Not only had she made a joke about lifelong learning, it turned out to be the only mention of adult education in the whole speech and there was nothing further in the supporting papers from Treasury.
This strongly suggests that there will be no new investment in adult learning and that threatened cuts will go ahead.
It’s worth us looking a little closer at the Spending Review and what we can do in response.
What is the Spending Review?
The Spending Review sets out the amount of money each government department has to spend from now until the end of this Parliament in 2029.
For the Department for Education this means a budget rising from roughly £100bn to £109bn over four years with promises that much of this will be earmarked for schools and 16-19 provision.
What did it include for adult education?
The short answer is nothing. There was no reference to overturning the 6% cut to the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) – so our assumption must be that it will go ahead. At the same time Mayoral Authorities will reduce their ASF by 3%.
There were no specific pledges about new funding programmes directly intended for adult learners, nothing on tutors’ pay and nothing on Tailored Learning.
There were a few announcements relating to other departments which could provide some supplementary funding for the adult learning sector:
- Support for people with disabilities and long-term health conditions to progress into work through the Department for Work & Pensions.
- A £1.5 billion programme to invest in 75 areas over the next decade called Plan for Neighbourhoods. This explicitly mentions that community adult learning is eligible, though it is part of a much longer menu of fundable activities which local areas can select from.
But these investments will not support the majority of adult learners. That would require a commitment to the Adult Skills Fund, and particularly to a strand called Tailored Learning. This supports courses for wellbeing and essential everyday skills.
What happens next?
Now that each Government Department knows how much it has to spend, they must next work towards allocating specific funding streams to all the things they are responsible for.
For the Department for Education, this is also influenced by a long-standing promise to publish a post-16 education strategy. In other words, DfE will want to announce future funding alongside the new strategy, explaining what they have chosen to prioritise.
This gives the adult education sector a small window over the next few weeks to raise the profile of adult education and its impact so that the new strategy - and the funding that follows on from it - supports investment in adult learning.
In the run up to the Spending Review many of you wrote letters to MPs and signed the WEA petition.
To protect adult learning, it is crucial that the case is made now before the post-16 strategy is published and spending plans are locked in with very little flexibility for the next 4 years.
- Please write again to MPs to express your concern for the lack of support for adult learners in the Spending Review. Persistence is key in getting the point across.
- Share your stories about the positive impact of adult learning. If you saw the WEA learner and tutor awards on Wednesday, you will know that adult learning can change lives
- Share the new WEA impact report – Beyond Skills. This shows that adult learning supports better mental health, progression into work and more resilient communities.
Keep watching the WEA social media channels and website for further updates and ideas for how you can champion adult learning.
It feels like there is one last chance to protect adult learning before it becomes a footnote in the DfE portfolio – way behind schools and colleges. Lifelong learning cannot stop at 19 so it is vital that funding is also spread across a lifetime.
Make sure your voices are heard.
