I thank all our partner organisations, colleagues and the relevant combined authorities for their time, expertise and input. To conclude, the draft order will give nine combined authorities the ability to fund the delivery of new technical qualifications from August ’25 onwards to meet local skills needs, enhance economic growth and bring greater prosperity to their region. I commend the order to the Committee.
Neil O'Brien (Harborough, Oadby and Wigston) (Con)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I will not detain the Committee for long, because this is a technical piece of legislation simply updating regulations to reflect new qualifications and, in a sense, maintaining the principle that we established during our time in government of devolving the adult skills budget, but I want to make one point and press the Minister on one issue. The point I want to make is that although the Government were critical of us for cuts to the adult skills budget when we were in office, they have now themselves cut the adult skills budget by 6% in recent months.
I mention that not to make a political point—although that is something that Labour Members criticised us for doing when they were in opposition, but they have now done themselves in government—but, in part, to frame a question. I asked this question of the Minister for children, families and wellbeing, the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby), in April, when we debated regulations on the devolution of adult skills spending to Cornwall and North Yorkshire. I asked her to write to me, and she agreed that she would write on this particular point, but I am afraid no letter was ever forthcoming. I wondered whether I could have another go with DFE colleagues.
A lot of people in combined authorities say to me, “It’s all very well saying that you’ve devolved adult skills spending, but in practice, when the money arrives”—and it is now 6% less—“the great majority of it is taken up by spending on statutory entitlements that we don’t have any control over.” They are not complaining about the statutory entitlements; they are merely making the point that devolution in this area is not necessarily what it sounds like when Ministers announce it. That is a fair point, which applied equally to us when we were in government as it does to the current Government. I press the Minister again to agree to write to me, to tell me: what proportion of spending of the adult skills budget in combined authorities is not taken up by statutory entitlement? What is the real devolution here? What is really left over once the authorities have spent all this money on things that we compel them to spend it on?
I encourage the Minister to get that answered, not just for my benefit but for hers, so that she can understand what is really being devolved or not, and whether we can do something to give the combined authorities a greater margin for flexibility. The Government say that they are in favour of devolution—that is in line with their industrial strategy, which they are saying more about today—so that members of the combined authorities are able to fit local skills spending to their local needs. However, that is only freedom if there is some genuinely free money in the system, and it is not clear that there is that much.
I therefore encourage the Minister to agree to write to me. I apologise to the Minister and officials if the letter was sent, but got lost in the post somewhere. It is an interesting question. I hope the Minister will agree to write on that point and look into the question.
Catherine McKinnell
I appreciate the hon. Member’s interest in this issue, and his support for the outcomes of the draft order, which, as he acknowledged, is technical in nature. I appreciate his concerns about devolution, and the extent to which local areas are empowered to maximise outcomes from the funding. The intention is very much to give local areas the freedom to use the funding as best suits the needs of their local area, and to make sure that local areas can maximise the effectiveness of those resources to deliver the greatest benefit to local people.
As the hon. Member agrees, adult skills have a vital role to play in driving economic growth, but tough decisions have had to be made across Government on how we target spending. He asked specifically about how local areas are spending the funding. As he will know, the context of each local area is different, by design, so that local areas can manage their overall budget, make their own choices and allocate funding towards the priorities that they regard as the most important.
I will certainly take away the hon. Member’s question, and see whether that information can be presented in the way that he asked for, given that the measure is particularly about devolution, and local areas do have the ability to make decisions in their own context. I will take his question back to the Department, as he asks, and see to what extent that information is available to be provided to him.
I thank again our partner organisations and colleagues in the combined authorities for their time, expertise and input. To be clear, the draft order will give combined authorities the ability to fund new technical qualifications from August 2025. Our priority is to deliver a skills system that will drive forward opportunity and deliver the growth that the economy needs, and for local areas to be empowered to make decisions to address specific challenges in their area. We really want to see all adults become active participants in the workforce and deliver on that growth agenda, and empower combined authorities to target support in local areas in a way that we know will unlock opportunity for more people. I think that is what we all want to see. I commend the draft order to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.