Barry Sheerman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2016-06-03.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support third-sector training providers and local authorities in reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.
Nick Boles
Third sector providers and local authority adult education services access the Adult Education Budget as prime and sub-contractors, using the funding for training which helps young people who are not in education, employment or training prepare for work, amongst other objectives. They also compete to run local European Social Fund programmes; many of these programmes focus on helping young people improve their skills levels and employment opportunities.
Where combined authorities agree devolution deals which include devolution of the Adult Education Budget, they will assume full responsibility for decisions about what provision to commission from that budget. Nine areas have agreed such deals to date, with devolution of that budget due to take effect from 2018/19, subject to readiness conditions being met. BIS is working with those areas in advance of full devolution to help increase local influence over nationally-funded adult education provision in their locality in the interim.
