To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (1) what assessment he has made of the effect of changes in the level of funding for non-priority adult education in Liverpool over the past two years; (150770)

[holding answer 19 July 2007]: We have increased public investment in further education by 48 per cent. in real terms between 1997-98 and 2005-06 and funding for adult education has increased by 7 per cent. between 2005-06 and 2007-08.

In October 2005 the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) published “Priorities for Success” which set out our funding strategy for 2006-07 and 2007-08 and was updated in October 2006 with the publication of the LSC’s Annual Statement of Priorities. The strategy set out our funding priorities and in line with our Skills Strategy focused public funding on helping adults to develop the skills they will need for sustained employment and further progression in learning.

The LSC has worked with providers across the country including in Liverpool to align provision to meet these priorities. Where providers have previously delivered large volumes of short courses and other lower priority activity then this has resulted in significant shifts of funding towards more substantive programmes that meet national priorities. In these circumstances the LSC have looked at the extent to which provision can be aligned in a single year taking into account historical levels of delivery and the needs of the local community.

In terms of provision outside of these priorities we have safeguarded £210 million for personal and community development learning, including leisure learning in both 2006-07 and 2007-08. We also recognise the need to ensure that we have sufficient provision at lower levels to support progression through to higher level qualifications and we will be supporting this activity through the Foundation Learning Tier.