FE News Comment Piece

Please see our recent Featured Voices piece on the government’s proposed cuts to the Adults Skills Fund next year - published in FE News today (18th February 2025) by our Co-Chair Paul Sceeny:

Adult Skills Fund Cuts: Wrong-headed, counterproductive and the polar opposite of what’s needed

Like many who work within the arena of adult education, I was shocked and horrified when news started to leak out about the UK Government planning to cut the Adult Skills Fund (ASF) in England by up to 3% in 2025-26.

That shock was compounded by confusion, as initially only Combined Authorities with devolved responsibility for the ASF had been told about the cut. Yet my shock at this announcement being slipped out on a Friday afternoon quickly turned to consternation that a government so keen on talking about the importance of growth, skills and productivity would consider taking even more away from adult and community education. It also seemed out of step with the government’s recent pronouncements about countering the dangers of populism and disinformation – something many adult education practitioners and providers have a proud history helping to tackle.

This latest cut comes on the heels of a decade and a half of the sector being decimated by budget freezes and cuts. At a time when demand for English language learning has never been greater, adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision has borne the brunt of these cuts with enrolment numbers falling by more than a third in the years since 2010.

Read the full response on the FE News website.