Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress she has made towards implementing the streamlining of funding set out in the Skills Act 2022.

In July 2021, the department first consulted on proposals to reform the adult skills further education (FE) funding and accountability systems. The views from this consultation shaped the next phase of the reform proposals and a second consultation set out in greater detail the proposed reforms and how these could be implemented.

In the second consultation, the department set out proposals to simplify the funding system through a single Skills Fund. This will include funding for Adult Education Budget (AEB) provision, Community Learning and Free Courses for Jobs - Level 3. To give sufficient time, the department will introduce the Skills Fund in academic year 2024/2025 and will be maintaining the AEB in 2023/2024. This was announced on 14 December 2022 in an ESFA Update. More information on this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/esfa-update-14-december-2022/esfa-update-further-education-14-december-2022.

The second consultation also set out proposals to simplify funding which supports new investment, by moving to a Single Development Fund for all development funding in the next Spending Review; and the creation of a new set of funding rates for adult skills, to both simplify, and boost, funding for training in areas of greatest skills need.

The second consultation closed in October 2022 and the responses have helped to shape the reforms that the department will make to adult skills funding and the accountability system for FE in England. A formal response will be published in due course.