Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to increase levels of adult numeracy.

We want everyone to have the opportunity to learn and develop the essential skills they need to succeed at any age.

That is why the department has launched Multiply, the Government’s new programme for improving adult numeracy, funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Up to £559m is available over the Spending Review period for Multiply, boosting funding for maths and enabling delivery of innovative approaches to improving adult numeracy.

Multiply will enable local areas to deliver innovative approaches to improving numeracy amongst adults, helping more people take the next step to higher levels of training or unlock new job opportunities. Multiply will offer a range of flexible courses and interventions that fit around people’s lives and are tailored to specific needs, circumstances, sectors and industries. For example, courses designed to increase confidence with numbers for those needing the first steps towards formal numeracy qualifications or programmes delivered with employers to support people to get a job or progress within work.

Adults who do not already have a GCSE Grade 4/C (or equivalent) or above in maths are already entitled to study fully funded maths GCSE or Functional Skills Qualifications. Multiply does not remove this entitlement, nor does it reduce funding for those qualifications through the Adult Education Budget.